We discuss a lot about the Republic of Moldova, bun few are who want to visit and know for real. The number of people who come to the country for holidays is, unfortunately, is little. Last year, from those 143000 strange citizens came from travel agencies, only 8000 have hade as a purpose „holidays, recreation and rest”, according to official statistics.
Republic of Moldova, as a tourist destination, it cannot be to anyone's taste. It would not fit into the classic patterns of the lovers of the expensive travels, luxurious restaurants, and extravagant places, because every step you take here takes you closer to the traces of the recent history of the small state between Prut and Dniester. Visiting Moldova, all you need is a little curiosity, doubled by the wish to overcoming information about political imbalances or visiting of this territory caught in two worlds (eastern and western space) can be, rather, o a rediscovery of nature and its beauty unaltered, of traditional cuisine and wines who have reached the tables of the British Crown - or, at least, so say the locals. The tourist potential of this country of only three million inhabitants was recognized by the International Organisation of Tourism which included in the top 10 beautiful countries in the world which attract a small number of tourists. According to the National Bureau of Statistics of the Republic of Moldova, in the first half of 2015, the number of foreign visitors who arrived in the country was 1.07 million people (Ukrainians – over 444,000, Romanians – over 393,000 and Russians – over 116,000), up 13.6% from the same period last year (the year 2014).
For Romania, the Republic of Moldova is a special place in the collective mind. However, it seems the Republic of Moldova is very little known by Romanians – the sociological inquests carried out a few years ago in Romania also show (see „The Republic of Moldova in the Romanian public consciousness”, Soros Foundation Romania, Bucuresti, 2011). So, according to the inquiry, the majority of Romanians do not follow in the most part the agenda of the Republic of Moldova, do not understand the relation between the political forces implicated here and ever the power of Romania in this process or the position of Bucharest and Chișinău in the international context. On the other side, if more than half of Romanian people identify the inhabitants of the Republic of Moldova like a majority Romanian (an inquest achieved in 2011), the Moldovans have another opinion. According to the census from 2014, more than inhabitants of Moldova have declared themselves Moldovans, and fewer of the quarter, Romanians. Beyond these perceptions, a visit in the Republic of Moldova is likely to make you discover with your eyes the beauty of this state located on the borders of Romania. Wine tourism, rural tourism and cultural-religious tourism are the main axes with which the Republic of Moldova tries to attract tourists, and Romanians, especially, by their geographical and language proximity, can choose this „new” holiday or city-break destination.
The wine road. At the beginning of the October, when we passed the river Prut to Est, the sun still shinning generous to the Republic of Moldova, but the guide Ion Perojoc, which has experience of some decades in this trade, among general dates and historical information which offers, seems proud of the progress made till now of this little country situated at the border of European Union. He also draws attention, till from the first moments of our meeting, that the absence of the wealth of subsoil compensates with the variety of the subsoil and the relief, a thing worth since the border crossing. Moldova, increasingly known, for example, for the local terroir, already has a long history in the cultivation of vines and the production of wine. The vineyard of wine look endlessly and accompany the traveller a big part of the road to Chișinău. October is, otherwise, the month which celebrates the Festival „Day of the Wine”, an event that has a tradition in the Republic of Moldova. This year [2015], every producer open its gates and welcomed the curious directly to the winery and not in the city centre, as it was until then.
At least ten Moldovan wineries should stay on the list of the curious, but the „Wine Day”, this looks narrow. The deviousness galleries, which allow the wine to stay to a temperature constant all year, are similar to those from the South of France, region recognized for the quality of the wines made there. With 148000 hectare of wine (of which 107,000 used for commercial production) and four wine regions, Republic Moldova exports over 90% of its wine production. In fact, in 2013, wine represented about six per cent of the total exports of the republic, but the wine export was affected by the embargo imposed, at the end of the same year, by the Russian Federation, one of the important markets. There are 40 producers now, but the specialists estimated that before the embargo their number was at least double. But the wine production in the Republic of Moldova has resisted, and the wineries are among the most interesting places to visit for connoisseurs and wine lovers, but also for the curious.
