Discover Moldova with #MOLDPRES: Mansion of Balioz family - 150 anniversary of construction

The mansion from the Ivancea village, central Orhei district, is part of the important historical buildings of Moldova. It was constructed during 1852-1873, at an order by an Armenian boyar, Carebet Balioz, who would have been the administrator and the son-in-law of Manuc Bei.   

The mansion is surrounded by a park with an area of three hectares. Also, the complex includes a water tower, store rooms, cellars, stables and other annexes needed for the boyar’s household from that period.    

Starting from 1984 till 2006, the Museum of People’s Handicrafts of Moldova worked here. It was liquidated following the conclusion of a contract on public-private partnership between the Culture Ministry and the National Ethnography and Natural History Museum, on the one hand, and the Wine’s House limited company, on the other hand. Works of restoration and conservation of buildings were to be carried out; yet, the entrepreneur did not observe the norms and technologies necessary. For this reason, the contract was cancelled.        

Presently, the mansion is managed by the National Ethnography and Natural History Museum. According to the institution’s director general, Petru Vicol, five staff units with a head of branch, administrator and three guards work at the Ivancea-based complex. Thus, minimal conditions of guard and order are ensured.   

„More actions have been included and undertaken in the activity plan from the last years; they were meant to reintroduce the complex in the tourist circuit. Actions were taken, in order to elaborate the cadastral file of the plot of land and of the buildings within the complex.  The inventory of the species of trees and bushes of the park and orchard was updated,’’ Petru Vicol noted.    

The museum’s budgetary sources allowed the carrying out of a cosmetic repair of some rooms of the mansion and the House of the Steward, in order to partially remove and hide the works carried out by the Wine’s House limited company.     

„Regretfully, the financial sources we avail of do not allow bringing of the buildings and rooms to the initial state from 2006,’’ Vicol added.

According to the director general of the National Ethnography and Natural History Museum, an exhibition dedicated to the history of the Mansion of the Balioz Family, as well as of the Vernacular Architecture in stone in the Raut river basin is planned to be inaugurated in 2023.   

„Through it, we aim to turn to good account the national heritage and the one of the monument,’’ Petru Vicol also said.

Although decision-makers want to restore the mansion, money has not been found as yet. The first step is the working out of the documentation for the compilation of the project on the restoration of the complex, in the absence of which funds cannot be accessed.

Starting from 2017, the museum has been cooperating with the local public administration. With the help of Ivancea commune’s residents, the mansion’s park was cleaned and the wide public has free access.