100 amazing facts about Chisinau

Chisinau is the capital of Republic of Moldova. It's a magical city that hides many curiosities. Many generations have contributed to its development, so that it becomes what it is: the home of hundreds of thousands of citizens.

Do you want to find out more details, statistics and curiosities about our dear city?

Below you will find 100 new things about Chisinau:

Location

• Coordinates 47.026859 ° N, 28.841551 ° E
• GMT Time Zone +02: 00
• Chisinau is situated at an altitude of 85 meters above sea level.
• Chisinau is at a distance of 448 km from Bucharest (Romania) and 471 km from Kiev (Ukraine), capital of neighboring states.
• Chişinău is situated on seven hills, in form of a circle. The Ciocana sector is located on the highest hill. The lowest point is the city center, the place of Chisinau's constitution, near the river Bâc and Albişoara street.
• The surface of Chisinau is about 120 km.p., the area of the municipality is about 635 km.p.

Historic

• For the first time the name "Chisinau" is dated at July 17, 1436.
• Chisinau is called "The White Stone Town". That surname comes from the abundance of buildings built of limestone.
• Chisinau was given the status of a town in 1812 (7 thousand people) and became the administrative center (capital) of the Basarabia region in 1818, with 18 thousand people.
• In the oldest maps of Moldova, such as Reicherstorf's map of 1541, Chisinau does not appear, while in these maps are found cities such as Orhei, Tighina, Lapusna and Soroca.

Toponyms of sectors

• Botanica's name comes from the Horticulture School founded in 1842, with the first Dendrological Park, called "English Garden" at the time, or as its inhabitants called it "Botanical Garden".
• The name Ciocana comes from the old village Ciocana Noua, which was included in the Chisinau district only in 1959.
• Rascani was named from the anthroponym Râşcanu, the names of wealthy landowners who had estates in this sector.
• Posta Veche has taken its name since the time when there was a post office with an inn and a tavern, where travelers were resting and changing the horses.

Administration

• The first mayor of Chisinau was Anghel Nour.
• Chisinau had 36 mayors, including several interim officials. Among those with the longest activity were: Carol Schmidt - 26 years old, Dimitrie Lovcinski - 14 years old, Dimitrie Mincu - 13 years old, Serafim Urechean - 11 years old and Dorin Chirtoaca - 10 years old.
• From an administrative point of view, Chisinau is divided into five sectors: Botanica, Buiucani, Centru, Ciocana and Riscani.
• The city has its own symbolism: emblem, flag and hymn. The flag symbolizes the past, present and future of the city community.

Population

• Chisinau has 825.9 thousand inhabitants (2018), population density - 5.514 places / km
• Chisinau ranks 47th out of 100 large cities in Europe.
• Nowadays, Chisinau is the second city after Bucharest, as the size of the population within the limits of the Romanian ethnic area.
• In 1772, in 114 registered households, besides the Moldovans, 10 armenian families were already stationed in Chisinau, 3 of Serbs, 3 of Gypsies and a Greek family; neither a Russian or a Ukrainian.
• The oldest community in Chisinau is the Armenian community.

