Balti (Jewish community). City of Balti Population of Balti

Balti (original name Bălţi) is an amazing city and municipality in Moldova. The presented city is located on the famous Reut River, 127 km from Chisinau. Balti is the second largest city in Moldova. It was founded in 1421.

It should be noted that Balti ranks third in the country in terms of population after such cities as Tiraspol and Chisinau. Also, the city of Balti in Moldova is the cultural and economic center of the country. The locals call this city the "northern capital". There are several artificial lakes on the territory of the city, for example, such as Kirpichnoye, Gorodskoye and Komsomolskoye.

Through the city of Balti (Moldova), such rivers as Flemynde and Kopachanka flow. The area of ​​the presented city of Balti is 55 square kilometers, and together with the suburbs - about 78 square kilometers. The climate in the city is favorable, temperate continental. The name of the city in translation means "swamps" or "puddles". Many believe that this city got its name due to the swampy area.

Balti is one of the main centers for the development of national as well as local society in the country. The population of the city is about 148.2 thousand people. It should be noted that this city is quite a large industrial center. More than 40 enterprises of agricultural and electrical engineering, light and food industries are located on its territory.

The main attractions of the city of Balti are the National Theater. Vasile Alexandri, Art Gallery. Antioch Cantemira, Municipal Palace of Culture, Regional Museum of History and Ethnography, Flaquera Palace of Culture, St. Nicholas Cathedral, which was built in 1975, Church of the Nativity of the Virgin, Cathedral of St. Constantine and Helena Equal-to-the-Apostles, Taras Shevchenko Monument, Stephen the Great Monument , the building of the Balti diocesan administration, the monument to M. Eminescu, etc. Find out in detail where these attractions are located, you will see on the map of the city of Balti. It is also worth noting that on the territory of the city of Balti there are two modern airports, one of which is international. Because of this, this city is visited by a huge number of tourists.

It proudly bears the unofficial name of the northern capital of Moldova. This is a major transport hub, the center of the processing and food industry of the republic. After Chisinau, it is the most populous and richest city in Moldova.

If you look at the map of Balti, you will see that the city is located in a beautiful, hilly area rich in wetlands. From the top of the hill occupied by Balti, a peaceful landscape opens up with a view of the lakes, well-groomed fields and pastures. But the culture of the city is not inferior in saturation of interesting places to nature: modern theaters and art galleries compete with ancient churches. And the Orthodox Cathedral of St. Constantine and Helena and the Bishop's Palace with an adjacent park stand out in particular.

The absence of an influx of tourists allows you to calmly and measuredly enjoy your stay in a wonderful, quiet, spiritual place.

Balti in Moldova is called the "Northern capital" - after the separation of Pridnestrovie, the city with a population of 149 thousand people became the second in the country with a very large margin from the third (in fact, the following Cahul, Ungheni and Soroca are inferior to Balti about three times each). The history of Balti is very typical for Moldova: as a village it has been known since 1421, since 1620 it was the property of the monastery of St. The latter in 1779 invited Jews here, turning the village into a trading place, elevated under Russia to a county town ... moreover, the county was called Yassky until 1887. In 1894, the railway came here, and most importantly, unlike Chisinau, the city developed under the Romanians, having grown three times in the interwar period (up to 35 thousand people) ... and therefore, with a completely ordinary history, the architecture of Balti for the former The USSR is not trivial - perhaps, this is the second reserve of the Romanian interwar period after Chernivtsi, and in terms of churches - I would even say that it is the first. Moldovan history and Romanian architecture are also combined here with Slavic modernity: slightly more than half of the Moldovans in the northern capital of the country (54%), and another 42% are Ukrainians and Russians. And in general, in some places Balti imperceptibly reminded me of the regional centers of Kazakhstan ... at least the historical environment here is organized in the same way: several dozen interesting buildings scattered in the general grayness. However, I still had enough material about Balti for 2 large posts - in the first we will examine most of the center, and in the second - the university and two railway suburbs.

