The Agency for Monument Inspection and Restoration (AMIR) proposes laying out a quarter in the historical center of Chisinau according to the standards for the conservation of historical places in 2019. This is the area between the streets Sfatul Țării, Maria Cebotari, Mihail Kogălniceanu and Alexei Shchusev, which will become a model for the subsequent rehabilitation of the other quarters that form the city’s historical center.
The Agency’s director Ion Ștefăniță told a news conference at IPN that the perimeter was chosen because a series of buildings of national importance with protected status are located there. Among these are the National Museum of Ethnography and Natural History, which is the most visited museum in the Republic of Moldova with over 140,000 visits a year, the building of the former pneumonia clinic founded by noble Vasile Kalmutski, and the Zemstva Museum.
According to Ion Ștefăniță, the planned works were estimated at 4 million lei. The money will go to rehabilitate the pedestrian area, to set up parking places and to revitalize the landscape features. There will be placed urban furniture that will match the particularities of the area. Street lightning in the style of the 19th century with epoch street lamps will be put up there. “We want to bring the chaos witnessed in that quarter to an end,” stated the Agency’s director.
The project is coordinated with the municipal divisions. The Chisinau Municipal Council is to approve the allocation of funds from the 2019 budget.
Ion Ștefăniță noted the historical center of the capital city consists of 186 quarters and all of them can be restored based on this first project during ten years, without damaging the historical and cultural particularities of the area.
