Geographically, Moldova is situated among the Carpathian Mountains in the west, the Prut River in the east, the towns of Siret in the north and Galati in the south.
Moldova is a historical province of Romania. It was founded as an independent state between 1359 and 1356 by Voivode Bogdan I (Prince Bogdan I) and, accordingly, it was also named Bogdania at the time. Its successive princely residences were in the towns of Siret, Radauti, Suceava, Iasi, Roman, and Vaslui.
Prince Michael the Brave united it with Wallachia and Transylvania, for a short time, in 1600. In 1918, Moldova became an integral part of the Romanian Kingdom.
Its aboriginal civilization is much older - about 14,000 years -, spectacularly materialized in the Cucuteni Culture - about 6,000 BC: painted earthenware where the spiral prevails -, to be traced in the Thracian-Dacian-Roman entrenchments at Stancesti, Cotnari, Piroboridava, Petrodava, Utidava,
Dinogetia (6th c. BC) - 2nd c. AD.). The feudal state evolved under the leadership of great princes - Alexander the Good, Stephen the Great, Petru Rares, Alexandru Lapusneanu, Dimitrie Cantemir - a period of time when the foundations of the country's school were laid and economic relations were developed domestically and with the neighboring states.
At present, the province boasts riches of the subsoil mined at Comanesti and Darmanesti, farming, pasturelands, orchards, vineyards at Cotnari, Husi, Iasi, Panciu-Odobesti, steel and metallurgical industries at Galati, Roman, Suceava, Barlad, petrochemicals at Onesti and Roznov, electrical engineering
at Iasi, hydropower at Bicaz, woodworking at Piatra Neamt and Bacau, light and food industries at Iasi, Suceava, Pascani, Targu Neamt, Bacau, Vaslui, and Focsani.
In Moldova, the first University in Romania was founded in 1860, and the first Jewish theatre in the world was opened up in 1876. Here, great figures of the Romanian national culture were born, lived or worked: poets Mihai Eminescu, Vasile Alecsandri, Mihai Codreanu, Otilia Cazimir, George Bacovia, Veronica Micle; prose-writers Ion Creanga, Mihail Sadoveanu, Calistrat Hogas, Alexandru Vlahuta; composers George Enescu, Ciprian Porumbescu; literary men and scientists Eugen Lovinescu, Nicolae Iorga, George Calinescu, Ion Borcea, Vasile Parvan, Alexandru Ciuca, Mihai Ciuca, Simeon Florea Marian,
Gheorghe T. Kirileanu; statesmen Alexandru Ioan Cuza, Mihail Kogalniceanu, Costache Negri, Lucretiu Patrascanu.
The first Romanian "tourist" in these parts of the country was Prince Dimitrie Cantemir in the late 18th century, who in his work Descriptio Moldaviae reported his hiking on Mt. Ceahlau, a massif where the first log-house for tourists was built in 1906. With an exceptional scenery and the testimonies of a continuous
millennium-old civilization, Moldova is one of the most representative areas of tourist interest in Romania. Here, tourists also find the world-famous churches with their painted outside walls at Voronet, Sucevita, Moldovita, Humor and Arbore, entered by UNESCO into the Catalogue of the World's Great Monuments.
Areas of tourist interest
BUCOVINA
In the northern part of Moldova, among smooth foothills, several monasteries were erected in the 15th century and later, then they were painted on their outside walls, forming frescos which have been preserved down to our day, and which count among the world's rare monuments in the appreciation of specialists as well as of UNESCO and honored by the International Federation of Tourism Journalists and Writers
(FLIET) with the award POMME D'OR (GOLDEN APPLE) in 1975.
VORONET is a church of the former hermitage erected in 1488 by Prince Stephen the Great, with
original paintings on its outside walls, as well as a porch and an outside fresco made in 1547 on the
initiative of Bishop Grigore Rosca, where the celebrated matchless "Voronet blue" prevails.
HUMOR is a church of the former monastery founded by Chancellor Teodor Bubuiog in 1530. It has an open porch, the first in the architecture of the time in Moldova and outside wall painting made in 1535, where shades of red prevail.
MOLDOVITA is a monastery erected in 1532 by Prince Petru Rares and has a quadrangular enclosure with towers, inside and outside wall paintings made in 1537, where their yellow is outstanding, and a worship-object room built in 1612, now a museum, where the award the GOLDEN APPLE is also kept.
SUCEVITA is a monastery erected between 1581 and 1601 by dignitaries Ieremia, Simion and
Gheorghe Movila, with a quadrangular enclosure and towers, mural paintings dated from about 1590, where the prevailing colors are green and red. It also contains an old art collection.
