Pillar 01. Culture and Heritage
The country itself
Moldova is 33,843 square kilometres between the Prut and the Dniester, with a capital at Chișinău and a population of 2.4 million. Romanian is the official language. Bulgarian, Gagauz, Russian and Ukrainian are also spoken, and it is common for Moldovans to hold three or four languages. What follows is drawn from the Republic's own country platform.
The Principality of Moldavia was established in the fourteenth century. Under Stephen the Great, who ruled from 1457 to 1504, it held its own against the Ottoman Empire for nearly half a century, and his monument still stands at the entrance to the central park in Chișinău.
Eastern Moldavia was ceded to the Russian Empire in 1812 and became Bessarabia. It joined Romania in 1918, was annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940, and declared independence on 27 August 1991. Conflict in the Transnistrian region followed in 1992 and remains unresolved.
The country celebrates two Christmases, on 25 December and on 7 and 8 January, keeping Western and Eastern Orthodox traditions side by side.
Five living traditions from Moldova are inscribed on UNESCO's lists of intangible cultural heritage. They are not museum pieces. They are practised.
- AltițaThe traditional blouse embroidered at the shoulder. The motif marks region, family and occasion. Shared heritage with Romania.
- CobzaA pear-shaped string instrument at the centre of Moldovan folk music, played alone or in ensemble at celebrations, and passed between generations.
- MărțișorThe red and white thread worn from the first of March, given as a token of the turning year.
- ColindatThe men's group carol, sung house to house at Christmas, a winter ritual of kinship carried across generations.
- The wall carpetHand-woven with symbolic motifs and hung in the casa mare, the front room kept for guests and occasions. A textile that carries a story.
Moldovan cooking comes from fertile ground and long winters: things preserved, things baked slowly, things made in quantity because people are coming. Most of it is recognisable to a South African table: cornmeal, stewed meat, pickles, pastry.
- MămăligăCornmeal, served with sheep's cheese, sour cream, stew or grilled meat. The closest thing Moldova has to pap.
- SarmaleCabbage rolls filled with minced meat, rice and caramelised onion.
- ZeamăA slightly sour chicken noodle soup, made with homemade noodles.
- PlăcintăPastry filled with cheese, potato, apple or sour cherry.
- Cușma lui GuguțăA crepe cake built around sour cherries, shaped like a shepherd's hat.
Winemaking here is measured in millennia rather than centuries, and the country holds the highest density of vineyard per head of population in the world. Around 85% of what is produced is exported, to more than seventy-five destinations.
Two cellars are cut into limestone beneath the country. Cricova runs to more than seventy kilometres of galleries with streets named after grape varieties, and holds a national collection that includes a bottle of Jerusalem Easter wine from 1902. Mileștii Mici holds a Guinness World Record for the largest wine collection in the world.
National Wine Day is held in Chișinău every October, gathering more than a hundred wineries in the city centre.
