Moldova is an integral part of Europe and has a rich history. This country is situated in the contact zone between different cultural and historic trends – Carpathian-Balkan, Central-European and Eurasian, and during its multi-millennial history harmoniously absorbed diverse cultural traditions of Proto-Indo-Europeans and archaic Indo-European peoples, including the Thracians, Slavs, Celts, Goths, Huns, etc., thus obtaining specific and unparalleled features.

On the territory of the Republic of Moldova we find a special concentration of historical and archeological monuments (approximately eight thousand) which have a cultural and historical value not only at the national level, but also in the general context of human European values.

The territory of Moldova was populated from ancient times. Numerous archeological vestiges confirm the existence of human beings in these places since the epoch of the Inferior Paleolithic (approximately 500 thousand years ago).

At the end of the Vth and beginning of the IVth millennium B.C., in the Eneolithic epoch, the Cucuteni-Tripolie, one of the most remarkable cultures, was formed, with incomparable performances in the field of art of those times.

The Getho-Dacian civilization is dated back to the VI-I centuries B.C., and was spread throughout Moldova. Since 105 B.C. - after the conquest of Dacia by Emperor Trajan, the local population was romanized, taking from the conquerors their language and advanced culture of the Roman Empire.

After the evacuation of the Roman legions from these territories (in 271, in the reign of Aurelian), there began the “migrating nations” epoch (Goths, Huns, Avars, Slavs), which ended up with the formation of the Moldovan feudal state in 1359. Bogdan I is considered to be its founder.

In 1812 as a result of the Russian-Turkish Peace Treaty signed in Bucharest, the eastern part of Moldova situated between the Prut and Nistru rivers, named Bessarabia, was annexed to the Russian Empire, thus being a Russian province until 1918.

In 1918 the supreme authority of the Bessarabian state – Sfatul Tarii, decided to unite with Romania. This unity lasted till 1940, the year when the country was annexed by the Soviet Union as a consequence of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact of 1939. Moldova functioned as a territorial entity within the USSR until the last decade of the XXth century.

On the 27th of August 1991, Republic of Moldova became an independent and sovereign State.