Moldova

Carved into a sheer limestone cliff above a sharp bend of the Răut River, Orthodox monks from the 15th century onward excavated a cave monastery comprising an underground chapel and monastic cells, crowned on the cliff crest by a stone cross and a small bell tower. Higher up on the Butuceni promontory stands an early 20th-century Orthodox church that serves the monastic community re-established in 1996. The wider valley forms a cultural and natural reserve preserving Geto-Dacian and Golden Horde remains, placed on Moldova's UNESCO Tentative List in 2017.

Orheiul Vechi Cultural and Natural Reserve (Moldova), UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List (2017)Butuceni, xã Trebujeni, huyện Orhei (khoảng 50 km phía bắc Chișinău)

Photo: Guttorm Flatabø from Sogndal, Norway, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons

The cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Chisinau located on Mitropolit Dosoftei Street in the historic center of Moldova's capital, constructed between 1840 and 1843 in Late Neoclassical style after designs by Saint Petersburg architect Joseph Charlemagne with a Corinthian portico and twin western bell towers, reopened in 1989 after decades of Soviet secularization and elevated to cathedral rank by Pope John Paul II on October 27, 2001.

Cathedral of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Chisinau (directly subject to the Holy See) and National Architectural Monument of the Republic of MoldovaMitropolit Dosoftei Street 85, Centru Sector, MD-2012 Chisinau, Republic of Moldova

Photo: Warren's Moldovan, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

The sole historic synagogue in Chisinau to maintain continuous Jewish worship from the late nineteenth century to the present day, erected between 1896 and 1898 by the Jewish guild of glaziers and glassmakers (Glazer Shul), surviving early twentieth-century pogroms, the Holocaust in Bessarabia, and Soviet closures to serve today as the central Chabad-Lubavitch synagogue of Moldova complete with a ritual mikveh, historic matzah bakery, and carved wooden Torah Ark.

Central Synagogue of the Chabad-Lubavitch Jewish Community of Moldova and National Historical and Cultural Monument of the Republic of MoldovaHabad Liubavici Street 8, Centru Sector, MD-2001 Chisinau, Republic of Moldova

Photo: Loraine, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

The principal metropolitan cathedral of the Orthodox Church of Moldova standing at the center of Cathedral Park in Chisinau, designed in pure Russian Empire Neoclassical style by architect Avraam Melnikov and built between 1830 and 1836 with four symmetrical hexastyle Doric porticoes beneath a grand hemispherical dome, aligned along a ceremonial axis with its reconstructed four-tiered Bell Tower and the 1840 Triumphal Arch (Holy Gates).

Metropolitan Cathedral of the Orthodox Church of Moldova (Metropolis of Chisinau and All Moldova) and National Architectural Monument of the Republic of MoldovaGreat National Assembly Square (Cathedral Park), Centru Sector, MD-2012 Chisinau, Republic of Moldova

Photo: Pudelek, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

One of the oldest and most revered Orthodox monastic foundations in Moldova nestled in the forested hills of the Codrii reserve in Straseni District, first documented in a royal charter of Prince Alexander the Good on April 25, 1420 and patronized by Saint Stephen the Great and Prince Petru Rares, uniting three historic churches of the Dormition of the Theotokos, Saint George, and Saint Nicholas and enshrining the relics of Saint Metropolitan Gavriil Banulescu-Bodoni.

Historic Royal Orthodox Monastery of Moldova and National Architectural Monument of Special Significance of the Republic of MoldovaCapriana Village, Codrii Forest Reserve, Straseni District, MD-3713, Republic of Moldova

Photo: Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons