Chișinău

Founded in 1436 as a monastery village, the city was part of the Principality of Moldavia (which, starting with the 16th century became a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire, but still retaining its autonomy). At the beginning of the 19th century Chișinău was a small town of 7,000 inhabitants.

Chișinău, 1889

In 1812, in the aftermath of the Russo-Turkish War (1806–1812), the eastern half of Moldavia was ceded by the Ottomans to the Russian Empire. The newly acquired territories became known as Bessarabia.

Under Russian government, Chișinău became the capital of the newly annexed oblast (later guberniya) of Bessarabia. By 1834, an imperial townscape with broad and long roads had emerged as a result of a generous development plan, which divided Chișinău roughly into two areas: the old part of the town, with its irregular building structures, and a newer city centre and station. Between 26 May 1830 and 13 October 1836 the architect Avraam Melnikov established the Catedrala Nașterea Domnului with a magnificent bell tower. In 1840 the building of the Triumphal Arch, planned by the architect Luca Zaushkevich, was completed. Following this the construction of numerous buildings and landmarks began.

On 28 August 1871, Chișinău was linked by rail with Tiraspol, and in 1873 with Cornești. Chișinău-Ungheni-Iași railway was opened on 1 June 1875 in preparation for the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878). The town played an important part in the war between Russia and the Ottoman Empire, as the main staging area of the Russian invasion. During the Belle Époque, the mayor of the city was Carol Schmidt, considered one of Chișinău's best mayors. Its population had grown to 92,000 by 1862, and to 125,787 by 1900.[17]

In the late 19th century, especially due to growing anti-Semitic sentiment in the Russian Empire and better economic conditions in Moldova, many Jews chose to settle in Chișinău. By the year 1897, 46% of the population of Chișinău was Jewish, over 50,000 people.[18]

As part of the pogrom wave organized in the Russian Empire, a large anti-Semitic riot was organized in the town on 19–20 April 1903, which would later be known as the Kishinev pogrom. The rioting continued for three days, resulting in 47 Jews dead, 92 severely wounded, and 500 suffering minor injuries. In addition, several hundred houses and many businesses were plundered and destroyed.[19] Some sources say 49 people were killed.[20] The pogroms are largely believed to have been incited by anti-Jewish propaganda in the only official newspaper of the time, Bessarabetz (Бессарабецъ). Mayor Schmidt disapproved of the incident and resigned later in 1903. The reactions to this incident included a petition to Tsar Nicholas II of Russia on behalf of the American people by US President Theodore Roosevelt in July 1903.[21]

On 22 August 1905, another violent event occurred: the police opened fire on an estimated 3,000 demonstrating agricultural workers. Only a few months later, on 19–20 October 1905, a further protest occurred, helping to force the hand of Nicholas II in bringing about the October Manifesto. However, these demonstrations suddenly turned into another anti-Jewish pogrom, resulting in 19 deaths.[21]

Stephen the Great monument

Following the Russian October Revolution, Bessarabia declared independence from the crumbling empire, as the Moldavian Democratic Republic, before joining the Kingdom of Romania. As of 1919, Chișinău, with an estimated population of 133,000,[22] became the second largest city in Romania.

Between 1918 and 1940, the center of the city undertook large renovation work. Romania granted important subsidies to its province and initiated large scale investment programs in the infrastructure of the main cities in Bessarabia, expanded the railroad infrastructure and started an extensive program to eradicate illiteracy.

In 1927, the Stephen the Great Monument, by the sculptor Alexandru Plămădeală, was erected. In 1933, the first higher education institution in Bessarabia was established, by transferring the Agricultural Sciences Section of the University of Iași to Chișinău, as the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences.

Eternity – a memorial complex dedicated to the soldiers who fell in World War II and the military conflict in Transnistria

Train of Pain – the monument to the victims of communist mass deportations in Moldova

State Art Museum, during the Cold War period

Prospectul Păcii in 1980

On 28 June 1940, as a direct result of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, Bessarabia was annexed by the Soviet Union from Romania, and Chișinău became the capital of the newly created Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic.

