Moldova is…? Many travelers can’t even venture an answer because they know nothing about the country even though it’s in Europe and easily accessible. Well, the answer is Moldova is a lot of things, from having a breakaway republic (Transnistria) to an autonomous region (Gagauzia) and city sophistication (Chisinau) to cave monasteries (Tipova). There are also Ottoman forts, massive wineries and traditional handicraft complexes, as well as outdoor adventures like hiking, cycling, kayaking, and bird watching. However, tourism is rapidly increasing and it’s better to go as soon as possible before it’s no longer a secret. Also see the images in the accompanying photo gallery.
Why We Went to Moldova?
My wife Khadija and I attended the popular Trans-Danube swim event in Bratislava, Slovakia in September 2023 and decided to go afterwards to Moldova. We, like most travelers, knew little about the country and we were eager to check it out.
Where is Moldova?
Moldova is surrounded in the north, east and south by Ukraine and to the east by Romania.
A region in northeastern Romania shares the same name of Moldova, as they have their origins in the historic Principality of Moldavia, which was eventually split by various empires.
How to Get Around Moldova?
We rented a Renault Kadjar, a compact SUV, and found driving fairly simple, as most main roads are in good shape. Distances were not long as it’s a small country, about the size of the state of Maryland or Taiwan. Here’s a map of some of the places we visited:
We needed a special permit from the rental car company to cross into Transnistria, which has its own border control.
On countrywide roads, police were frequently monitoring the speed of motorists and we were pulled over once. However, Alina, whom we were giving a ride from Tipova to Chisinau, convinced the officer not to give us a ticket (by alluding that we were part of the American Embassy).
Another common way to see the country is to take day or overnight tours from Chisinau.
Who are the Moldovans?
Moldovans are the primary ethnic group in the Republic of Moldova who speak Romanian (officially it’s Moldovan but essentially the same language).
Moldovans are also citizens of the country and include other ethnic groups, composed of Romanians (8%), Ukrainians (6%), Gagauz (4%), Russians (3%), and Bulgarians (2%). Doing the math, ethnic Moldovans and other tiny groups are over 75%.There are some who consider Moldovans and Romanians the same ethnic group.
The country is overwhelmingly Christian with perhaps 90% belonging to Eastern Orthodox denominations, but there are few others such as followers of Judaism and the Bahaʼi faith.
What Languages Are Spoken in Moldova?
According to the 2024 census, in Chisinau, about 75% spoke Romanian and 20% Russian, as Moldova used to be part of the USSR. Other languages spoken in the country include Gagauz (a Turkic language), Ukrainian, Bulgarian and Romani. Romanian is the lingua franca, but it’s a secondary language in some places, especially in Transnistria which speaks predominately Russian.
Romanian is an Eastern Romance language, related to Italian but with influences from Slavic, Turkish and other regional languages.
We had no trouble getting around in English, but we tried to say hello (buna ziua or simply buna) and thank you (mulțumesc) in Romanian as much as possible.
Noroc is a very common term in Romanian and is used in several everyday contexts as explained in the following photo.
What are Important Events in Moldova’s History?
Romanian culture, which Moldova is part of, traces its beginnings to when the Romans colonized the land of the Indo-European Dacians. The result formed a unique Latin-based heritage.
In the middle of the 14th century, the Principality of Moldavia became independent from Hungary. Its borders expanded and contracted over the ensuing decades. Under Stephen the Great (reigned 1457–1504), the nation fought off Turkish encroachments. By the middle of the 16th century Moldavia had become an autonomous vassal-state of the Ottoman Empire.
The region of Bessarabia, which is the predecessor of the Republic of Moldova, was part of the Principality of Moldavia until 1812, when it was ceded to Russia by the Ottoman Empire. After WWI, it became a part of the Kingdom of Romania. Russia forcibly took control of it after WWII and eventually it became the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic.
Upon the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Moldavian SSR declared its independence and became a member of the United Nations in 1992.
Between 1984 and 1987 the Soviets built a towering building with a glass façade as the meeting place for the Supreme Soviet (legislature) of the Moldavian SSR. It’s now the official residence of the President of the Republic of Moldova.
How Long to Spend in Moldova?
