At the beginning of Chișinău city

Abstract

In this article, we elucidate some aspects related to the constitution of the city of Chișinău, presenting data from archaeological, toponymic and anthroponymic studies. During the period of the Golden Horde, the Mongol-Tatars left certain traces in various localities of the Republic of Moldova, including Chișinău. They arrived in the Tighina plain as nomadic cattle breeders, sheltering in Turanian yurts and gradually becoming seminomadic. Their evacuation in the 60s of the 14th century, from the south-east of the Carpathian region, preceded the establishment of Chișinău as a rural town near a former Tatar castle. The period in which the Nogai Emir came to the west of the lower course of the Dnieper and expanded the area of Golden Horde domination up to the vicinity of the Eastern Carpathians, was a premise for the expansion of the system of communication networks, established by Ginghiz Khan, and in the central part of present-day Moldova; on the Iași–Tighina route there was also the post office on the site of the future city of Chișinău. In the middle of the 17th century, Chişinău was transformed from a rural to an urban locality, retaining various notions from the period of Mongol-Tatar domination, as well as the toponyms Chişinău (cismea, spring, fountain), Buiuk (the name of a large spring, from which comes from the name of the respective village), Bahína (garden), Poșta Veche, Săbăna (from saban, light plough, ploughman), etc.