Iași (Romanian Iași, German Jassenmarkt, Turkish: Yaş) is a city
in Romania, the country's fourth most populous city, the seat of
Iași County and the episcopal seat of the Diocese of Iași. It is
located in the historical region of Moldavia and has traditionally
been one of the leading centers of Romanian social, cultural,
scientific and artistic life. The city was the capital of the Duchy
of Moldova between 1564 and 1859, and of the Kingdom of Romania
between 1916 and 1918.
Known as the cultural capital of
Romania, Iași is a symbol of Romanian history. Historian Nicolae
Iorga declared that "there should be no Romanian who does not know".
The city is still referred to as the "Capital of Moldova" and is the
main economic and business center of the Moldavian region of the
country. In December 2018, Iași was officially declared the
historical capital of Romania.
At the 2011 census, the city
had 290,422 inhabitants (making it the fourth most populous in
Romania). With 500,668 inhabitants in the area of the agglomeration
in 2018, it was the second most populous area in Romania after
Bucharest.
The city is one of the country's most important
educational and research centers, it is home to the oldest Romanian
university and the first engineering school, which admits more than
60,000 students at five state universities. It is home to the Vasile
Alecsandri National Theatre, the Moldovan State Philharmonic, the
Opera House, the Iași Athenaeum, the Botanical Garden, the Central
University Library, as well as countless festivals, museums,
memorials, and religious and historical monuments. The city is also
the site of the biggest pilgrimage in Romania, which takes place
every year in October, and tens of thousands of people come here.
In the center of the city known for its porcelain is the neo-Gothic
Palace of Culture (construction period 1906-1925); it now houses four
museums, including the largest art collection in the country, and a
library. Also worth seeing are the impressively large Metropolitan
Church from the early 19th century and the Coronation Church. Several
monasteries in the city and its surroundings also deserve attention.
Some monuments also line squares and streets.
Armenian Church
Surb Mariam
The small, poor house, "Bojdeuca Ion Creangă" (1837-1889,
named after the Romanian narrator)
Dosoftei House, a 17th-century
secular building made of bare bricks with an arcade, now the Museum of
Old Moldavian Literature
Great synagogue from 1671
Cetǎțuia
Monastery, fortified monastery from the 17th century, donated by Prince
Gheorghe Duca with the Church of Sf. Apostoli Petruşi Pave erected in
1669-1672
Galata Monastery, built in 1582–1583, by the Moldavian
prince Petru Șchiopul
Golia Monastery, Înălțarea Domnului Church,
built in 1652-1660 by Voivode Vasile Lupu and his son Ștefăniță Vodă
Monastery Sf. Trei Ierarhi (The Three Holy Hierarchs), built in Gothic
style in 1637-1639 by the voivode Vasile Lupu
Metropolitan Cathedral
(Catedrala Mitropolitanǎ), built in 1902–1907
Roman Catholic diocesan
buildings: Bishop's House, former Cathedral of Adormirea Maicii Domnului
(Assumption of St. Mary) (1789) and current Cathedral of St. Mary Queen,
completed in 2005
other memorial houses: Mihai Eminescu, George
Topârceanu, Mihail Sadoveanu, Otilia Cazimir, Vasile Pogor and others.
The city is home to the largest botanical garden in Romania, at 100
hectares, and one of the largest in Europe.
The city is located in the eastern part of Romania, on both banks of the Bahlui River, near the Romanian-Moldovan border.
Archaeological excavations have found traces of the Cucuteni-Tripolje
culture that are about 5,000 years old. Iași was first mentioned in the
14th century, during the reign of Alexandru cel Bun.
Modern times
From 1565 to 1859 it was the capital of the Principality of Moldova, and
from 1859 also the capital of the newly founded Principality of Romania,
until it was replaced by Bucharest in 1862. The name Iași is associated
with the so-called Golden Period of Romanian culture.
During the
Austro-Turkish War from 1787 to 1791, Iași was occupied by the imperial
army on April 18, 1788, and repeatedly by Russian troops.
During
the First World War, the city was the provisional capital of Romania
from 1916 to 1918.
During the Second World War, on June 26, 1941,
the Soviet Air Forces carried out air raids on the city. On June 28
another bombing took place.