The largest underground gallery in the Republic of Moldova (and among the largest in the world) is located in Mileștii Mici, a small village less than 20 kilometres from Chisinau. With a total length of 200 kilometres, of which only 50 are exploited, the Mileștii Mici appeared as a result of excavations for the extraction of limestone deposits from the 1970s. The galleries are located at a depth between 40 and 85 meters, and the entrance can make the minibus, but the most pleasant is to stroll the streets bearing the names of wines. Mileștii Mici is well known for its Gold Collection, which entered the Book of Records, as the largest wine collection in Europe, with over 1.5 million collection bottles. Currently, there are about two million bottles stored there, and the wines were produced between 1968-1991. The most expensive wine bottle is „Buchetul Moldovei” (The Bouquet of Moldova), a dessert wine from 1973, which costs 29,700 Moldovan lei (about 1.48 euro), and the most expensive collection belongs to the former Soviet leader Mihail Gorbachev.
The Republic of Moldova is also recognized for the sparkling wines produced here, and the leader in this segment is Cricova. The Cricova wine collection was founded in 1952, it is about 12 kilometres from Chisinau, and its galleries, which extend over 120 kilometres, are thus one of the main tourist attractions. With a storage capacity of 40 million litres, a sparkling wine factory using the traditional method, the winery was visited by political leaders such as Vladimir Putin, Angela Merkel, John Kerry, who have the most expensive and numerous collections. Cricova has over 150 medals obtained at wine competitions around the world. There are about 1.3 million bottles in the cellar, and this is in the form of a champagne cup. The oldest bottle in the collection dates from 1902, being the last bottle in a lot of one hundred. For this bottle, an Israeli wanted to offer one hundred thousand dollars and four Cadillac cars, but Cricova refused. There are also some tasting rooms, all 60 meters deep, but each with a different design and a different reception capacity (the largest can accommodate 60 people).
On this wine road, big names like Purcari or Château Vartely should not be overlooked. Less well known is the Comrat Vinuri de Comrat, located in the autonomous region of Gagauzia (established in 1994, Gagauzia is located in the south of Moldova, has a territory of 1,830 square kilometres, inhabited by a population that speaks a language of Turkish origin and it is culturally close to the Turks, but they are orthodox (Gaza has a People's Assembly and an Executive Committee and is governed by a governor). Visitors appear there as curiosities because there are rarely those who walk through this region. The language used by the Gagauzians is Russian, which is why contact with them is more difficult in the absence of a person who can play the role of translator. In Comrat, wines have been made since 1951, but the construction dates from the late 19th century when there was vodka. Production capacity is low - about 132 tonnes, in the best years. In a complicated geopolitical game, the Russian Federation has decided to cancel the embargo on wine and fruit only for products coming from Gagauzia, thus further orienting the region towards Russia.
A return in time.
For Romania, the Republic of Moldova is a special place in the collective mind. However, it seems the Republic of Moldova is very little known by Romanians – the sociological inquests carried out a few years ago in Romania also show (see „The Republic of Moldova in the Romanian public consciousness”, Soros Foundation Romania, Bucuresti, 2011). So, according to the inquiry, the majority of Romanians do not follow in the most part the agenda of the Republic of Moldova, do not understand the relation between the political forces implicated here and ever the power of Romania in this process or the position of Bucharest and Chișinău in the international context. On the other side, if more than half of Romanian people identify the inhabitants of the Republic of Moldova like a majority Romanian (an inquest achieved in 2011), the Moldovans have another opinion. According to the census from 2014, more than inhabitants of Moldova have declared themselves Moldovans, and fewer of the quarter, Romanians. Beyond these perceptions, a visit in the Republic of Moldova is likely to make you discover with your eyes the beauty of this state located on the borders of Romania. Wine tourism, rural tourism and cultural-religious tourism are the main axes with which the Republic of Moldova tries to attract tourists, and Romanians, especially, by their geographical and language proximity, can choose this „new” holiday or city-break destination.
