Chisinau – my hometown

I think that every person on this planet should love his country. That’s why we call it homeland. But for me, and another big part of people, the real home is the town that gave us birth. My hometown is Chisinau that is situated in the center of the Republic of Moldova. I still live in it and I love it because it keeps fascinating me everyday with new people, places and picturesque views.
According to some historians, the name comes from the old Romanian word chisla ("spring" - source of water, the word is not used anymore, it was replaced by cismea, which has the same meaning) and noua ("new"), because it was built around a small spring.
The city is located on the river Bac, a tributary of the Nistru and is divided into six administrative districts. Chisinau has an area of 120 km2 and its whole municipality has 635 km2.
But first of all I want to introduce you in its amazing history. Founded in 1436 as a monastery town, the city was part of the Moldavian Principality, which, starting with the 16th century fell under the suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire. At the beginning of the 19th century it was a small village of 7,000 inhabitants. In 1812 it was occupied by Russia, who made it the centre of Bassarabia. Its population had grown very fast attending 125,787 inhabitants by 1900.
In the late 19th century, especially due to growing anti-semitic sentiment in Russia and Poland and better economic conditions, many Jews chose to settle in Chisinau, so in the year 1900 43% of the population of Chisinau was Jewish. Due to World War II this number has decreased greatly. In 1940 the city has been seized by the Russians.
From that day on the city has developed considerably. For the past few years it has become a member of some very important organisations: The Assotiation of French Speaking Cities, The Assembly of European Regions, The Conference of the South-East European Capitals and others that are not less important.
Chisinau is the most econo