Following the Soviet occupation, mass deportations, linked with atrocities, were executed by the NKVD between June 1940 and June 1941. More than 400 people were summarily executed in Chișinău in July 1940 and buried in the grounds of the Metropolitan Palace, the Chișinău Theological Institute, and the backyard of the Italian Consulate, where the NKVD had established its headquarters.[23] As part of the policy of political repression of the potential opposition to the Communist power, tens of thousand members of native families were deported from Bessarabia to other regions of the USSR.

A devastating earthquake occurred on 10 November 1940, measuring 7.4 (or 7.7, according to other sources) on the Richter scale. The epicenter of the quake was in the Vrancea Mountains, and it led to substantial destruction: 78 deaths and 2,795 damaged buildings (of which 172 were destroyed).[24][25]

In June 1941, in order to recover Bessarabia, Romania entered World War II under the command of the German Wehrmacht, declaring war on the Soviet Union. Chișinău was severely affected in the chaos of the Second World War. In June and July 1941, the city came under bombardment by Nazi air raids. However, the Romanian and newly Moldovan sources assign most of the responsibility for the damage to Soviet NKVD destruction battalions, which operated in Chișinău until 17 July 1941, when it was captured by Axis forces.[26]

During the German and Romanian military administration, the city suffered from the Nazi extermination policy of its Jewish inhabitants, who were transported on trucks to the outskirts of the city and then summarily shot in partially dug pits. The number of Jews murdered during the initial occupation of the city is estimated at 10,000 people.[27] During this time, Chișinău, part of Lăpușna County, was the capital of the newly established Bessarabia Governorate of Romania.[28]

As the war drew to a conclusion, the city was once again the scene of heavy fighting as German and Romanian troops retreated. Chișinău was captured by the Red Army on 24 August 1944 as a result of the Second Jassy–Kishinev offensive.

After the war, Bessarabia was fully reintegrated into the Soviet Union, with around 65 percent of its territory as the Moldavian SSR, while the remaining 35 percent was transferred to the Ukrainian SSR.

Two other waves of deportations of Moldova's native population were carried out by the Soviets, the first one immediately after the Soviet reoccupation of Bessarabia until the end of the 1940s and the second one in the mid-1950s.[29][30]

Trams in Chișinău (pictured Gothawagen ET54) were discontinued in 1961.

In the years 1947 to 1949, the architect Alexey Shchusev developed a plan with the aid of a team of architects for the gradual reconstruction of the city.

There was rapid population growth in the 1950s, to which the Soviet administration responded by constructing large-scale housing and palaces in the style of Stalinist architecture. This process continued under Nikita Khrushchev, who called for construction under the slogan "good, cheaper, and built faster." The new architectural style brought about dramatic change and generated the style that dominates today, with large blocks of flats arranged in considerable settlements. These Khrushchev-era buildings are often informally called Khrushchyovka.

The period of the most significant redevelopment of the city began in 1971, when the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union adopted a decision "On the measures for further development of the city of Kishinev," which secured more than one billion rubles in investment from the state budget,[31] and continued until the independence of Moldova in 1991. The share of dwellings built during the Soviet period (1951–1990) represents 74.3 percent of total households.[32]

On 4 March 1977, the city was again jolted by a devastating earthquake. Several people were killed, and panic broke out.

On 22 April 1993, the city inaugurated the Monument to the Victims of Jewish Ghettos, a public monument centring on a bronze statue of the Biblical prophet Moses, which serves as a symbol of remembrance to the thousands of Jews who perished during the holocaust. The monument was designed by architect Simeon Shoihet and sculptor Naum Epelbaum. It stands on Ierusalim Street, marking the site of the main entrance to the Chisinau ghetto, which was established in the lower part of the city in July 1941, shortly after the German and Romanian troops occupied the area.[33]

Since Moldovan independence following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, many streets of Chișinău have been renamed after historic persons, places or events. Independence from the Soviet Union was followed by a large-scale renaming of streets and localities from a Communist theme into a national one.[34]

On 5 September 2022, the country's first Christian university Universitatea Moldo-Americană opened its doors, supported by the Scandinavian broadcaster Visjon Norge and several donors in Norway, and run in cooperation with the American Southeastern University in Florida, United States.[35]

Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Moldova allowed more than 600,000 Ukrainian civilians to flee Ukraine across their border. Despite being among the poorest states in Europe, Moldova has continued to host more than 100,000 Ukrainian refugees, many of them in Chișinău.[36][37][38]

