The former Republican Museum of Scientific Atheism was located inthe building of what used to be the Girls Gymnasium Chapel, designedby Alexandru Bernardazzi and built in 1895. The Museum opened tothe public in 1985 in the Moldavian SSR and exhibited documents,books, photographs, objects of religious cult, archaeological and ethnographic items, graphic and folk art pieces. The aim of the exhibitionswas to combat religion by the means of ‘scientific atheism’, a concept that appeared for the first time in the writings of Marx and Engels. As a part of the anti-religious propaganda campaign, texts by Cantemir and Eminescu were included.