Audio Guide: Chisinau City Center Walking Tour (Self Guided), Chisinau

Hi, and welcome to Chișinău, the capital of Moldova, a small Eastern European country tucked between Romania and Ukraine. My name is Saul, and I’m a proud 5th-generation local. I’ve lived here, on and off, for more than 50 years, and I have been a travel writer for the last 15 years.

Before we begin our journey, let me give you a little background. For a long time, this land was part of the Russian Empire and later the Soviet Union, until Moldova finally gained independence in 1991. Because of this history, the city is also often referred to as Kishinev, which is the Russian version of its name.

The true origin of the name Chișinău is uncertain, but one popular theory links it to the Romanian words chișla, which is an archaic word for “water spring,” and nouă, which means “new.” According to this explanation, the name refers to the city’s beginning as a monastery village established around a small spring in 1436.

Chișinău was originally part of the Principality of Moldavia, which became a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century. Following the Russo-Turkish War of 1806-1812, the Ottomans ceded the territory known as Bessarabia to the Russian Empire.

The Russians made Chișinău the capital of Bessarabia Province, and by the mid-1830s, it had developed into an important imperial outpost, with broad streets and new infrastructure. The redesigned city center was anchored by the neoclassical, dome-topped Nativity Cathedral, built between 1830 and 1836, together with its impressive bell tower in Cathedral Park. In 1846, another major landmark appeared nearby: the Triumphal Arch, built to commemorate Russia’s victory over the Turkish Army.

After the Russian Revolution, Bessarabia joined the Romanian Kingdom, and Chișinău became Romania’s second-largest city. Between 1918 and 1940, the downtown area underwent extensive renovation. In 1927, the Stefan the Great Monument was erected in honor of Moldova’s national hero, the 15th-century prince who strongly resisted Ottoman expansion. Today, the monument stands just outside the park that bears his name.

From 1940 to 1944, Chișinău and Bessarabia changed hands several times between Romania and the Soviet Union, before eventually becoming part of the USSR. In the late 1940s, with the city still heavily damaged by World War II air raids, reconstruction gradually began.

Large-scale housing projects followed in the 1950s and 60s, with later decades bringing more monumental public buildings. Among them were landmarks such as the Parliament Building, the Presidential Palace, and the National Opera and Ballet Theatre.

This mixture of eras is what makes the city so interesting. As we continue, I’ll show you some of the landmarks that tell this story and share a few details that may help you see Chișinău through the eyes of a local.