Although Balti is a railway city through and through, it takes about 6 hours to travel by train from here to Chisinau, and there are no direct diesel engines at all - only through the border Ungheni. But there are a lot of buses between the two capitals: official minibuses every 15-30 minutes from the Northern Bus Station (including express trains that travel non-stop, covering 130 km in 2 hours - the speed is almost cosmic on broken Moldovan roads), and - one more hello Kazakhstan! - private traders for filling minivans and cars. In Balti, the bus station is located on the eastern outskirts, at the exit to Floresti, and is densely overgrown with a bazaar. Actually, there is no bus station here now - several small cash pavilions on the covered platform, and furniture is now sold in the bus station itself:

Please note that the inscription outside the window in Russian - Balti in this sense contrasts very sharply even with Chisinau, not to mention small towns. You hear Russian speech here on the streets much more often than Moldovan.

The city from end to end, from the northeast (bus station) to the southwest, crosses its Stefan cel Mare (Stefan the Great) Avenue - its length here is about 10 kilometers, that is, more than 2 times more than that of the Chisinau namesake. Most likely, this is the longest street in Moldova. On it, you need to go from the bus station to the center:

On the way, I accidentally turned onto May 1 Street, which (changing its name to Kievskaya) leads to the railway station Slobodzeya, by questioning I found out that the latter was already very far away, and I was already going to the center by courtyards. Pointers in Balti are a special topic in general - for example, throughout the city they have an arrow to the Balti hotel, and if these arrows are to be believed, the Balti hotel is everywhere here.

Balti courtyard:

Features of the decor of local stalinok:

Finally, I returned to Stephen the Great Avenue, which, entering the center, looks like this:

The bell tower in front belongs to the Nikolsky Cathedral, and is, if not authentic (demolished in 1965, recreated in the 1990s), but almost a unique example of post-war architecture in this genre - the original bell tower was destroyed during the war, and in the first years after liberation Balti here somehow managed to build a new one. However, this, of course, is not Stalinism, but the neobrynkovian style characteristic of pre-war Romania.

As for the temple itself, in terms of architecture it is a typical Polish church of the 18th century, which, to tell the truth, I did not expect here at all. In fact, it was built as an Armenian-Catholic cathedral in 1791-95 - then Iordache Panaite decided to invite Armenians to Balti (apparently in order to create healthy competition for his Jews), but in the end something didn’t work out, the Armenians did not come, and in 1804 the temple was consecrated as Orthodox. However, its impressive size predetermined the Balti architecture - until the 1920s it accommodated all the city's parishioners, so there is not a single church of the Russian era in Balti (except for Slobozia).

The door was open and the inside was completely empty. I uncovered my camera, leaving some lei in the donation box. Here the third surprise has befallen me - murals:

Yes, in artistic terms, they are blatantly weak, at the level of illustrations for children's books:

But this is not the main thing - the inscription at the entrance says that the cathedral was painted in 1942-43! In addition, it did not close, so the murals were updated in the 1970s.

And although I have traveled to almost five hundred cities, for the first time I see the architectural heritage, created during the war. Although, I'm lying - there is still the Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya line of the Moscow metro. In general, the rarest case. Balti Cathedral is perhaps the most interesting non-underground church in Moldova:

Adjacent to the cathedral is Independence Square, which they clearly wanted to build in the Stalinist style, but Khrushchev prevented it. However, the Stalinist Mayor's Office (1958) is also atypical for Moldova. And here is a new monument to Stephen the Great in front of her (2004):

The five-story building on the right looks at St. Nicholas Cathedral with one end, and with the other - at the church of Michael the Archangel, which is not typical for Moldova - modern, but very beautiful and obviously the largest in the country. The inscriptions in the niches on the facade are in Polish, and in general one might think that there are at least a few percent of the population of Poles in Balti, but in fact there are no more of them than in any other 100,000-strong city of the former USSR. As for the church, I was very sorry that I was too lazy to go around it.

