Cahul

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cahul ( rum. )

Кагул / Кахул ( Russian )
State : Moldova RepublicRepublic of Moldova Moldova
Administrative unit : Cahul district
Coordinates : 45 ° 54 '  N , 28 ° 12'  E Coordinates: 45 ° 54 '  N , 28 ° 12'  E
Height : 27  m. ü. M.
 
Residents : 39,600
 
Telephone code : (+373) 299
 
Website :
Cahul (Republic of Moldova)
Cahul
Cahul

Cahul ( Russian Кагул , "Kagul", also Кахул, "Kachul") is the capital of the raion of the same name in the southwest of the Republic of Moldova near the Romanian border. The third largest city in the country (without Transnistria ) has around 39,600 inhabitants according to a calculation as of January 1, 2014. The economic, cultural and administrative center of South Moldova is a university town and a well-known health resort. Wine production ranks first among the food processing companies.

location

Cahul is 174 kilometers south of the state capital Chișinău . A section of the European route 584 connects Chișinău with the Romanian city of Galați via Comrat , Vulcăneşti and the border town of Giurgiuleşti in the extreme south of Moldova. Comrat is the capital of the autonomous region of Gagauzia , which adjoins the Cahul Rajon in the east. South of Congaz, the 38-kilometer secondary road R38 branches off the E584 westwards to Cahul. The city is 7 kilometers from the border river Prut . A bridge leads over the river to the Romanian border town of Oancea. The Cahul – Oancea connection is one of the six road crossings (as of 2010) between Romania and Moldova. Since 2007, Romanians can without a visa in the visa-free to Moldova and since April 2014 Moldovans EU allowed to enter Romania, was increased so that the mobility of the Moldovan population in the border region, which facilitates inter alia the sale of fruits and vegetables across the border into Romania.

On the R34, which runs parallel to the Prut on the Moldovan side, it is 40 kilometers south from Cahul to Giurgiuleşti and a good 65 kilometers north to the next small town Leova. The R38 runs 33 kilometers southeast to Vulcăneşti. A branch line in Cantemir branches off the west-east main line between Bârlad in Romania and Basarabeasca on the Ukrainian border , which was completed in 1917, and in 1979 Cahul was connected to the railway with a connection to the capital. The airport of Cahul ( Aeroportul Internațional Cahul ), eight kilometers southeast of the city, built from 1996 onwards , is not in operation due to licensing problems.

Main street Calea Republicii from the central square ( Piața Independenței ) to the north. On the right the B. P. Hasdeu University

The city's name is taken from the Cahul, a 39 kilometer long river that flows south through Vulcăneşti into Lake Kahul. This 90 square kilometer lake is located southeast of Giurgiuleşti on the Ukrainian side. It borders on the Kilija arm , the northernmost estuary of the Danube . Südmoldau is a flat, undulating steppe region with hills around 200 meters in height and average annual rainfall of less than 400 millimeters. As in the rest of the country, mainly wheat, maize and sunflowers are planted in the fields. According to data from 2012, the Cahul region is one of the largest sunflower-growing areas in Moldova with 12,400 hectares. Cahul is the name of the southern wine-growing region of the country. The winemakers produce red wines and sweet dessert wines, which they mainly export to Russia, as they did before independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

The city is also part of the transnational European region Dunărea de Jos (“Lower Danube”), which was divided in 1998 according to economic and political aspects and extends along the north-western Black Sea coast from the Romanian districts ( județe ) Brăila , Galați and Tulcea via Cahul to the Ukrainian Oblast Odessa . To the north of it joins the European region Siret –Prut– Nistru (Upper Prut), founded in 2000 .

The wetlands on the lower reaches of the Prut between Cahul and Giurgiulești have been declared a 19,000 hectare Ramsar reserve since June 2000 . These include the two largest natural lakes in Moldova, Lake Manta a few kilometers south of Cahul near the village of the same name and Lake Beleu north of Giurgiulești. 39 species of mammals, 203 species of birds, 41 species of fish, 9 different amphibians and 5 reptiles live on its banks . The Manta Lake area, on average 21 square kilometers, is a maximum of 1.5 meters deep. The reefed bank areas and reed islands floating on the water, which cover a large part of the water surface, are breeding grounds for birds. The wetland, which is divided into smaller lakes by the re-formation, is fed by a canal from the Prut at the northern end, the outflow is a second canal in the south. The artificially created fish pond of Cahul is also supplied with water from the Prut by pumps, which reduces the amount of water intended for the Manta Lake. If, as was the case in a study in 2005, no water is pumped from the Prut into the fish pond, this only reaches a depth of 30 centimeters with a high water level with an area of ​​270 hectares. In the rest of the season, the lake falls dry and forms a Grassenke, which is used as pastureland.