You can easily spend a week visiting Chisinau, Transnistria, Gagauzia, monasteries, wineries and places making traditional handicrafts.
Is Moldova Safe?
Moldova is a safe country although there’s petty crime in Chisinau.
As it’s next to Ukraine, there’s fear that Russia could invade, but that’s not likely in the near future. Moldova is not part of the European Union (though it applied in 2022) or NATO, so it has less reliance on neighboring countries defending it.
Is Moldova Expensive?
Moldova’s prices are significantly lower than in Western and Central European countries, making it one of the most affordable European destinations.
Where to Stay in Moldova?
Moldova has hotels and guest houses throughout the country, so we had no trouble finding lodging.
What to Eat in Moldova?
Moldovan cuisine is a blend of Romanian culinary traditions with influences from Ottoman, Greek and Balkan flavors. Also, in the country are variations of Russian and Ukrainian dishes. We noticed a number of traditional dishes were spicy and the soups were complex recipes.
La Placinte Restaurant in Chisinau offers traditionally cooked food and is popular with locals and tourists. Khadija and I shared tomatoes and onions on a sheep cheese spread.
Chisinau
According to historical records, the city was a monastic settlement in the 15th century. It was severely damaged in WWII before being rebuilt by the USSR. The origin of the name is not definitive but it could be derived from the archaic Romanian phrase “chisla nouă” referring to a natural spring in the city. The city’s 640,000 residents are around 20% of the country’s population. In any case, it has one of those kitschy “I Love” signs.
Stephen the Great Central Park
Stephen the Great Central Park, the oldest park in Moldova, is lovely to walk through, if for no other reason than to see many species of trees. At one of the park entrances, not surprisingly, is a statue of Stephen.
The park has the Alley of Classics, a series of busts of Moldovan, Romanian and Russian writers and poets.
National Museum of Art of Moldova
We visited every room in this museum and it was my highlight for Chisinau. The museum’s 40,000-item collection includes paintings, sculptures, icons and other art from Moldova, Romania, Russia, Western and Central Europe and Central and Far East Asia. My favorite was “Girl With Fruit” by Orest Kiprenskii, an 1831 oil painting, especially with the intriguing head covering.
It opened as the first Museum of Bassarabian Fine Art in 1939. During WWII, a sizable portion of the collection was loaded into two trucks and delivered to Kharkiv, Ukraine and mysteriously has never been found.
Triumphal Arch
Chisinau once had several triumphal arches, but only one survives today, constructed from polished white stone with a clock on one side, arches on the other three sides and four pedestrian openings. This memorial was constructed in the 1830s to commemorate the victory of the Russian Empire over the Ottoman Empire.
Metropolitan Cathedral of the Nativity of God and Bell Tower
Behind the Triumphal Arch in a peaceful park is a bell tower and the city’s main Moldovan Orthodox church, the domed Nativity Cathedral. Both were constructed in the 1830s but the bell tower was demolished by Soviet authorities in 1962 as part of anti-religious policies and rebuilt in 1997.
Soviet Architectural Features
Here and there, we found architectural emblems and other reminders of the Soviet Union, including the hammer and sickle.
St. Pantelemon Church
My eyes were immediately drawn to this medium sized church in a Byzantine style with two octagonal domes and tall arched windows with stone mullions.
While built as a church by sons of a mayor of Chisinau in the 1830s, after WWII the USSR used it for secular purposes including a warehouse for building materials, a film storage facility and an exhibition space for alcoholic beverages. It reopened as a church in 1992, shortly after the country became independent.
Armenian Cross
I was surprised to see an Armenian Khachkar (stone cross) placed on a corner of a busy intersection in 2018. As written on the back side in Armenian, it’s a memorial of the friendship of the Armenian and Moldovan Christian people.
We learned that khachkars are quite important to the Armenian people when we traveled to Armenia in 2022. Read here about our experiences.
Other Places of Interest
There are many other sites to visit in the capital which we weren’t able to see, including:
- National History Museum of Moldova
- National Museum of Ethnography and Natural History
- Army Museum
- Monument of Victims of Political Repression
- Great Patriotic War Memorial
Concerning the performing arts, these venues:
- Moldovan National Opera and Ballet Theatre
- Republican Puppet Theater Licurici
National Moldova Tourist Information Center
The folks at the tourist office were exceedingly helpful in providing information of attractions across Moldova and restaurants and hotels in Chisinau.
