Chisinau
(Chişinău)
| Chişinău | |
|---|---|
| Facts | |
| County | Chişinău |
| Status | Municipality |
| Mayor | Vasile URSU (since 2005) |
| Area | 635 km² |
| Population (at 2004) | 601,000 |
| Dialing code | +373 22 |
| Geographical coordinates | 47°0′ N 28°55′ E |
| City Website | |
Chişinău (Moldovan Cyrillic: Кишинэу [kishinéu]; Russian: Кишинёв [kishinyov]) pronounced ki-shi-now, IPA /kiʃinəǔ/) is the capital and the largest city of Moldova. Chişinău is considered one of the greenest cities in Europe.
Geography
The city is located on the river Bîc, a tributary of the Nistru (Dniestr), at 47°0′ N 28°55′ E, and is divided into five administrative districts. Chişinău has an area of 120 km2 and its whole Municipality has 635 km2.History
Founded in 1436 as a Monastery town, the city was part of the Moldavian Principality, which, starting with the 16th century fell under the Suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire. At the beginning of the 19th century it was a small village of 7,000 inhabitants. In 1812 it was occupied by Russia, who made it the centre of Bessarabia. Its population had grown to 92,000 by 1862 and to 125,787 by 1900.The town played an important part in the war between Russia and Turkey (1877-78), as the chief centre of the Russian invasion.
In the late 19th century, especially due to growing anti-semitic sentiment in Russia and Poland, many Jews chose to settle in Chişinău, so in the year 1900 43% of the population of Chişinău was Jewish.
Chişinău was the site of two major pogroms April 6-7, 1903, and October 19-20, 1905 which were among the reasons for the large emigration of Eastern European Jews to Western Europe and the United States in the years immediately following. (See Kishinev pogrom)
Romania held the city from 1918 to 1940, when it was seized by the USSR.
Economy
Chişinău is a major industrial and services centre; its main industries include consumer and electrical goods, building materials, machinery, plastics, Rubber, and textiles. The main service fields are banking and shopping/commerce.Transport
There are three Bus terminals, an international Airport (Chişinău International Airport), and an international railway terminal.Education
The city is home to thirty-six universities, and to the Academy of Sciences of Moldova.Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the city has become a relatively lively and well-appointed capital, with a much higher standard of living than most rural areas.
Population
Total population - 601,000 (As of 2004)- Moldovans - 68.4%
- Russians - 13.7%
- Ukrainians - 8.4%
- Romanians - 4.4%
- Bulgarians - 1.2%
- Gagauzians - 0.9%
- Others - 2.9%
According to a May 19, 2005 story in Moldova Azi[:Chişinău}}#endnote_census-experts], a group of international census experts described the Moldovan census as "generally conducted in a professional manner", while remarking that that "a few topics… were potentially more problematic". Among the problematic topics:
- The census includes at least some Moldovans who had been living abroad over one year at the time of the census.
- The precision of numbers about nationality/ethnicity and language was questioned. Some enumerators apparently encouraged respondents to declare that they were "Moldovan" rather than "Romanian", and even within a single family there may have been confusion about these terms.
Name
The city was formerly known by its Russian language name, Кишинёв (Kishinyov); the somewhat inaccurate transliteration of that as Kishinev remains a common English-language name for the city, especially in historical contexts.The origin of the name is obscure. There is another city named Chişineu in Western Romania, near the border with Hungary and the etymology of this place is believed to be Hungarian "Kisjenő" (Small John). Another possible etymology is "kesene", a Cuman word for "Crypt".
Notes
- Experts Offering to Consult the National Statistics Bureau in Evaluation of the Census Data, Moldova Azi, May 19, 2005, story attributed to AP Flux. Retrieved October 11, 2005.