history

From the city park to the east along the Bulevardul Victoriei . Back of the bust of Ioan cel Viteaz

Archaeological finds prove a settlement in the Bronze Age (15th to 13th century BC) and the existence of a village in the 4th century BC. A place at this point was first mentioned in a document of the prince administration of July 2, 1502 under the name Șcheia , when the principality of Moldova under Ștefan cel Mare (r. 1457-1504) was in its prime. Around 1512 the principality owed tribute to the Ottoman Empire ; what is now southern Moldova was completely lost to the Ottomans in 1538. From 1700 the first Russians settled in the Vltava. In the Russo-Turkish War from 1768 to 1774, the Battle of Cahul in the summer of 1770 was a central event in which the Russian army emerged victorious. The battle, in which 17,000 Russian soldiers drove an Ottoman army allegedly up to 150,000 strong, was fought on the Cahul River near today's city. In May 1812, during peace negotiations in Bucharest between the Ottoman sultan and the Russian tsar, the eastern part of Moldova, i.e. the Bessarabia region , was transferred to the Russian Empire . From 1814, many Germans emigrated to the steppe region called Budschak in southern Bessarabia, which today largely belongs to Ukraine. The village, which was previously called Frumoasa (from frumos , "beautiful"), was given the new name Cahul (transcription of the Cyrillic alphabet Kagul ) and the status of an administrative center in 1835 by order of Tsar Nicholas I to commemorate the battle . The Russian governor of Bessarabia, Pavel Feodorov, had the new city of Cahul built from 1838. In 1845 the first urban development plan was approved, which provided for the construction of paved roads, markets and the construction of stone houses. In 1854 the town came into the possession of Dimitrie Caravasile, a merchant from Ismajil (now Ukraine). In the second half of the 19th century, Cahul was a regional economic center with a market two days a week. The city was an important transshipment point for goods that were exchanged across the Prut.

Along with Ismail and Bolgrad, Cahul was one of the three administrative districts in southern Bessarabia. With the Congress of Paris in 1856, which ended the Crimean War , the three districts of Bessarabia became part of the Principality of Moldova, although very few Romanians lived here. Until the end of the Second World War, rule over Bessarabia changed several times between Russia and Romania, which emerged as a state in 1859 from the union of the principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia . At the Berlin Congress in 1878 Romania received full independence from the Ottoman Empire and had to cede southern Bessarabia to Russia again. Between the world wars, Bessarabia belonged to Greater Romania and from the end of June 1940 to the end of June 1941 it was part of the Moldovan SSR for one year . In July 1941, Romanian and German troops captured Bessarabia. This began the systematic persecution, expulsion and murder of the Jews . In the fall of 1941 between 70,000 and 80,000 Jews were imprisoned in camps and ghettos in Bessarabia and Bukovina . The largest camps had 10,000 or more inmates. The Cahul camp with 500 Jews was one of the smallest. In August, the Soviet troops returned and restored the Moldavian SSR, which became independent Moldova in 1991.

In 1999, Cahul became the capital of a district ( județ ) that included Cantemir in the north. The smaller administrative district ( raion ) Cahul has existed since the administrative reform in 2003 . The urban population grew from 16,068 in 1959 to 26,572 in 1970, to 32,695 in 1979 and down to 42,624 in 1989 and decreased to 35,488 in 2004 as a result of the economic crisis and a wave of emigration after independence. Of these, 21,181 identified themselves as Moldovans (around 50 percent), 6,071 as Russians (14 percent), 3,981 as Ukrainians (9 percent), 2,366 as Bulgarians , 1,157 as Gagauz , 272 as Romanians , 39 as Jews , 23 as Roma and 20 as Poland . The proportion of Ukrainians and Russians is generally lower in southern Moldova than in the north. In contrast to other Moldovan cities, the population has been increasing again since then and is given as 39,600 for 2014.

