50 Fun Facts About Moldova

Moldova is bordered by Ukraine and which other country?

The Prut river forms the western border; more than three-quarters of Moldovans speak Romanian.

What is the capital and largest city of Moldova?

Founded as a monastery village in 1436, it sits on the Bic river and holds about a third of the country's people in its metro area.

The unrecognised breakaway state on Moldova's eastern edge, beyond the Dniester river, is called what?

Its own name for itself is the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic; about 1,500 Russian soldiers remain there.

Which city is the capital of the breakaway east-bank region and Moldova's second-largest?

It is also home to the football club that once beat Real Madrid at the Bernabeu.

Moldova's autonomous region of Gagauzia is home to a people whose mother tongue belongs to which family?

Unusually for Turkic speakers the Gagauz are mostly Orthodox Christians; their capital is Comrat, briefly a self-declared republic for six days in 1906.

According to legend, the Moldova River, and thus the country, was named after what?

Chroniclers say Prince Dragos's exhausted hound Molda drowned after the chase, and her name passed to the river and then the principality.

The eastern half of the Principality of Moldavia, annexed by Russia in 1812, became known by what name?

About 88 percent of today's Moldova lies in that region; the Ottomans ceded it after one of their many wars with Russia.

Which 15th-century ruler of Moldavia, famous for churches and monasteries, reigned from 1457 until 1504?

He took the throne with the help of his cousin Vlad the Impaler and stopped paying tribute to the Ottoman sultan in 1473.

Which year saw the Sfatul Tarii assembly vote to unite the region with its western neighbour?

Soviet Russia never accepted it and set up a Moldavian autonomous republic inside Ukraine in 1924 as a counterclaim.

Moldova declared independence from the Soviet Union on 27 August of which year?

The Moldavian SSR dropped the Russian-style name for the Romanian one; the constitution followed in 1994.

Who became the first woman elected president of Moldova, in November 2020?

She won re-election in 2024 with 55 percent in the run-off, alongside a razor-thin 50.17 percent 'yes' vote in the EU referendum.

Moldova was granted candidate status for membership of which organisation in June 2022?

Accession talks opened in December 2023 and 2030 is the target date; Brussels says the breakaway dispute need not be solved first.

A March 2023 law formally renamed Moldova's only official language as what?

The law replaced every reference to 'Moldovan' in the constitution; the two names had long been a political battleground.

Though landlocked, Moldova gained a river port in 1999 by acquiring 0.45 km of frontage on which river?

Ukraine swapped the sliver at Giurgiulesti for a stretch of contested road, giving Moldova a route to the Black Sea.

How high is Moldova's highest point, Balanesti Hill?

The country is hilly but never mountainous; its hills are outliers of the Carpathian system.

Which Moldovan winery holds the world's largest wine cellar, stretching some 200 km of tunnels?

Only about 55 km is in use, holding two million or more bottles, and it made the Guinness book in 2007.

What share of Moldovan wine exports went to Russia in the early 2000s, before the pivot to Europe?

By 2021 Russia took only 10 percent, and the EU had liberalised its market for Moldovan wine.

Moldova's currency, the leu, takes its name from a word meaning what?

It descends from the Dutch 'lion thaler' that once circulated in the region; the leu was introduced in November 1993 after the Soviet rouble collapsed.

Which animal appears on the shield held by the eagle on Moldova's flag and coat of arms?

The blue-yellow-red tricolour is based on the western neighbour's flag; the arms were adopted in 1990.

Which Moldovan band's 2003 hit 'Dragostea Din Tei' topped charts across Europe?

The 'Numa Numa' song became an early internet meme; Zdob si Zdub twice took sixth place for Moldova at Eurovision.

Moldova's 2010 Eurovision entry spawned which internet meme, thanks to saxophonist Sergey Stepanov?

SunStroke Project's 'Run Away' finished well down the table, but the band came back in 2017 with 'Hey Mama' and took third.

Which club became the first from Moldova to reach the Champions League group stage, then won at Real Madrid?

Sebastien Thill's 89th-minute winner at the Bernabeu stunned the eventual champions; the club is based in the breakaway region.

On 1 March Moldovans exchange which red-and-white good-luck talisman to mark the start of spring?

Women and children wear the little threads all month; the custom is shared with Romania and Bulgaria's martenitsa.

Mamaliga, a Moldovan staple, is a porridge made from what?

It is the local polenta, often served with brinza cheese and sour cream; placinte are the stuffed fried pastries.

Remittances from Moldovans working abroad make up roughly what share of the country's GDP?