Architecture, buildings, places

• The Arch of Triumph in Chişinău ranks 5th among the most beautiful Arce, according to the rating of the magazine "Aeroflot Premium".
• The Arch of Triumph was built in honor of the Russian army that defeated the Turks in 1812. It is 13 meters high.
• The first building built on the Stefan cel Mare av. in Chisinau was the Theological Seminary, founded by Metropolitan Gavriil Bănulescu-Bodoni in 1813.
• The current headquarters of the Government of the Republic of Moldova were built on the site where the Metropolitan Church was once.
• The Zoo, opened on 9 May 1978, is unique in our country and has over 1000 animals of different species on all continents.
• Train station in Chisinau is a building designed by the architect L. Ciuprin and built in 1948.
• On the McDonald's place, 100 years ago was the "Bristol" hotel.
• The Museum of Archeology and Ethnography of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova ( "Casa Iamusevschi") was built in the late nineteenth century, made of stone and partly plastered.
• The Chisinau Airport was built in 1960. In 2017 the airport served 2,744,653 passengers.
• The railway station was built in the late 1870s, according to Gennrih Lonski's architectural plan. The first train arrived at Chisinau train station on August 15, 1871.
• "Gates of the City" were built in 1970-1980 - an assembly of reinforced concrete blocks, the largest having 24 floors and a height of about 70 meters.
• The "Romaniţa" residential block has a height of 73 meters, 22 floors and 165 apartments.
• The Chisinau State Circus was built in 1981. On April 25, 1982, the circus hosted its first program  in honor of the 60th anniversary of the USSR.
• In the Râşcani sector, Mina from Chisinau is established in 1969, stretching over a distance of 3 km and reaching the cellar area of Cricova.
• Chisinau has a motocross route. In 1969, the World Motocross Championship took place here.
  

Education and culture

• The first public town library was opened in 1832.
• The first higher education institution in Basarabia was the Učitelský Institute (1915), and from Moldova - the "Ion Creangă" Pedagogical University, opened in Chisinau in 1940.
• There are 149 schools of primary and secondary general education (gymnasiums and lyceums) in Chisinau.
• Secondary and post-secondary technical education institutions - 29 edifices.
• Universities - 25
• Public Libraries - 49
• Cultural houses - 25
• Theaters (professional) - 17
• 543 sports constructions (stadiums, sports halls, swimming pools, etc.)
• Museums - 12, which had over 335 thousand visitors in 2017

Housing

• Total number of apartments 292.9 thousand; of which with a room 61.6 thousand, with 2 rooms 117.9 thousand, with 3 rooms and more - 113.4 thousand.
• Houses, apartments - the total area of 20 079 m2, which means an average of 24.4m2 per inhabitant.
• The average size of a dwelling has a total area of 65.5m2, without taking into account the number of rooms in the studios.
• Autonomous heating system has only 21% of all dwellings, 66.4% have central heating, 100.0% electric lighting, 96% aqueduct and sewerage, 89.8% sanitary group inside the dwelling.
• The length of aqueducts and water supply networks is 1982.3 km and the length of sewerage networks - 1124.0 km.

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Economy

• The number of economic agents in Chisinau on 01.01.2018 is 106.8 thousand.
• Chisinau generates about 60% of Moldova's GDP!
• There are 9,458 business units in Chisinau, including 9 major shopping centers: Grand Hall, Zity Mall, Shopping MallDova, Alfa City Shopping Mall, Atrium Soiuz, JUMBO, Marathon, PanCom, Universal Central Store (UNIC).
• Chisinau has agreements with 18 cities in the world, the first being Grenoble, France (January 1977).
• Chisinau ranks 16th in the world in terms of internet speed of 21.02 Mbps.
• Chisinau uses drinking water in the proportion of 20% of the underground waters and 80% of the Nistru River.
• During the Soviet period, food for cosmonauts was produced in Chisinau: 20 types of juices, 15 types of fruit-flavored, fruit and vegetable pips.

Streets and transport

• Currently, Chisinau has approximately 900 boulevards, streets, streets with a total length of 1,031.3 km.
•  The shortest street in Chisinau is Valeri Cikalov street, Botanica (41 m), and the widest one - Dacia avenue.
• The largest artery in Chisinau -it is highway Muncesti, is longer than 13 km.
• If you decided to drive all the streets by car at a speed of 50 km / h, it would take 13 hours and 44 minutes away, without stopping!
• Across the Bac there are about 20 bridges in Chisinau, besides the pedestrian ones.
• The first urban transport was the hauled tram, which appeared in 1878, and the first electric trams were appeared in 1912.
• The first cars appeared in the ownership of the Chisinau people in the years 1908-1910.
• The first car in the Chisinau was "Berliet", brought from Odessa for the biggest Basarabian owner Pantelimon Sinadino.
• The first taxis and buses appeared in Chisinau in 1909.
• The first long-distance bus service (brand Fiat) was laid on the road Chisinau-Kostyuzhen in 1909.
• The first train arrived at the Chisinau railway station on August 15, 1871, from Odessa. The trip lasted seven hours.
• The central boulevard of the capital Stefan cel Mare throughout its history has had at least seven titles: Millionnaya, Moskovskaya, Aleksandrovskaya and boulevard  Alexandru cel Bun. Later it was divided into two parts: the first was called boulevard Alexandru cel Bun and second bd. King Carol II. After 1944-1952, it was called the Lenin Street.