Here is the descent to the City Park:

And from the Independence Square, the long narrow Vasile Alexandri Square branches off, more in places similar to a pedestrian street:

It has a lot of things - an indoor market, an unfinished office (?) building, shopping malls, government agencies, a cinema ... but first of all, the Vasily Alexandri National Theater, built in 1990-91:

Including the composition on the facade... Why can't I get rid of the feeling that they have weapons in their hands?

There is also a fountain and a passport office with the Soviet Trinity:

And the registry office, which occupies a rare tsarist house in Balti - most likely it was some other gymnasium:

Next door is an abandoned cafe. Possibly Romanian era.

In addition, if you walk a little beyond the square, you can see the already mentioned hotel "Balti" - it seems that this is a late Soviet stylization of Romanian functionalism (!), well, or just the "handwriting" of Moldovan architects is this:

If you go further along the hotel, then in the square you will suddenly find the Armenian Church of St. George (1910-14), already quite Armenian Orthodox. The peculiarity of the Balti churches is that they are all very small and hidden by the surrounding houses and trees, so it can be very difficult to look for them:

So that let's go back to the square, and again we will go to the Prospect: At the crossroads - stands with the names and brief biographies of the heroes of the Great Patriotic War, like somewhere in Belarus, the place itself is very busy - a couple of dozen shops and tents and the main stop of trolleybuses and minibuses:

Opposite is the Romanian post office building. It also has an interesting second facade, but it is completely unsuitable for photography because of the stalls that have stuck to it. Yes, and it’s not easy to shoot such a frame - usually there is another trolleybus standing here, picking up passengers:

Along the avenue, I went southwest, moving away from the cathedral and the bus station. I was puzzled by this building - most likely, a good stylization of the Romanian interwar period (for which such wide glazing was not typical):

And this house of the 1930s, on the contrary, is quite authentic. Looking back:

The Peter and Paul Church (1915-29) is another example of the Romanian interwar period. On three sides the temple is surrounded by a prison:

The house on the corner of Decebala Street, along which we will return here in the next part, seems to be Romanian, and in the list of architectural monuments it appears under 1956. It is clear that the same architects built here before and after the war, but such tolerance for national architecture is very unexpected for the post-war USSR (there is, of course, an "ethnic" version of Stalinism, but it is clearly not it, but something petty-bourgeois):

A couple more Romanian houses. The near one is notable for its stucco architraves, the far one (1934) - for this arrogant angel and the fact that it is occupied by the directorate of the Dniester Institute of Economics and Law (1995), almost the first private university in Moldova:

But in general, there is enough of everything here - and German prisoners of war, lined with a cauldron:

And the royal barracks:

And high-rise buildings with decorative elements ... By the way, pay attention - even though the country is the poorest in Europe, there are a lot of double-glazed windows in the center of Balti:

I didn’t go further than 31 August Street, which connects the university with the Western Station, which I will talk about in the next part. The last frame from the prospectus is a monument to the victims of Chernobyl in apocalyptic colors:

To the right of the boulevard is mainly the railway industrial zone behind the facades of the first houses, and the center is to the left. And the center here, as already mentioned, I associate with cities of Kazakhstan such as or - basically extremely nondescript, consisting of high-rise buildings and the private sector, with separate patches of old buildings, rarely more than a few houses in a row.

At best it looks like this:

Romanian houses, in the Russian view, are quite original, but somehow they don’t add up in ensembles:

"Polish House" - it remains a mystery to me why there is such a tangible Polish influence in Balti:

But about the Jewish past (after all, the Jews here accounted for up to 70% of the population) does not resemble anything at all - except for the former Jewish Lyceum on Lapushnianu Street (now the local history museum), which I never found. There is also a functioning synagogue here - but in a late Soviet house bought by Jews in 1980. But for example, these ruins on Mira Street seemed to me like a former synagogue:

Although this building is even more similar, in some places it is mentioned the mansion of a certain Khadzhi Makaraov of the 19th century, and in others - as a former city hall of the interwar era.