The wine road. At the beginning of the October, when we passed the river Prut to Est, the sun still shinning generous to the Republic of Moldova, but the guide Ion Perojoc, which has experience of some decades in this trade, among general dates and historical information which offers, seems proud of the progress made till now of this little country situated at the border of European Union. He also draws attention, till from the first moments of our meeting, that the absence of the wealth of subsoil compensates with the variety of the subsoil and the relief, a thing worth since the border crossing. Moldova, increasingly known, for example, for the local terroir, already has a long history in the cultivation of vines and the production of wine. The vineyard of wine look endlessly and accompany the traveller a big part of the road to Chișinău. October is, otherwise, the month which celebrates the Festival „Day of the Wine”, an event that has a tradition in the Republic of Moldova. This year [2015], every producer open its gates and welcomed the curious directly to the winery and not in the city centre, as it was until then.
At least ten Moldovan wineries should stay on the list of the curious, but the „Wine Day”, this looks narrow. The deviousness galleries, which allow the wine to stay to a temperature constant all year, are similar to those from the South of France, region recognized for the quality of the wines made there. With 148000 hectare of wine (of which 107,000 used for commercial production) and four wine regions, Republic Moldova exports over 90% of its wine production. In fact, in 2013, wine represented about six per cent of the total exports of the republic, but the wine export was affected by the embargo imposed, at the end of the same year, by the Russian Federation, one of the important markets. There are 40 producers now, but the specialists estimated that before the embargo their number was at least double. But the wine production in the Republic of Moldova has resisted, and the wineries are among the most interesting places to visit for connoisseurs and wine lovers, but also for the curious.
The largest underground gallery in the Republic of Moldova (and among the largest in the world) is located in Mileștii Mici, a small village less than 20 kilometres from Chisinau. With a total length of 200 kilometres, of which only 50 are exploited, the Mileștii Mici appeared as a result of excavations for the extraction of limestone deposits from the 1970s. The galleries are located at a depth between 40 and 85 meters, and the entrance can make the minibus, but the most pleasant is to stroll the streets bearing the names of wines. Mileștii Mici is well known for its Gold Collection, which entered the Book of Records, as the largest wine collection in Europe, with over 1.5 million collection bottles. Currently, there are about two million bottles stored there, and the wines were produced between 1968-1991. The most expensive wine bottle is „Buchetul Moldovei” (The Bouquet of Moldova), a dessert wine from 1973, which costs 29,700 Moldovan lei (about 1.48 euro), and the most expensive collection belongs to the former Soviet leader Mihail Gorbachev.
The Republic of Moldova is also recognized for the sparkling wines produced here, and the leader in this segment is Cricova. The Cricova wine collection was founded in 1952, it is about 12 kilometres from Chisinau, and its galleries, which extend over 120 kilometres, are thus one of the main tourist attractions. With a storage capacity of 40 million litres, a sparkling wine factory using the traditional method, the winery was visited by political leaders such as Vladimir Putin, Angela Merkel, John Kerry, who have the most expensive and numerous collections. Cricova has over 150 medals obtained at wine competitions around the world. There are about 1.3 million bottles in the cellar, and this is in the form of a champagne cup. The oldest bottle in the collection dates from 1902, being the last bottle in a lot of one hundred. For this bottle, an Israeli wanted to offer one hundred thousand dollars and four Cadillac cars, but Cricova refused. There are also some tasting rooms, all 60 meters deep, but each with a different design and a different reception capacity (the largest can accommodate 60 people).