Monuments

• There are 300 monuments, busts and commemorative plaques in Chisinau.
• The Monument of Stefan cel Mare si Sfint in the Public Garden was installed on April 29, 1928
• The oldest monument in Chisinau is the bust of Alexander Pushkin (1885).
• The Classics Alley was inaugurated on April 29, 1958, at the initiative of the Writers Union.
• The highest monument in Chisinau is the monument “Sergei Lazo” - 7.5 m, and the smallest is the bronze statuette of the “Little Prince” from the park Valea Morilor - 11 cm.

Cemeteries

• In Chisinau there are 11 municipal cemeteries: Central "Armenian", Saint Lazarus "Doina", Old Buiucans, Jewish, Ciocana "Saint Treime", Armenian-Catholic, Stefan Ciobanu, Sculeni, Baciosi Noi, Petricani.
• The cemetery of St. Lazarus in Chisinau is the largest cemetery in Europe. It is estimated that cemetery has almost two million square meters.

The churches

• More than 30 Orthodox churches are located in Chisinau.
• The Maserach Church is the oldest church in Chisinau.
• The large bell in the tower near the Cathedral has a weight of 6400 kg.

Flora and fauna

• Chisinau is one of twenty of Europe's greenest capitals.
• The oldest green area in Chisinau, and also throughout Moldova, is the Public Garden "Stefan cel Mare si Sfant", which was built in 1818 and extends over 7 hectares with 7 entrances.
• Before the Second World War, access to the park "Stefan cel Mare si Sfant" was paid.
• In Chisinau, near from Skinosa, there is the highest of the oaks that protected by the state: it has a diameter of 32 m and a covering perimeter of 1024 m., age is 400 years.
• The cascade staircase in the park Valea Morilor has 213 steps.
• In the suburbs of Chisinau there is the reservoir Gidigich and 23 ponds.
• The length of the lake Valea Morilor is about 800 m, width - 400 m, depth - 4 m..
• The largest park is the Valea Trandafirilor, the second is the park "La izvor", the third is Valea Morilor.
• The percent of tree plantation is 7.1 of the total area of Chisinau.
• The Bac River flows through Chisinau, and on its south-western periphery is the Isnovat River, a right tributary of the Bac.
• 27 species of mammals, 75 species of birds and 14 species of reptiles and amphibians were registered in Chisinau.

Weather and natural phenomena

• The lowest temperature in the city was recorded on February 20, 1954: - 28.9 C. The highest - July 19, 2007: + 39.4 C.
• Winter lasts 78 days in Chisinau
• Autumn comes around September 20th
• The biggest earthquake that ocurred in Chisinau on November 10, 1940, has the magnitude 7.4 on the Richter scale. It made 78 victims and affected 2,795 buildings (172 destroyed). In the country, there are 50 to 120 earthquakes annually. The strongest (7.5 degrees on the Richter scale) occur once every 30-40 years.

Diplomatic missions and international organizations

• In Chisinau there are 39 embassies and consulates around the world.
• Also, in Chisinau are located the headquarters of over 30 international organizations (UNICEF, UN, OSCE, PEACE CORPS, USAID, etc.)

The information in the article was taken from the following web sources:: wikipedia.org, statistica.md, orasulmeuchisinau.wordpress.com, oldchisinau.com etc