In 1999, a branch of the Romanian Dunărea de Jos University Galați was opened in Cahul, which was closed a little later due to political tensions between the two countries. At the end of 2010, the Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu University in Cahul started operations again. In order to improve relations with neighboring Romania, the political leadership of both countries decided in July 2008 to open a Romanian consulate in Cahul and a Moldovan consulate in Iași .

Cityscape

Archangel Michael Cathedral in the city park

The streets of the entire city center are largely laid out in a chessboard shape. On the north-south running main street Calea Republicii , the Piața Independenței ("Independence Square", in memory of August 27, 1991) forms the central square, which is bordered on its east side by the neoclassical facade of the Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu University . Other public buildings around the square are the district administration ( Consiliul Raional Cahul ) and the town hall ( Primăria Orașului Cahul ). The Romanian consulate, one of the three in the country, is a few meters south of the square. The main post office, a casino ( Las Vegas ) and several banks follow on Calea Republicii to the north .

The well-tended avenue Bulevardul Victoriei leads from Independence Square to the west to the city park ( Parcul Central ), which takes up a square area of ​​four of the usual street fields. The park was established in 1923 and is named after the Moldovan poet Grigore Vieru (1935–2009). In the middle of the park is the Archangel Michael Cathedral, built in 1850. In its place there was originally a wooden church which, according to the sources , had been built for Saint Michael in 1785 . In the 1830s the wooden church was replaced by a brick building covered with shingles. The Archbishop of Chișinău and Hotin declared the church to be a bishopric in 1838. The Russian governor of Bessarabia, Pawel Iwanowitsch Fjodorow (1791–1855), had a new and larger church built in 1844, which was completed in 1850. During the Soviet rule, the church ceased operations in 1962; Between 1970 and 1977 the building served as an art gallery and since 1990 it has been restored as a church. In front of the church there is a bronze bust of the Moldovan voivod John III, erected in 1989, on a pedestal . the brave (Ioan cel Viteaz, 1521–1574). A first monument to the ruler from 1937 was removed in 1940 by the Soviet authorities. Close to the park is a regional museum for city history and folk culture, completed in 1958, and a theater for music and drama that opened in 1987.

The second church in the city is the Acoperământul Maicii Domnului Orthodox Church (" Protection and Intercession ") , built between 1882 and 1992 by order of two Archbishops of Moscow . The 32 meter long and 13 meter wide cross-domed church is made of red bricks. An octagonal drum rises above the main room , which is covered by a round dome. A two-storey domed tower dominates the entrance porch. In 1962 the church was closed and used as a military camp. After its restoration from 1989 to 1994, it is now used as a place of worship again.

The railway line runs along the western development boundary. The station is outside the city in the north on the edge of a residential area with densely packed single-family houses. The small Frumoase lake in the northeast drains via the stream of the same name, which flows in a south-westerly direction across the city towards the Prut. In the Bachtal, not far from the center, there is the large building of the sanatorium ( Sanatoriul Nufărul Alb ) from the Soviet era , which attracts spa guests from Moldova, Russia and neighboring countries. The mineral water contains sulfur, iodine and bromine and is said to help especially with rheumatic complaints and skin diseases. The sanatorium with an attached hotel, restaurant and leisure facilities began operations in 1984 after the 36 ° C mineral water was discovered in 1965.

The health resort is reflected in a relatively large number of restaurants and cafes outdoors, especially along Bulevardul Victoriei . There are three hotels in the center and one outside in the south. In addition to the university, there is a medical and a pedagogical college, two other higher education institutions and six secondary schools. Most of the industrial companies are located on the southern outskirts.

A small, single-story building at Strada Eminesku 43a served as a synagogue until the Jewish residents were expelled in 1941 . After the Second World War, it housed a shop and a school. In 1990 the remaining Jewish community got the building back and used it as a meeting room. The 10,000 square meter, walled Jewish cemetery in Strada Karl Marx contains around 1,500 gravestones dating back to the 19th century, over three quarters of which were overturned or broken. The area with the newer tombstones is maintained.

economy

sanatorium

The city's economy is diversified and, in addition to the spa, is based on trade and food processing. Of the 94 industrial companies, 48 ​​are involved in food processing, two manufacture textiles and shoes, nine belong to the construction industry and 35 are listed under other (figures from around 2011). According to information from the Cahul Labor Office in 2010, 50 percent of the population (25,300) of working age (between 16 and 61 years of age) are employed. Of these, 36 percent work in the trade and service sector, 32 percent in public administration, health and education and 20 percent in the manufacturing industry. In addition, there are 12 percent who work in the construction, transport and financial sectors. Unemployment was around 4.3 percent in 2010.

