Moldova

Moldova is rolling black-earth country drained by two rivers, the Prut along its western edge and the Dniester in the east. The sea stays just out of reach; sea-going ships can dock only at Giurgiulești, on a short stretch of Danube bank. Oak and beech forests cover the central hills of the Codri, the south flattens into the dry Budjak steppe, and monks cut cave monasteries into the limestone cliffs above the Răut.

Moldavia took shape as a principality in the fourteenth century; Stephen the Great, who ruled from 1457 to 1504, fought Ottoman, Hungarian and Polish armies and raised churches across the land. In 1812 the Russian Empire annexed the eastern half, Bessarabia, while the western half joined Wallachia in 1859 to form the core of Romania. Bessarabia united with Romania in 1918 and was taken by the Soviet Union in 1940. A law of 1989 restored the Latin alphabet, and independence followed in August 1991.

Orthodox Christianity shapes the calendar, and at the start of March people pin on the mărțișor, a red-and-white charm, to greet the spring. Mămăligă, a firm maize porridge, comes with sheep’s cheese and sour cream. Cricova and Mileștii Mici store wine in limestone galleries that run for miles underground, and a National Wine Day fills the streets each October. Walnuts, sunflower seed and plums are exported, factories assemble wiring harnesses for European car makers, and many families rely on relatives working elsewhere in Europe.