On 23 November 2022, the Chișinău Court of Appeal ruled that Chișinău International Airport will return to state ownership, according to justice minister Sergiu Litvinenco, more than three months after an international court allowed Moldova to terminate a 49-year concession deal with airport operator Avia Invest.[39] In April 2023, the Dutch government opened a new embassy in Chișinău.[40]

On 21 May 2023, tens of thousands of Moldovans took to the streets in a massive rally, the European Moldova National Assembly, to support the country's European Union membership bid.[41][42] Moldovan police said more than 75,000 demonstrators were present. Moldovan President Maia Sandu, whose government organised the rally, made a speech in which she said "We don't want to be on the outskirts of Europe anymore", and President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola also addressed the crowd, in which he said that Europe would welcome Moldova "with open arms and open hearts".[43]

Later that month, Chișinău hosted a major international summit of the European Political Community organised to discuss the illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine as well as cybersecurity, migration and energy security, and regional issues in Azerbaijan, Armenia, and clashes in Kosovo. 50 leaders from 47 countries were in attendance, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron, U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, and President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.[44][45] Moldova and fellow countries reaffirmed their commitment to their condemnation of Russia's invasion and their support for Ukraine in the war. Ursula von der Leyen promised new financing and investment steps for Moldova, worth around €1.6 billion.[46] Moldovan President Maia Sandu called the summit "a testament to growing unity on the [European] continent", and a "resolute reaffirmation of our unwavering dedication to peace, a strong condemnation of Russia's invasion (and of Moldova's) continued solidarity with Ukraine.[46]

Botanical garden

Chișinău has a humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification Dfa) characterised by warm summers and cold, windy winters. Winter minimum temperatures are often below 0 °C (32 °F), although they rarely drop below −10 °C (14 °F). In summer, the average maximum temperature is approximately 25 °C (77 °F), however, temperatures occasionally reach 35 to 40 °C (95 to 104 °F) in mid-summer in downtown. Although average precipitation and humidity during summer is relatively low, there are infrequent yet heavy storms.

Spring and autumn temperatures vary between 16 and 24 °C (61 and 75 °F), and precipitation during this time tends to be lower than in summer but with more frequent yet milder periods of rain.

Bird's eye view of the Central park

Moldova is administratively subdivided into 3 municipalities, 32 districts, and 2 autonomous units. With a population of 662,836 inhabitants (as of 2014), the Municipality of Chișinău (which includes the nearby communities) is the largest of these municipalities.[49]

Besides the city itself, the municipality comprises 34 other suburban localities: 6 towns (containing further 2 villages within), and 12 communes (containing further 14 villages within). The population, as of the 2014 Moldovan census,[7] is shown in brackets:

Administrative sectors of Chișinău: 1-Centru, 2-Buiucani, 3-Râșcani, 4-Botanica, 5-Ciocana

Chișinău is governed by the City Council and the City Mayor (Romanian: Primar), both elected once every four years.

His predecessor was Serafim Urechean. Under the Moldovan constitution, Urechean — elected to parliament in 2005 — was unable to hold an additional post to that of an MP. The Democratic Moldova Bloc leader subsequently accepted his mandate and in April resigned from his former position. During his 11-year term, Urechean committed himself to the restoration of the church tower of the Catedrala Nașterea Domnului and improvements in public transport.

The municipality in its totality elects a mayor and a local council, which then name five pretors, one for each sector. They deal more locally with administrative matters. Each sector claims a part of the city and several suburbs:[50]

Chișinău is the seat of the Moldovan Orthodox Church, as well as of the Metropolis of Bessarabia. The city has multiple churches and synagogues.[22]

• Christians – 90.0%
  • Orthodox Christians – 88.4%
  • Protestant – 1.2%
    • Baptists – 0.6%
    • Evangelicals – 0.4%
    • Pentecostals – 0.2%
    • Seventh-day Adventists – 0.1%
  • Roman Catholics – 0.4%
• Other – 1.0%
• No religion – 1.4%
• Atheists – 1.5%
• Undeclared – 6.1%

Soviet-style apartment buildings in Chișinău

Romashka Tower, the tallest building in Moldova

Chișinău's growth plan was developed in the 19th century. In 1836 the construction of the Kishinev Cathedral and its belfry was finished. The belfry was demolished in Soviet times and was rebuilt in 1997. Chișinău also displays a tremendous number of Orthodox churches and 19th-century buildings around the city such as Ciuflea Monastery or the Transfiguration Church. Much of the city is made from limestone quarried from Cricova, leaving a famous wine cellar there.