In general, I wandered around the Balti streets for a long time and did not find much. In most of the center, the landscape is frankly dull, and the streets are not at all picturesquely neglected, and if you do not prepare for a tour of Balti in advance, the probability of finding something is low.

Here, for example, on Shchusev Street - I knew for sure that there is another one, the farthest from the center, the Church of Michael the Archangel (1929-33) of the Romanian era. I passed by the specified address a couple of times - the church is very small, hidden in the courtyard and almost invisible from the outside:

Meanwhile, one of the most interesting Balti churches: after all, the "national" branch of the interwar Romanian architecture mainly played with the motives of medieval Wallachia. Here, the stylization is clearly under Moldavia of the 15th-16th centuries:

In addition, the church is now also an Old Believer church. The Old Believers in Moldova love just such temples - small, away from busy places and with a cunningly hidden entrance: I found the gate only on the third attempt.

In the same area there is also the Emmanuel Baptist Church - the Baptists in Balti are the second largest denomination (about 3,000 people), three times ahead of the Catholics. However, Protestants in Moldova are generally very active:

Finally - a couple more sketches from the area between the Old Believer and Baptist churches:

Two more Romanian churches, as well as two railway stations and a university, are in the next part.

On the main square of the city of Balti is the National Theater. Vasile Alexandri. The theater building has two halls (large and small) and a circular stage.

The theater hosts performances for adults and children - classical and modern, national and international repertoire. Theatre. Vasile Alexandri is one of the main art theaters in the country, producing national drama.

National Theater Vasile Alexandri

The founding date of this national theater is May 16, 1957. Initially, it was a Moldovan troupe that complemented the Russian theater that had been operating in the city of Balti since 1947.

In May 1990, the theater received a new name and became the Vasile Alexandria National Theatre. The building was opened on May 16 of the same year, it houses two halls, divided into small and large, as well as a circular stage. The project was developed by the architect Yanina Galperina.

For all the time, the theater showed about 190 performances, which covered both adult and children's audiences. The theater has a national and international repertoire, covering both classical and contemporary productions. This theater is one of the leaders involved in the production of national drama. The entire repertoire of the theater is based on texts written by authors from Moldova and Romania. All artists of the troupe are graduates of the University of Arts of Moldova

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Airport Balti-City

Balti-City Airport is one of the two airports in the city of Balti, which, unlike the international Balti-Liadovena, was a regional airport. To date, the airport does not operate, and in its place is a special economic zone (a limited area with a special legal status).

Previously, the airport with its sites was used for domestic flights between the city and neighboring Moldovan cities. During World War II, it was the most important airport in the region. At that time, he received small planes, performing economic and public functions.

The airport is located directly in the city of Balti, so it is easy to get to it from the city center by trolleybus (journey time - 10 minutes).

The most popular attractions in Balti with descriptions and photos for every taste. Choose the best places to visit the famous places of Balti on our website.

Here is a map of Balti with streets → Moldova. We study a detailed map of Balti with house numbers and streets. Real-time search, today's weather, coordinates

More about the streets of Balti on the map

A detailed map of the city of Balti with street names will be able to show all the routes and roads where the street is located. Nikolaev and Kalinin. Located close to.

For a detailed view of the territory of the entire region, it is enough to change the scale of the online scheme +/-. On the page is an interactive map of the city of Balti with addresses and routes of the microdistrict. Move its center to find Kurchenko and Sorokskaya streets now.

The ability to plot a route across the country and calculate the distance - the "Ruler" tool, find out the length of the city and the path to its center, addresses of attractions, transport stops and hospitals (type of "Hybrid" scheme), see stations and borders.

You will find all the necessary detailed information about the location of the city's infrastructure - stations and shops, squares and banks, highways and highways.

An accurate satellite map of Balti (Beltsi) with Google search is in its own rubric. Use Yandex search to show the house number on the national map of the city in Moldova / the world, in real time.