Wine production comes first in the food processing sector. Every year 12,000 to 14,000 tons of grapes are processed into over 10 million liters of wine. A cheese factory can produce 70 tons of dairy products, a large bakery has a capacity of 32 tons of bread per year.

sons and daughters of the town

literature

  • Klaus Bochmann, Vasile Dumbrava, Dietmar Müller, Victoria Reinhardt (eds.): The Republic of Moldau. Republica Moldova. A manual. Leipziger Universitätsverlag, Leipzig 2012, ISBN 978-3-86583-557-4
  • Cahul . In: Andrei Brezianu: Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Moldova . (European History Dictionaries, No. 37) The Scarecrow Press, Lanham (Maryland) / London 2007, pp. 66f

Web links

Commons : Cahul  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Numărul populaţiei stable al Republicii Moldova la 1st January 2014, în profil teritorial . Biroul Național de Statistică al Republicii Moldova (Romanian)
  2. ↑ Mihaela Narcisa Niemczik-Arambașa: Everyday life on the eastern edge of the EU: The population in the border region Romania / Republic of Moldova appropriates space. (Praxis Kultur- und Sozialgeographie, 54) Universitätsverlag, Potsdam 2012, p. 62 ( full text )
  3. ↑ Rosanna Dom: Review: Mihaela Narcisa Niemczik-Arambaşa, Everyday Life on the Eastern Edge of the EU. Spatial appropriations by the population in the border region Romania / Republic of Moldova, 2012. In: Südosteuropa, 62, 2. 2014, pp. 267–269
  4. ^ Peter Jordan: Transportation . In: Klaus Bochmann u. a. (Ed.): The Republic of Moldau, p. 470
  5. ^ Wilfried Heller, Mihaela Narcisa Arambașa: Geography . In: Klaus Bochmann u. a. (Ed.): The Republic of Moldova , p. 161
  6. ↑ lexander Kandakov, Bohumil Havrland, Constantin Ojog, Tatiana Ivanova: Sunflower Market Assessment in the Republic of Moldova. In: Engineering for Rural Development. International Scientific Conference, Vol. 11, 2012, pp. 128-133, here p. 128
  7. ↑ Mihaela Narcisa Niemczik- Arambașa: Everyday life on the eastern edge of the EU , 2012, p. 54
  8. ^ Lower Prut Lakes - Ramsar Site. R. Moldova, Current situation, perspectives and achievements. Biotica Ecological Society
  9. ↑ Small Grants Fund project completed in Moldova . The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, July 26, 2005
  10. ↑ Scheia-Frumoasa Cahul . primariacahul.md (Romanian)
  11. ^ Robert William Seton-Watson : A History of the Roumanians: From Roman Times to the Completion of Unity. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1934, p. 562
  12. ↑ Vladimir Solonari: Purifying the Nation. Population Exchange and Ethnic Cleansing in Nazi-Allied Romania. The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 2010, pp. 202f
  13. ↑ Demographic, national, language and cultural characteristics. (Excel table in Section 1) National Bureau of Statistics of the Republic of Moldova
  14. ↑ Demographic, national, language and cultural characteristics. (Excel table in Section 7) National Bureau of Statistics of the Republic of Moldova
  15. ↑ Mihaela Narcisa Niemczik- Arambașa: Everyday life on the eastern edge of the EU, 2012, p. 61
  16. ^ Andrei Avram, Dietmar Müller: Moldova's border with Romania: challenges and perspectives after Romania's accession to the European Union. In: SEER: Journal for Labor and Social Affairs in Eastern Europe , Vol. 11, No. 3 (Borderland III: The Black Sea region - Romania, Moldova and Ukraine) 2008, pp. 399–429, here p. 409
  17. ^ Jewish Heritage Sites and Monuments in Moldova. ( Memento of the original from December 27, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. United States Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad, Washington 2010, pp. 33f  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.heritageabroad.gov
  18. ^ Preliminary Technical File. Cahul, Moldova, p. 11
  19. ^ Silvius Stanciu: The Factors Influencing Consumer's Behavior on Wine Consumption in the Moldovan Wine Market . International Conference "Risk in Contemporary Economy", University of Galati, 2014, pp. 406–418, here p. 406