The Poni-Cernătescu Museum (Muzeul Poni-Cernătescu) is a memorial and science museum in Iași dedicated to chemist Petru Poni, his family, and the development of chemistry in the city. It occupies the family’s former home, a house built in 1839 by Metropolitan Veniamin Costachi and acquired by Petru Poni in 1880.
Petru Poni lived here with his family until his death in 1925, and the house later passed to his daughter, chemist Margareta Poni. During the First World War it also sheltered valuable collections from the Romanian Academy Library, while from 1930 it became the home of another member of the family, chemist Radu Cernătescu. Margareta Poni eventually donated the property for use as a memorial museum, followed by a major donation of furniture, personal objects, photographs, diplomas, medals, and decorative pieces from Petru Poni’s granddaughter Florica Mageru. After restoration, the museum opened in 1991 and took its present name in 1994.
The permanent exhibition preserves much of the atmosphere of a late-19th- and early-20th-century family home. Five rooms are arranged in memorial style, including the reception hall, dining room, library, a room devoted to poet Matilda Cugler-Poni, and another to Radu Cernătescu. Original furniture, books, correspondence, photographs, scientific papers, musical scores, decorative objects, a Bösendorfer piano, and a gramophone help present both the scientific work and everyday life of the family.
Science becomes more prominent in the remaining exhibition spaces. A chemistry room presents documents, laboratory equipment, books, and personal material relating not only to Petru Poni and Radu Cernătescu but also to other important Iași chemists. Because Poni also worked extensively in mineralogy, the vaulted basement contains a separate display of minerals and mine specimens arranged to evoke an underground mining environment.