Iaşi pogrom
Iași was a focal point
of settlement for Romanian Jews. Around 1900, Jews made up 51% of the
city's resident population. On June 22, 1941, German and allied Romanian
troops began their attack on the Soviet Union. As early as the summer of
1941, before the German-Soviet War and the Berlin Wannsee Conference,
Marshal Ion Antonescu had developed a “master plan” aimed at the “ethnic
cleansing of Jews” from Romanian territory. The Iași pogrom on June 29,
1941 was one of the first steps on this path. Intensified press
accusations against the Jewish population for the Soviet bombing
contributed to anti-Semitic sentiment in the city. At least 13,000 Jews
fell victim to the mass murder. Several thousand of them were shot dead
on the premises of the police headquarters. The Iasi pogrom was
primarily carried out by the local police, soldiers from the Romanian
army, paramilitaries and civilians. Wehrmacht units stationed in Iași
were also involved, and captured the massacre in hundreds of photos that
are now archived in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in
Washington. The German operational plan had not provided for such an
attack; the initiative came from Antonescu's "master plan", which
provided for the "evacuation", the deportation of all Romanian Jews.
Of the city's 127 synagogues, only a few survived the destruction.
For a long time, especially during the communist rule, there was no
official talk about this massacre and the persecution of the Jews in the
country in general. In 2003 work started on the work. Then-President Ion
Iliescu convened the International Commission for Research into the
Holocaust in Romania, headed by Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel.
The Wiesel Commission presented its final report at the end of 2004. She
affirmed the specifically Romanian Holocaust; an Elie Wiesel Institute
was established and October 9 was designated as Holocaust Remembrance
Day.
Social problems
The city has recently gained notoriety as
a stronghold for organized pickpocketing throughout Europe. The city is
therefore also known as the "school of pickpockets".
He lived here:
Grigore Ureche (1590–1647) was the first Moldovan
chronicler
Miron Costin (1633–1691) writer, historian
Dimitrie
Cantemir (1673–1723) philosopher, writer, Prince of Moldavia
Gheorghe
Asachi (1788–1869) writer, poet, playwright
Mihail Kogălniceanu
(1817–1891) historian, politician, prime minister of Romania between
1863–1865
Alexandru Ioan Cuza (1820–1873), first ruler of Romania
Vasile Alecsandri (1819–1890) poet, writer, ethnographic researcher
Ion Creangă (1837–1889) writer
Mihai Eminescu (1850–1889) was a poet
Nicolae Iorga (1871–1940) historian
Mihail Sadoveanu (1880–1961)
writer
Born here:
Mihály Salbeck (1709–1758) Jesuit
sacrificial priest, teacher
Lascăr Catargiu (1821–1899) Romanian
politician, prime minister
Emil Racoviță (1868–1947) speleologist,
biologist
Conductor Antonin Ciolan (1883–1970).
Ionel Teodoreanu
(1897–1954) writer
George Emil Palade (1912–2008) is a Nobel laureate
in medicine
Prince Grigory Alexandrovich Patyomkin, Russian
politician and general, died here in 1791.
Politechnica Jaszvásár, football team in the A division
Poli
Millennium Jászvásár, basketball team
Poli Agro Jászvásár, rugby team
At the beginning of the 19th century, the first university in Romania
was founded in the city. In 1860, Alexandru Ioan Cuza founded the
country's first university here, which is why it was named Alexandru
Ioan Cuza Iași University. Since the 1970s, the university in Iași has
maintained a partnership with the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg,
since 1992 with the University of Augsburg, since 1993 with the
Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, since 1994 with the University of
Konstanz and since 2011 with the Technical University University of
Dresden. Iaşi University of Technology, George Enescu University of
Arts, Iaşi Agricultural and Veterinary University and Iaşi Medical and
Pharmaceutical University are also higher education institutions based
in Iaşi.
Iași is a center of the Romanian computer industry.
Arts and Culture
National Opera Iasi
National Theater "Vasile
Alecsandri" (Teatrul Național "Vasile Alecsandri"), built in the 19th
century, are listed monuments.
Moldova Philharmonic
Iaşi was connected to the railway network in 1870 by the construction
of a line from Paşcani, which was carried out by the
Lemberg-Czernowitz-Jassy Railway Company. There are three train stations
in the city area, Iaşi Main Station, Iaşi-Nicolina and Iaşi-Socola.
Today there are direct train connections to all major cities in Romania.
The European route 58 runs through the city.
Iași
International Airport is located about 10 kilometers east of the city.
The city has a tram network that u. a. is operated with
decommissioned German tramcars of older design.