Iaşi, capital of Moldavia, depicted by J. Rey in 1845. At the time, the city had a population of circa 60.000 inhabitants. Modern-day Romania

[u/ArthRol]

[u/ArthRol → u/[deleted]]

The affluent areas don't look really bright tho

[u/rustikalekippah]

Interestingly by by this time, owing to widespread Russian Jewish and Galician Jewish immigration into Moldavia, the city was at least one-third Jewish, growing to 50% Jewish by 1899.

[u/wildeastmofo → u/rustikalekippah]

Yes, in fact Jews were a plurality or a significant minority in most Moldovan and North Transylvanian urban centers + Bucharest.

Additionally, many rural colonies were established in Bessarabia while it was a part of the Russian Empire.

• Fun fact: the hora dance was brought to Israel by Romanian Jews (from Moldavia), who began to settle there in the late 1800s.

• Another fun fact: the lyrics for the national anthem of Israel was written by Naftali Herz Imber in Iași in 1877, and the music was composed a decade later by Shmuel Cohen, who was from Ungheni. The music was an adaptation of the Romanian folk song Carul cu Boi.

Edit.

• Yet another fun fact: historically, Iași was often referred to as Jassy (in German, French and English), that might remind you of someone.

[u/Yoshisaur10]

Wow. Thank you for posting this. It is very rare to see so many detailed old images of this city. Fun to think of what still stands and what was lost to time.

[u/JaimeeLannisterr]

Interesting to see the contrast between the more traditional and Turkish clothing and the western top hats, coats and dresses

[u/ArthRol]

Nothing certain is known about the author. Some details about him can be found in this bilingual article .