Hotels and Restaurants
We enjoyed all the restaurants including the Black Rabbit Gastro Burrow which gets the prize for the best name. As mentioned above, La Placinte Restaurant is a good choice for traditional food. Fuior Restaurant is a bit upscale and has a comfortable setting.
We spent our initial nights in the Art Hotel, which at the time of this writing is temporarily closed. Yet I mention it because we loved the murals.
For our last nights we stayed in the centrally located Gregory Boutique Hotel Chisinau which was furnished with antique looking furniture and close to free street parking.
Transportation
We walked most places but when it was a bit too far for our tired feet, we took the wonderful public buses.
We boarded the bus and waited for the authorized person to collect the very cheap fare, which is now 6 Moldovan Lei (about US$0.35).
Transnistria
Transnistria is a 127-mile strip essentially between the Dniester River and the Ukrainian border. Since 1992, it’s been a breakaway republic with the official name as the Pridnestrovian Moldovan Republic, though still universally recognized as a part of Moldova.
This ethnic hodgepodge has a population of about 450,000 with approximately 1/3 Russians, 1/3 Moldovans and 1/4 Ukrainians. However, Russian language and culture have come to dominate the de facto state. For example, over 90% of preschoolers are taught in Russian.
Transnistria has its own passport which is only recognized by other unrecognized states like Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Most residents use Moldovan, Russian or Ukrainian passports for international travel. Of note, many of 1,500 Russian peacekeepers / troops are locals with Russian passports.
When declaring itself to be a separate government, Transnistria was an effort of the Slavic people not to be subsumed by the Moldovan culture. However, Russia has used it to further expand its influence and chip away at the democratic influences of Western Europe. As a result, around 70,000 Moldovans have left Transnistria since 2001.
Russia had long been economically supporting Transnistria by providing free natural gas, but stopped in 2025 (no doubt reflecting their need to marshal resources into the Ukraine invasion), causing a severe crisis where the Transnistria government has difficulty providing basic services.
For those interested, there’s an excellent report on the history of Transnistria by William Zadeskey. The map above came from it.
Tiraspol
The reason we went to Transnistria was to see if it was indeed a time capsule for the old USSR. By some appearances it seems to be, especially in central Tiraspol, the capital. In front of the Parliament building (aka Supreme Council or the Presidential Palace) is a 17 m / 56 ft statue (including the granite pedestal) of Lenin
The Memorial of Glory complex on Suvorov Square in Tiraspol includes a Soviet T-34 tank (which I climbed on), a Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, an eternal flame and war memorials to WWII and the Soviet Afghan War (shown below).
However, the retro USSR façade is misleading. We saw normal life with apparent freedoms existing in democratic Europe; not a society which had to line up for hours to buy consumer goods and were mostly prohibited from leaving the country. We learned that Transnistria is a multi-party republic and has a market economy, though dominated by the Sheriff conglomerate. This company was founded by former KGB agents and this name was displayed wherever we were. The republic has its own currency, not convertible, with the world’s only plastic coins.
There were so many parks, we didn’t know where they started and ended. I loved this bus stop in the shape of a coach on a street between two parks.
A fun experience was going to the sprawling, covered Green Market, where we communicated to some extent with vendors, including this man holding figs.
While driving outside of Tiraspol, we saw this pink car on the side of the road which Khadija wanted a picture with.
This is part of her collection of pink cars which she started in 2022 in Baku, Azerbaijan (read here about our experiences).
In Tiraspol, we had dinner at the Georgian Restaurant which had very good food and great wall murals. We stayed overnight in the Park Hotel which was a short walk to most attractions. There we spoke with Julia, who worked there, and she gave her viewpoint that Transnistria should be separate because of cultural differences. We were able to get a photo with her just before we left while she was off duty.
On the border with Moldova, we visited the huge Bender Fortress (aka Tighina Fortress).
Who built it and when is murky but it could’ve been the Genoese in the 12th century. In the 16th century it was captured by the Ottomans who continually enlarged and fortified it. They held the fortress against repeated attacks until it fell to the Russians in 1789.
