Curiosities about Moldova

Moldova was voted by the “Lonely Planet” readers as the number one country “off the beaten path” in Europe. You never know what you will find here. Certainly not the highest mountain or the deepest sea, nor even the longest river, but here are many interesting facts no one ever expected to see:

1. The least explored destination in Europe, according to “Lonely Planet”
2. The history of Wine of Moldova starts in 3000 BC, while the first vines were recorded here 7000 years BC.  The authenticity and uniqueness of Moldovan wines is represented by the indigenous varieties, which account for 10% of the vineyards. Almost a quarter of the population is involved in the process of making wine and viticulture.
3. Cricova is the largest wine cellar in Europe, while Mileștii Mici is the largest wine cellar in the world by number of bottles, over 1.5 mln wine bottles.
4. Moldova is the 7th largest producer of walnuts in the world.
5. The black soils (chernozem) of Moldova are amongst the most fertile soils in the world.
6. Moldova is one of only three national flags that differ on their obverse and reverse sides – the others are Paraguay and Saudi Arabia
7. One of the smallest countries in Eastern Europe, despite this, it has 2 autonomous regions: Transnistria and Gagauzia.
8. Most people in Moldova are bilingual and are fluent in, at least, one foreign language.
9. Gagauzian language, spoken in the southern region of Moldova, is included into the UNESCO list of endangered languages, having only 180000 speakers.
10. The northern city Soroca is well known from being the Romani or Gipsy “capital” of Moldova. Here lives “The Gypsy King”, which is actually the Gypsy Baron of Moldova
11. Here you will find the largest village in Europe - Congaz.
12. In Moldova you’ll find the world’s largest building in the shape of a bottle (28m), called Strong Drinks Museum in Tirnauca village.
13. During the Soviet Union period, Moldova produced space food for astronauts. Namely in Moldova, were developed unique technologies and methods of production and storage of fruit & berry range of products.
14. The biggest animal ever lived on the territory of Moldova is called Denoterium, a breed of elephant. You can visit the ethnographic museum in Chisinau to see the skeleton of Denoterium, which is considered as the second biggest in Europe.
15. The Cave “Emil Racovita”, in Criva, is the third largest gypsum cave in the world and is on the eighth place in the ranking of all giant undergrounds on the Earth
16. The Struve Geodetic Arc located in village Rudi, north of Moldova, is a property inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
17. Cleopatra Stratan is a Moldovan singer, the youngest person ever to score commercial success as a singer. She holds the record for the highest paid young artist, the youngest artist to receive an MTV award and the youngest artist to score a No.1 hit in a country.
18. The Moldovan traditional women blouse “ia” serves as an inspiration to many internationally renowned fashion designers.
19. “Noroc” is one of the most versatile words in Romanian – it is used in absolutely different situations, either to say someone is lucky or unlucky, to wish someone good luck or simply to greet someone.