(also known outside Romania as '''Jassy'''; pronunciation in in north-eastern
Romania , in the informal region of
Moldova .
The city of Iaşi lies on the
Bahlui river, a tributary of the
Jijia (tributary of the
Prut ). The surrounding country is one of uplands and woods, featuring the monasteries of
Cetăţuia ,
Frumoasa ,
Galata (with nearby mineral springs), and the
Dendrologic park of
Repedea . Iaşi itself stands amid vineyards and gardens, partly on two hills, partly in the in-between valley.
- 1900: 78,000
- 1992: 344,425
- 2002: 316,094; Population density: 3417/km&2. (Iaşi is the second largest city in Romania, after Bucharest.)
Scholars have different theories on the origin of the name "Iaşi". Some believe the city received its ''
{Link without Title} .
The city is first mentioned in a
1408 document by Moldavian
Prince (
Voivode )
Alexandru Cel Bun .
Around
1564 , Prince
Alexandru Lăpuşneanu moved the Moldavian capital from
Suceava to Iaşi. Between 1561 and 1563, a school and a
Lutheran church were founded by the
Greek adventurer Prince,
Ioan Iacob Heraclid . In
1640 ,
Vasile Lupu established the first school in which the mother-tongue replaced Greek, and set up a printing press in the
Byzantine Trei Ierarhi Church (''Church of the Three Hierarchs''; built 1635–39). In
1643 , the first volume ever printed in
Moldavia was issued in Iaşi.
), designed by
Gustave Eiffel .]]
The city was burned down by the
Tatars in
1513 , by the
Ottomans in
1538 , by the
Imperial Russia n troops in
1686 . In
1734 , it was hit by the
Plague .
Through the
Peace Of Iaşi , the sixth
Russo-Turkish War was brought to a close in 1792. A Greek revolutionary maneuver and occupation under
Alexander Ypsilanti and the
Filiki Eteria (
1821 , at the beginning of the
Greek War Of Independence ) led to the storming of the city by the Turks in 1822. In
1844 there was a severe conflagration.
Between 1565 and
1859 , the city was the capital of Moldavia; then, between 1859 and
1862 , both Iaşi and
Bucharest were de-facto capitals of the ''United Principalities of Moldavia and
Wallachia '' (the
Danubian Principalities ). In 1862, when the union of the two principalities was recognized under the name of ''Romania'', the national capital was established in Bucharest. For the loss caused to the city in 1861 by the removal of the seat of government to Bucharest the
Constituent Assembly voted 148,150
Lei to be paid in ten annual instalments, but no payment was ever made.
Iaşi's primitive houses of timber and plaster were mostly swept away after 1860, when brick or stone came into general use, and better streets were cut through the network of narrow, unsanitary lanes.
During
World War I , Iaşi was the capital of a severly reduced Romania for two years, following the
Central Powers ' occupation of Bucharest on
December 6 1916 . The capital was returned to Bucharest after the defeat of
Imperial Germany and its allies in November
1918 .
In May
1944 , Iaşi became the scene of ferocious fighting between Romanian-
Nazi German forces and the advancing
Soviet Red Army . The elite German
Panzergrenadier Division ''Großdeutschland'' won an impressive defensive victory at the
Battle Of Târgul Frumos , a location near Iaşi. The battle was the object of several
NATO studies during the
Cold War . By July, Iaşi had been taken by Soviet forces.
Iaşi also figures prominently in
Jew ish history. Records of
Jews exist from the 16th century, and by mid-19th century, the city was at least one-third Jewish. In
1855 , it was the home of the first-ever
Yiddish -language newspaper, ''Korot Haitim'', and, in 1876, the site of what was arguably the first-ever professional
Yiddish Theater performance (''See
Abraham Goldfaden '').
By . Today, Iaşi has a Jewish population of 600.
During the early part of World War II, Iaşi was the site of a
Pogrom which was the largest massacre of Jews in Romania. During the war, while the full scale of
The Holocaust remained generally unknown to the
Allied Powers , the
Iaşi Pogrom stood as one of the known, well-documented examples of
Axis brutality toward the Jews.
The pogrom lasted from , thirst, or infection and bleeding. Six non-Jewish citizens of Iaşi are credited with saving around one hundred Jews (see
Righteous Among The Nations ), but, according to the official Romanian report on the subject, the vast majority of the population of the city did nothing to intervene, and a certain portion joined in the killing.
Iaşi is an outstanding educational centre, and preserves some beautiful pieces of architecture, such as the Trei Ierarhi Church and the
Neo-Gothic Palace Of Culture (the site of four museums - of History, of Technology, of Ethnography, and of Art). Almost all buildings in the old city centre were demolished during the
Communist Regime , with Soviet-style blocks of flats built in their stead.
Iaşi is the seat of the
Romanian Orthodox Church Metropolitan Bishop ric of Moldavia, and of a Roman Catholic
Archbishop ric. The city houses more than 40 churches. The oldest one is ''Saint Nicholas'', dating from the reign of
Stephen The Great (1457-1504); perhaps the finest, however, are the
17th Century older metropolitan church, ''Saint Spiridion'' and ''Trei Ierarhi'', the last a curious example of Byzantine art, erected in 1639 or 1640 by Vasile Lupu, and adorned with countless gilded carvings on its outer walls and twin towers. Other beautiful churches, surrounded by big walls, are: ''Galata'' (1581), ''Golia'' (17th century), ''Cetăţuia'' (the end of the 17th century) and ''Frumoasa'' (18th century).
Iaşi is home to the oldest Romanian university
University Of Iaşi ), opened by (and nowadays named after)
Domnitor Alexandru Ioan Cuza in 1860. The city is host to five universities, and is widely regarded as the cultural "heart" of the ''Old Kingdom'' (that is Moldavia, Wallachia, and
Dobruja - the three region comprised in Romania until 1918).
A society of
Physician s and
Natural Historians has existed in Iaşi since the early part of the 19th century, and a number of periodicals are published. One of the oldest medical universities in Romania is in Iaşi - founded in 1879. It is now known as University of Medicine and Pharmacy "Grigore T. Popa".
- Antipa, Grigore
- Carp, Petre P.
- Codreanu, Corneliu Zelea
- Cuza, Alexandru C.
- Kogălniceanu, Mihail
- Negruzzi, Iacob
- Palade, George Emil
- Pallady, Theodor
- Pogor, Vasile
- Racoviţă, Emil
- Sturdza, Dimitrie A.
- Sturdza, Mihail
- Xenopol, Alexandru D.
- National Institute of Statistics: http://www.insse.ro/rpl2002rezgen/5.pdf
