King Ferdinand inaugurated the flamboyant Neo-Gothic edifice of the Palace of Culture (formerly a Palace of Justice) in 1926. The palace was symbolically built on the location of the old princely court. The fine architecture of the building is the work of D. Berindei. Its distinguishing features are its variety, elegance, and profusion of decorative elements such as towers, crenels, ogive-arched niches, dungeons, bas-reliefs, emblems, balustrades, stained glass, etc. Cast at the beginning of the 20th century, the bell of the central tower plays a few measures from the ôHora Uniriiö on the hour. The Palace contains 365 richly decorated rooms, the best known being the Gothic room, the princely room and the Henri Coandπ room.
The Palace houses four museums. These are The Art Museum, The History Museum of Moldova, The Ethnography Museum, and The Polytechnic Museum (which is dedicated to the main discoveries in the field of sciences and technologies, especially energy and sound).
The Palace also has a show room and conference room. The equestrian statue of Prince Stephen the Great that stands in front of the Palace is the work of the French sculptor Emanuel FrΘmiet (1883).