Between 1.2 and 2 million citizens live abroad, more than a quarter of the population.

Moldova's parliament, elected every four years by party list, has how many seats?

The Party of Action and Solidarity won 63 of them in 2021, enough for a single-party majority.

Which fertile black soil, among the richest on Earth, covers Moldova's Balti steppe?

Agricultural land occupies about three-quarters of the country and it enjoys 300 days of sunshine a year.

Forests cover only about what proportion of Moldova?

The central Codri hills take their name from the word for forests; wisent were reintroduced from Poland in 2005.

Strabo said it drank through its nose. Which large antelope survived in Moldova into the late 1700s?

Its range once reached from Britain to Canada; hunting and deforestation wiped out the local herds.

The 1903 anti-Semitic riot in Moldova's capital that killed 47 Jews is known as what?

Kishinev is the Russian name for the city; the outrage prompted mass Jewish emigration from the Russian Empire.

Moldova's third-largest city, Balti, is nicknamed what?

It sits on the Raut river 127 km north of the capital, in the middle of the black-earth steppe.

Which two rivers form most of Moldova's western and eastern borders respectively?

The Dniester rises in Ukraine near Drohobych and empties into the Black Sea; at one point Moldova is just 3 km from its estuary.

Moldova's ceasefire with its breakaway region followed a war in which year?

A joint control commission of Moldova, Russia and Transnistria polices the line; the conflict is one of the post-Soviet 'frozen' ones.

Moldova signed its EU Association Agreement in June 2014 in which city?

The text had been drafted at the Vilnius Eastern Partnership summit the previous November.

Moldova's tiny standing army numbers roughly how many soldiers?

It spends about 0.4 percent of GDP on defence, and its constitution commits it to neutrality.

Which Moldovan late-Romantic poet is regarded as a national writer on both sides of the Prut?

Ion Creanga, the storyteller, shares that status; Cantemir and Ureche were the chroniclers who recorded the Molda legend.

Moldova has taken part in the Eurovision Song Contest since which year?

Zdob si Zdub finished sixth on debut; the country's best result is SunStroke Project's third place in 2017.

What proportion of Moldova's population identified as Eastern Orthodox in the 2014 census?

The constitution separates church and state but cites Orthodoxy's 'exceptional importance'; Christmas is a holiday on both 25 December and 7 January.

Moldova's second-largest ethnic group after Moldovans, at about one in twelve people, identified as what in 2024?

Ukrainians follow at 5 percent, Gagauz at 4 and Russians at 3; the identity question is politically charged.

Which Moldovan monastery-fortress complex on the Raut river preserves Trypillian, Dacian and Golden Horde remains?

Cave monasteries carved into the limestone cliffs sit 60 km northeast of the capital at Trebujeni.

Moldova's second-biggest wine cellar, at Cricova, stretches roughly how far?

The biggest cellar's tunnels run even longer, and Castel Mimi is the 19th-century chateau on the tourist trail.

In 2023 Moldova moved to leave which post-Soviet grouping, then in 2026 denounced its founding accords?

Ties with Moscow soured after Russia cancelled a 2012 decree on Moldovan sovereignty and 45 Russian diplomats were expelled.

Moldova's hottest day on record, 42.4 C, came in 2012 in which town?

The record low of minus 35.5 C dates from January 1963 at Bratuseni.

Which Moldovan-born composer gives his name to the capital's international airport?

It is the country's only international air gateway; overnight trains also run to Bucharest, Kyiv and Odesa.

Which animal, extinct in Moldova since the 18th century, was reintroduced from Poland in August 2005?

Three wisent arrived from Białowieża Forest days before Independence Day; Moldova later opened talks with Belarus on a bison exchange.

Into how many districts, or raioane, is Moldova divided?

There are also three municipalities and two autonomous regions, Gagauzia and the Left Bank of the Dniester.

In 2023, where did Moldova rank worldwide for gigabit broadband coverage?

Around 90% of the population could subscribe to gigabit fibre that year, and 4G covered 98% of the territory.

Roughly how many days of sunshine a year does Moldova enjoy, ideal for its vineyards?

Wine makes up about three percent of GDP and eight percent of exports; Moldova was the world's 21st-largest wine exporter in 2021.

What parliamentary majority is needed to amend Moldova's 1994 constitution?

It cannot be revised in wartime or a national emergency, and changes to sovereignty or unity require a referendum.

In which city did Moldova sign its EU Eastern Partnership association agreement in November 2013?

Romania's ex-president Traian Băsescu responded by calling unification with Moldova Romania's next national project.