On this wine road, big names like Purcari or Château Vartely should not be overlooked. Less well known is the Comrat Vinuri de Comrat, located in the autonomous region of Gagauzia (established in 1994, Gagauzia is located in the south of Moldova, has a territory of 1,830 square kilometres, inhabited by a population that speaks a language of Turkish origin and it is culturally close to the Turks, but they are orthodox (Gaza has a People's Assembly and an Executive Committee and is governed by a governor). Visitors appear there as curiosities because there are rarely those who walk through this region. The language used by the Gagauzians is Russian, which is why contact with them is more difficult in the absence of a person who can play the role of translator. In Comrat, wines have been made since 1951, but the construction dates from the late 19th century when there was vodka. Production capacity is low - about 132 tonnes, in the best years. In a complicated geopolitical game, the Russian Federation has decided to cancel the embargo on wine and fruit only for products coming from Gagauzia, thus further orienting the region towards Russia.
A return in time.
However, the Republic of Moldova does not mean only vines. It also means churches and monasteries that have stood the test of time, such as the Curchi Monastery, which is two and a half centuries old. Located in the Woods of the district Orhei and considered today „the most beautiful and famous monastery in Bessarabia”, during the Soviet domination, it went through numerous attempts, because its monks were banished, the icons were destroyed, and about four thousand religious volumes were burned. The monastery was transformed into a psychiatric hospital during the Soviet period. Like most places of churches, the Curchi monastery was degraded during this time, reaching a near ruin. In the early 2000s, however, repair work was started, and today the monastery has regained its former fame and appearance.
On roads that nobody seems to know about, there are other places where time seems to be in place. On a promontory that watches almost along the Răut river, near the village Butuceni, on the place where formerly Orheiul Vechi was located, well hidden in the rock is the cave monastery bearing the name of the village. In time, the stairs built from the Răut river surged, and to gain access to the small church, at the beginning of the 19th century, an access corridor from the village was dug. With many small cells, from the last room, where the church is dug, a door opens to a stone balcony, where the view leaves you breathless because you see the Snake snaking, but also the road that crosses its place among the vines. vineyards and the rows of luxurious cars that are coming for the wine festival in this small ecological village. Foreigners - quite in number compared to the small size of Butuceni – are fascinated by the simplicity, order and authenticity that reign here. The tradition is part of everyday life, but you are easily surprised that, in the houses saved from ruin and transformed into accommodation places by a former lawyer who bet on the traditional Moldovan village, unaltered by the haste and superficiality that dominates in the big cities, you can connect easily with wireless Internet. In Chisinau, this seemed much more difficult. The food in Butuceni has the taste of „home”, long forgotten, because the fruits and vegetables are not treated with pesticides (which, paradoxically, are too expensive to be bought by the villagers) and then retain all the qualities that we run today and we pay more.
To the Dniester.
A visit to Moldova would not be complete without a visit to one of the most famous cities (for the Romanians on the left of the Prut): Soroca. Located on the bank of the Dniester, the fortress rises as if it had not passed more than five hundred years ago. Built-in the time of Stephen the Great, Soroca is the only 15th-century fortress that has remained almost unchanged to this day. The fortress is built on four levels – first, there were the warehouses, then there were the cannons (and in each of the five towers there was a cannon), and on the last floors there was the garrison. From the outside, but also the inside, the fortress seems incomparable. The only vulnerable point: the massive 22-meter door with a suspended bridge. Circularly built, with a width of three meters, it resembles a Norman castle or those built-in northern Italy. Many consider Soroca's fortress to resemble Queenborough, Walmer, and Deal castles in Kent (UK). Starting with 2013, the fortress was included in the cross-border project „Medieval Jewelry”: the Hotin, Soroca and Suceava Fortresses, realized in partnership with Romania, Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova and financed with the help of European funds. From the towers, one can easily admire the quiet course of the Dniester, which, like Soroca, does not seem to be touched by the modern times and remain unpolluted, in this area with an unpredictable history, as two old friends.
Sursa: Republica Moldova, bijuteria estului [online] [citat 03.04.20]. Disponibil: forbes.ro