Many modern-style buildings have been built in the city since 1991. There are many office and shopping complexes that are modern, renovated or newly built, including Kentford, SkyTower, and Unión Fenosa headquarters. However, the old Soviet-style clusters of living blocks are still an extensive feature of the cityscape.

The city is home to 12 public and 11 private universities, the Academy of Sciences of Moldova, a number of institutions offering high school and 1–2 years of college education. Among them are Moldova State University, the Academy of Economic Studies of Moldova, Alexandru cel Bun Military Academy, Nicolae Testemițanu State University of Medicine and Pharmacy, and Ion Creangă State Pedagogical University.

On 5 September 2022, the country's first Christian university Universitatea Moldo-Americană opened its doors, supported by the Scandinavian broadcaster Visjon Norge and several donors in Norway, and run in cooperation with the American Southeastern University in Florida, United States.[35]

In Chișinău there are several museums. The three national museums are the National Museum of Ethnography and Natural History, the National Museum of Fine Arts, and the National Museum of History of Moldova. The National Museum of Ethnography and Natural History was founded in October 1889 by baron Alexandru Stuart, moved to its current location in 1905, and is the oldest museum in Moldova.[59] It houses more than 135,000 exhibit pieces, among them a life-sized reconstruction of the skeleton of a dinothere, discovered in the Rezine region in 1966.[60] It also includes exhibits on natural history, natural sciences, archaeology, paleontology, geology, and ethnography.[61] The building was designed by the architect Vladimir Tsyganko in a distinctive Moorish architectural style with a signature frontal façade consisting of a triangular pediment supported by two Doric columns.[62][63]

The National Library of Moldova is also located in Chișinău.[64]

• 
  Triumphal Arch
• 
  Capitoline Wolf and National History Museum
• 
  Waterfall Steps at the Mill Valley Park
• 
  Ștefan cel Mare Central Park
• 
  Organ Hall
• 
  Moldova National Opera Ballet

Chișinău, as well as Moldova as a whole, still show signs of ethnic culture. Signs that say "Patria Mea" (English: My homeland) can be found all over the capital. While few people still wear traditional Moldavian attire, large public events often draw in such original costumes.

Moldova National Wine Day and Wine Festival take place every year in the first weekend of October, in Chișinău. The events celebrate the autumn harvest and recognises the country's long history of winemaking, which dates back to at least 3,000 BCE.[65][66] Moldova has been called the wine capital of Europe and its yearly festival is a major cultural and tourist event, and every year the streets are filled with people enjoying food, wine, dance, and music taking over the streets.[9][67] Moldova's most-awarded sommelier Mihai Druta has described Moldovan wine as being about "small producers and family wineries making premium wine. And nothing costs more than 100 Euro a bottle."[67] The Daily Express in 2019 described the city as "Europe's latest hotspot" in which journalist Maisha Frost praised "its wines, monumental wineries and their epic tasting sessions."[68] She described the city's Carpe Diem wine bar as "the flagship for a flourishing new breed of craft-style makers."

The city is the main setting of the 2016 Netflix film Spectral, which takes place in the near future during the fictional Moldovan War.

Chișinău International Airport offers connections to major destinations in Europe and Asia.

Air Moldova and FlyOne airlines have their headquarters, and Wizz-Air has its hub on the grounds of Chișinău International Airport.[71]

The most popular form of internal transport in Moldova is generally the bus. Although the city has just three main terminals, buses generally serve as the means of transport between cities in and outside of Moldova. Popular destinations include Tiraspol, Odesa (Ukraine), Iași and Bucharest (Romania).

The second most popular form of domestic transportation within Moldova is via railways. The total length of the network managed by Moldovan Railway CFM (as of 2009) is 1,232 kilometres (766 miles). The entire network is single track and is not electrified. The central hub of all railways is Chișinău Central Railway Station. There is another smaller railway station – Revaca located on the city's ends.