ARBORE is a church erected at the Court of Suceava's Chief Magistrate Luca Arbore, which has
a large-size niche in the wall for common meals, inside and outside wall paintings dated from 1541 with shades of green; the Gothic-style tomb of the founder made in 1523, the most precious funerary monument of the time in Moldova It also has a Village Museum of Toader Hrib.
In the same area, some other places and monuments of historical interest attract numerous tourists.
SUCEAVA, capital town of the Suceava county, formerly Princely Residence of Moldova (1388-1566). It boasts a medieval fortification (1374-1675), the Princely Court (14th-16th centuries), churches (1401-1643); a museum of history, art, natural sciences, ethnography; the Simeon Florea Marian Memorial House.
RADAUTI is a town, a princely residence in the 14th century, also containing the Bogdana Church
(1360). This is a traditional earthenware center and also has a Museum of Folk Techniques.
PUTNA is a monastery founded by Stephen the Great in 1469; it served as a princely necropolis. It has an enclosure with the Treasury Tower dated 1481, a Medieval Art Museum, and a Wooden Church, probably erected in 1353.
DRAGOMIRNA is a monastery erected in 1609 by Bishop Anastasie Crimca. It is a church lavishly adorned with polished stones and has a fortified enclosure (1627), an Old Church (1602), and a Medieval Art Museum.
NEAMT is a county approximately in the center of Moldova, with highly valuable settlements and monuments.
PIATRA NEAMT is the county capital. In former times it was called Petrodava (2nd c. BC - 1st c. A D.), then a princely court of Stephen the Great (15th c.). It boasts vestiges of fortifications, a church (1498), and a tower (1499), as well as museums of history, art, ethnography, and natural sciences, and the memorial houses of Calistrat Hogas and Gh.T. Kirileanu.
TARGU NEAMT was a town, fair and customs around 1400. The Citadel of Neamt (1359), is the most important fortification of the time in this part of the country. It contains a museum of history and ethnography, as well as the memorial houses of Ion Creanga and Veronica Micle.
NEAMT MONASTERY is, in fact, a number of successive foundations of Princes Petru Musat, Alexander the Good, and Stephen the Great (14th-lSth c.), and are 4s... one of the most valuable architectural assemblies of old Romanian art ... with the last painting assembly, of 1497, left since that time". (Vasile Dragut). It contains a library (1407), a medieval art museum, and the memorial house of Mihail Sadoveanu.
SECU, SIHASTRIA, SIHLA are monasteries lying on the valley of the Secu Brook founded by some Moldavian boyars (lords) between 1602 and 1813. There is also an old-art collection.
AGAPIA comprises, in fact, two monasteries: the Monastery on the Hill, a prince's donation (16th-
17th c.), and the Monastery in the Valley, an architectural assembly donated by the prince's minister of
war Gavril in 1647, with mural paintings achieved by the great Romanian painter Nicolae Grigorescu in 1860. It also comprises a medieval art collection and the memorial house of Alexandru Vlahuta.
VARATEC is a monastery founded in 1875 by Mother Olimbiada, rebuilt in 1808. The grave of Poetess Veronica Micle is here. It also comprises an old-art collection, and a natural reserve - the Silver Woods mentioned by the Romanian national poet Mihai Eminescu in his poem "Calin".
EASTERN CARPATHIANS
Moldova reaches the Eastern Carpathians in the west. Three chains of mountains have attracted hikers' attention over the time.
RARAU is a mountain massif dominated by the peak of the same name (1,650 m), at 14-km south
of the town of Campulung Moldovenesc. There is a hotel and a natural reserve here: Pietrele Doamnei. In the neighborhood are Rarau Hermitage, dated from the 19th century, and Codrul Slatioara - 600 ha of botanical reserve.
CEAHLAU is a solitary massif in the central area of the Eastern Carpathians with its main peak Ocolasu Mare (1,907 m). It has a natural reserve of 3,500 ha with fossil-bearing chalk, original forms of relief, a waterfall, above 1,100 species of flowers, 90 species of birds and animals.
DURAU is a holiday and winter sport resort (800 m). Durau Hermitage (1830), was painted under the guidance of master N. Tonitza.
VRANCEA is a massif in the South with altitudes of over 1,700 m - with the peak Lacauti (1,777 m) , the traditional Country of Vrancea with customs and settlements of a distinct personality; Soveja, a resort , 540 m in altitude,with a monastery (1645); Lepsa with folk architecture and a hermitage (1750); Barsesti, with Neolithic abodes, and a the Memorial Exposition of Stephen the Great; Vrancioaia, a wooden church of the 18th century, the most valuable construction of that kind in Vrancea.