It had everything you would expect in a fortress including artillery, observation towers and a torture chamber. For almost our whole time there, we were the only ones.
On the top walls, we had fabulous views of the landscape including Saint Alexander Nevsky Russian Orthodox Cathedral.
Gagauzia
The Gagauz are a Turkic, Orthodox Christian people who lived in the Balkans and were out of step with the Muslim Ottoman rule. They migrated to Bessarabia (Moldova’s previous name) in the 18th and 19th century, then part of Russia. In 1990, their region, Gagauzia, declared independence from Moldova during the dissolution of the Soviet Union, but reintegrated in exchange for an autonomous status. About half of the Gagauzian population (somewhere between 75,000 and 125,000) speak Gagauz as a first language and the other half Russian.
Comrat
The main city of Gagauzia has a statue of Lenin (much smaller that in Tiraspol), a busy Lenin Street, various memorials and a central park.
The city’s main attraction is the comparatively modest but attractive Saint John the Baptist Cathedral, where we saw women placing food on a table to feed the needy.
We found a good place to learn about the culture in the small but stuffed Comrat Regional History Museum which documents each stage of the history of the Gagauz people.
At the cathedral, we met Lidia who showed us around the museum and translated for us. For lunch, we went to her mother’s home, in Congazcic village, complete with a large garden and wine cellar.
We stayed one night in the centrally located, family run Altin Palace on Lenin Street. It was comfortable with a good breakfast. It had entrances in the front through the restaurant and in the back to an alley and spaces for parking.
Agauz Sofrasi Complex
Gagauz Sofrasi consists of several buildings including a hotel, handicraft stores, restaurants and catering halls, all promoting traditional Gagazian culture.
While there we watched a wedding in action and were subsequently invited to share a drink to toast the newlyweds.
Capriana Monastery
The Capriana Monastery is located in a forested area with rolling hills and we easily drove there on a day trip from Chisinau. The monastery dates back until the 15th century and has many buildings, churches, icons, frescos and a community of resident monks.
In the first decade of the 20th century, the multi-domed Saint George Church was built in the shape of a Greek cross.
The Assumption of the Virgin Mary Church was extensively renovated between 2003 and 2007 but retains the foundation from the 16th century. It houses the tomb of Saint Gavril Banulescu-Bodoni who died in 1821. I liked the painted dome of Christ displaying the hand gesture used in Eastern Christianity. The three extended fingers symbolize the Holy Trinity, while the two bent-down fingers signify Christ’s divine and human natures.
Milestii Mici Winery
According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the Milestii Mici wine-making plant in Moldova contains over 1.5 million bottles of wine stored in 55 km / 34 miles of tunnels. We took a tour in a trolley and noted artwork on the walls in between the wine storage areas.
The first bottle was stored in 1968, and new vintages are added each year. Their biggest export market is China.
Arta Rustica
Arta Rustica is a crafts complex with the objective of preserving folk heritage, particularly Bessarabian carpets and folk costumes.
It’s located in the village of Clisova Nouă in central Moldova. The complex has received funds from the United States Agency for International Development and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency.
Tipova Monastery
To protect themselves from invaders in the 10th to 12th centuries, monks carved 18 interconnected caves into limestone cliffs on the west side of the Dniester River by the village of Tipova.
Pilgrims leave small religious items and coins as part of their prayer and worship.
It was destroyed during Soviet times but monastery buildings, including a small chapel with impressive icons and paintings, on top of the cliffs and the caves were restored.
Tours are available from Chisinau, but we made the 95 km / 60 mi drive and didn’t feel we needed a guide.
Final Thoughts
When we were in the National Museum of Art of Moldova, I gravitated to the room with surrealistic art with such works as the 1985 oil painting “Bright Stars Gliding to the Shore” by Maria Mardare-Fusu.
I’ve always been fascinated by works of fantasy and distorted worlds, perhaps starting from my reading “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll. However, when we first ventured into the central part of Chisinau, I experienced it in real life.
This is just one small instance of the good times we had in Moldova, meeting local folks and learning about a complex history. While there, I wondered why there were so few tourists but as others like me relate the Moldova story, more will come and explore this little known country. I encourage everyone to have the same fulfilling and happy experience as we did in this captivating country!