Chișinău Railway Station has an international railway terminal with connections to Bucharest, Kyiv, Minsk, Odesa, Moscow, Samara, Varna and St. Petersburg. Due to the simmering conflict between Moldova and the unrecognised Transnistria republic the rail traffic towards Ukraine is occasionally stopped.

There is wide trolleybus network operating as common public transportation within city. From 1994, Chișinău saw the establishment of new trolleybus lines, as well as an increase in capacity of existing lines, to improve connections between the urban districts. The network comprises 22 trolleybus lines being 246 km (153 mi) in length. Trolleybuses run between 05:00 and 03:00. There are 320 units daily operating in Chișinău. However the requirements are as minimum as 600 units. Trolleybus ticket costs at about 6 lei (ca. $0.31). It is the cheapest method of transport within Chișinău municipality.

There are 29 lines of buses within Chișinău municipality. At each public transportation stops there is attached a schedule for buses and trolleybuses. There are approximately 330 public transportation stops within Chișinău municipality. There is a big lack of buses inside city limits, with only 115 buses operating within Chișinău.[72]

In Chișinău and its suburbs, privately operated minibuses known as "rutieras" generally follow the major bus and trolleybus routes and appear more frequently.[73]

As of October 2017, there are 1,100 units of minibuses operating within Chișinău.Minibuses services are priced the same as buses – 3 lei for a ticket (ca. $0.18).[74]

The city traffic becomes more congested as each year passes. Nowadays there are about 300,000 cars in the city plus 100,000 transit transports coming to the city each day. The number of personal transports is expected to reach 550,000 (without transit) by 2025.

• Olga Bancic, known for her role in the French Resistance during World War II
• Petru Cazacu, Prime Minister of the Moldavian Democratic Republic in 1918
• Maria Cebotari, Romanian soprano and actress, one of Europe's greatest opera stars in the 1930s and 1940s
• Toma Ciorbă, Romanian physician and hospital director
• Claudia Cobizev, Moldovan sculptor
• Ion Cuțelaba, UFC light heavyweight fighter
• William F. Friedman, American cryptologist
• Dennis Gaitsgory, professor of mathematics at Harvard University
• Natalia Gheorghiu, pediatric surgeon and professor
• Sarah Gorby, French-Jewish singer
• Anatole Jakovsky, French art critic
• Boris Katz, computer scientist at MIT
• Nathaniel Kleitman, American physiologist
• Avigdor Lieberman, Israeli politician
• Grigory Lvovsky, composer
• Boris Mints, Russian billionaire
• Lewis Milestone, American motion picture director
• Sacha Moldovan, American expressionist and post-impressionist painter
• Ilya Oleynikov, comic actor and television personality
• Nina Pekerman, Israeli triathlete
• Lev Pisarzhevsky, Soviet chemist
• Vitaliy Pushkar, Ukrainian rally driver
• Andrew Rayel, stage name of Andrei Rață, a Moldovan DJ
• Yulia Sister, Israeli chemist
• Alexander Ulanovsky, the chief illegal "rezident" for Soviet Military Intelligence (GRU), prisoner in the Soviet Gulag
• Maria Winetzkaja, American opera singer in the 1910s–1920s
• Iona Yakir, Red Army commander executed during the Great Purge
• Chaim Yassky, Jewish physician killed in the Hadassah medical convoy massacre
• Sam Zemurray, American businessman who made his fortune in the banana trade
• Sergey Spivak, Moldovan Heavyweight UFC fighter
• Rusanda Panfili, Classical violinist & composer
• Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Classical Violinist

• Dan Balan, musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer
• Gheorghe Botezatu, American engineer, businessman and pioneer of helicopter flight
• Eugen Doga, composer
• Nicolae Testemițanu, physician
• Timofei Moșneaga, physician
• Israel Gohberg, Soviet and Israeli mathematician
• Dovid Knut, poet and member of the French Resistance
• Sigmund Mogulesko, singer, actor, and composer
• Pasha Parfeny, Singer, Musician, songwriter and who represented for the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 and 2023
• SunStroke Project, Moldovan representative for the Eurovision Song Contests 2010 and 2017
• Zlata Tkach, composer and music educator
• Maria Biesu, operatic soprano