Iași

Iași is a city in northeastern Romania, in the historic region of Moldavia near the border with the Republic of Moldova. It was the capital of the Principality of Moldavia from 1564 until the union with Wallachia that created modern Romania.

Iași grew as a market town on the routes between Poland and the Black Sea, and Prince Alexandru Lăpușneanu moved the capital there from Suceava. Princes and boyars built churches and monasteries in stone, among them the Church of the Three Hierarchs, finished in the 17th century with its outer walls carved in a lacework of geometric patterns. In 1860 the first university of Romania opened in the city, and it carries the name of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza, who united the principalities. Writers gathered around the Junimea society in the 1860s, among them the poet Mihai Eminescu and the storyteller Ion Creangă.

Antibiotice Iași, based in the city, makes antibiotics and other medicines for Romania and export. Grasă de Cotnari, a sweet white wine, comes from the vineyards of Cotnari northwest of the city.

The Palace of Culture, a neo-Gothic building finished in the 1920s on the site of the old princely court, holds museums of history, art and science. The Metropolitan Cathedral keeps the relics of Saint Paraskeva, and each October pilgrims from across Romania wait in line to pass by them. Copou Park, the oldest public park of the city, keeps the linden tree under which Eminescu is said to have written. The National Theatre, designed by the Viennese architects Fellner and Helmer, opened in the late 1890s with a gilded hall.