Hotel International Iasi
Iaşi - Str.Palat/Complex Palas
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The Romanian city of Iași is located in north-east Romania, in the heart of the historical region of Moldavia, and served as the capital of the Principality of Moldavia for nearly 300 years between 1500 and 1800. It was also the capital of Romania for two years, between 1916 and 1918.
Today Iași is a modern city with over 300,000 inhabitants, a figure that rises to nearly half a million when you include the metropolitan area. It is home to Romania’s oldest university, the country’s first engineering faculty, and its cultural life is shaped by events held in theatres, at the opera house and in museums.
From a tourism perspective, Iași is certainly not the first city that comes to mind when thinking about Romania, but it is undoubtedly interesting and worth spending a couple of days here. Moreover, being situated in the heart of the Moldavia region, it is the natural starting point for day trips to discover the monasteries and more remote corners of the area.
Capital of Romania from 1916 to 1918, Iași has always maintained its status as a symbol of the country’s history, so much so that in December 2018 it was officially declared the “historical capital of Romania“.
Iași is one of the country’s centres of excellence for university education, with five public universities hosting over 60,000 students. The city is also home to Romania’s oldest theatre, the Vasile Alecsandri National Theatre, the oldest bookshop in Romania, and is the seat of the Moldova Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra.
Each year Iași hosts the FILIT festival, dedicated to literature and translation, the FIE festival, dedicated to international education, the SFR festival dedicated to Romanian cinema, and a series of concerts and musical events such as Afterhills, Rock’n’Iași and Rocanotherworld.
Visiting Iași is truly worthwhile: there are several things to see both in the city and in the surrounding area. Here is a list of the best attractions, so you won’t miss anything during your stay in the city.
The Palace of Culture in Iași, or Palatul Culturii in Romanian, is undoubtedly one of the city’s most beautiful buildings and one of its symbols. Today it houses a museum complex (Complexul Muzeal Național “Moldova”) comprising four museums: the art museum, the Moldavia history museum, the Moldavia ethnographic museum and the science and technology museum. At the same time, the Palace of Culture hosts a centre for restoration and conservation of cultural heritage, and serves as a venue for exhibitions and events.
This imposing building dates from the early 1900s and consists of nearly 300 rooms, occupying a total area of 35,000 square metres. One of its distinctive features is the clock tower, the focal point of the palace’s design; the clock itself has a diameter of over three metres, decorated in glass and steel across 12 dials, whose symbols represent the 12 zodiac signs.
Another building that represents Iași’s history is the national theatre, dedicated to Romanian poet and playwright Vasile Alecsandri. It is Romania’s oldest national theatre and at the same time one of its most prestigious. Its construction dates back to 1840, although it was rebuilt in 1896 following a devastating fire that destroyed it completely.
Today, the theatre has a capacity of over 1,200 seats, features a neoclassical façade and richly decorated interior in baroque and rococo styles. Noteworthy is the impressive chandelier, made with 109 Venetian crystal lamps.
The Parcul Copou is Iași’s oldest public park, created in 1834. It spans 10 hectares and is one of the city’s most beautiful places, a true green lung located north of the city centre. Among tree-lined avenues and flower beds, there are also some interesting monuments to visit, including the lions obelisk (Obeliscul cu lei), dating back to the year the park opened and dedicated to the Regulamentul Organic, Romania’s first law on political, administrative and legal organisations.
Walking through the park, you cannot help but notice the Eminescu tree, a specimen of Tilia tomentosa that is 500 years old, beneath which the famous Romanian poet and writer Mihai Eminescu is said to have written some of his finest works.
The Frumoasa Monastery (a word that in Romanian means “beautiful“) is an Orthodox convent monastery founded in the 16th century and rebuilt and restored several times in the centuries that followed. The complex visible today is in neoclassical style and has been part of the list of historical monuments in Iași County since 2015.
It is located a short distance from the centre of Iași, to the south, and can be reached conveniently by bus or even on foot. The monastery comprises six buildings: the Church of Saint Voievozi, the palace, the ruins of the women’s palace, the bell tower, the mausoleum of Grigore Sturdza and the surrounding walls that enclose the entire complex.
We conclude our list of the five most beautiful attractions in Iași with another monastery, Trei Ierarhi (Three Hierarchs), also situated practically in the city centre. It dates back to the 17th century and has been included among the nominations for the UNESCO World Heritage list. It was built in honour of three saints—Basil, Gregory the Theologian and John of Antioch—and was used by Prince Vasile Lupu as the seat of Moldavia’s first printing press and the Vasiliana Academy, an institution of higher education.
The church of Trei Ierarhi Monastery is renowned for its decorated stone exterior, with a façade that combines Western European gothic and renaissance architectural elements with features from the East and Middle East, drawing inspiration from Armenian, Georgian, Persian, Arab and Ottoman traditions.
Next to the church stands a gothic hall that houses a religious art museum, which among other items displays objects relating to the monastery’s history. The monastery’s gate tower no longer exists today, but in the past it also served as a bell tower. On its top, Vasile Lupu installed a massive clock, Romania’s first public clock.
Iași is a compact city and easy to navigate on foot; the historic centre revolves around the Palace of Culture, north of the Bahlui River, so it is advisable to find accommodation in this area, to have all the main monuments within reach. There are some excellent hotels here, all decidedly economical, especially when compared to prices we are used to in Western Europe.
Alongside hotels, many apartments and guesthouses run by locals have sprung up in recent years, where you can stay with your family at an excellent price and experience the local way of life 100%.
Thanks to its small but efficient international airport, Iași is conveniently reachable from the UK with direct budget airline flights operated by Blue Air and Wizz Air. Flights are often very economical, there is no shortage of offers and they are especially operated from several cities across the UK.
Of course, it is also possible to reach Iași by land, but the journey is really long: from London, for example, it is over 1,200 miles, crossing France, several Central European countries and practically all of northern Romania. You can undertake the journey in your own car or by coach, as there are numerous coach companies that operate connections between Iași and the UK.
If you are already in Romania and want to reach Iași, allow for six hours of driving from Bucharest via the DN24 road, ten hours from Timișoara via the A1 motorway and almost seven hours from Constanța, following the DN24D road.
What's the weather at Iași? Below are the temperatures and the weather forecast at Iași for the next few days.
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