Part 1

Many cities in Romania have harvested a rich and various legacy from their history. Iasi is one of those cities. It has a diverse and complex character, the result of a long and sometimes troubled history. The city as it stands today reflects, as though it were a mirror with power of imaging history, the lights and shadows that have fallen over it. Directly exposed to the waves of migrations that washed over it, Iasi suffered reverses and severe struggles as well as periods of undisturbed growth. The history of Iasi is the history of Romania thrown into high relief.

Moldavia's future capital, a rural settlement at the very beginning, went through a very rapid development during the last decades of the XIVth century, as recent archeological research has revealed. We know that the growth of handicrafts and of local and transit commerce brought about the urbanization of the small settlement; apparently the pattern of development was the typical merging of settlement into a market place and into town. By 1408, the town was advanced enough as a commercial centre for the Moldavian Ruler Alexander the Good, to offer a commercial privilege to the merchants of Liov. This document contains the first known written reference to Iasi.

Famous for its picturesque position - which had roused the admiration of many foreign travelers who, owing to its hills, were tempted to compare it to Rome - Iasi imposed itself upon the history of Moldavia and the consciousness of the Romanians by its cultural life. The spiritual values created in this part of the country asserted themselves as belonging not only to Moldavia but also to Romania as a whole. They strengthened the consciousness of common unity and constituted a strong affirmation of the creative spirit of the gifted Romanian people.

Several pictures of Iasi City