Ancient times Archaeological investigations attest to the presence of human communities on the present territory of the city and around it as far back as the prehistoric age. Later settlements included those of the
Cucuteni–Trypillia culture, a late
Neolithic archaeological culture. There is archaeological evidence of human settlements in the area of Iași dating from the 6th to 7th centuries (Curtea Domnească) and 7th to 10th centuries; these settlements contained rectangular houses with semicircular ovens. Also, many of the vessels (9th–11th centuries) found in Iași had a cross, potentially indicating that the inhabitants were Christians.
Early development In 1396, Iași is mentioned by the German crusader
Johann Schiltberger (a participant in the
Battle of Nicopolis). The name of the city is first found in an official document in 1408. This is a grant of certain commercial privileges by the Moldavian
Prince Alexander to the Polish merchants of
Lvov. However, as buildings older than 1408 still exist, e.g. the Armenian Church believed to be originally built in 1395, it is certain that the city existed before its first surviving written mention.
Capital of Moldavia Around 1564, Prince
Alexandru Lăpușneanu moved the Moldavian capital from
Suceava to Iași. Between 1561 and 1563, a school and a
Lutheran church were founded by the
Greek adventurer prince,
Ioan Iacob Heraclid. In 1640,
Vasile Lupu established the first school in which the Romanian replaced Greek, and set up a printing press in the
Byzantine Trei Ierarhi Monastery (
Monastery of the Three Hierarchs; built 1635–39). Between 15 September – 27 October 1642, the city hosted the
Synod of Iași (also referred to as the Synod of Jassy). In 1643, the first volume ever printed in
Moldavia was published in Iași. The city was often burned down and looted by the
Tatars (in 1513, 1574, 1577, 1593), by the
Ottomans in 1538, the
Cossacks and Tartars (1650), or the
Poles (1620, 1686). In 1734, it was hit by the
plague. The city was also affected by famine (1575, 1724, 1739–1740), or large local fires (1725, 1735, 1753, 1766, 1785), propagated by many buildings that were built on wooden structures. By the mid-19th century, 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 according to the
Great Geographic Dictionary of Romania cited by
JewishGen. The
Podu Roș Synagogue was built in Iași, circa 1810, by
Avraham Yehoshua Heshel of
Apta, but the synagogue became mostly
Misnagdic not long thereafter. (1671) In 1855, Iași was the home of the first-ever
Yiddish-language newspaper,
Korot Haitim, and, in 1876, the site of what was arguably the first-ever professional
Yiddish theatre performance, established by
Avraham Goldfaden. The words of
HaTikvah, the national anthem of Israel, were written in Iași by
Naftali Herz Imber. Jewish musicians in Iași played an important role as preservers of Yiddish folklore, as performers and composers. The first Zionist
Hebrew-language newspaper in Romania,
Emek Israel, was published in Iași in 1882. Zionist sports clubs, student associations and discussion groups were established in the city, most of which later merged into the
Organizația Sionistă. The Hachshara Farms in Iași were a type of training farms to prepare young people for resettlement in the Palestine region. According to the 1930 census, with a population of 34,662 (some 34% of the city's population), Jews were the second largest ethnic group in Iași. There were over 127
synagogues. During WWII Romanian government forces under Marshall
Ion Antonescu launched the
Iași pogrom against the city's Jewish community, which lasted from 28 June to 30 June 1941. According to Romanian authorities, over 13,266 people, or one third of the Jewish population, were massacred and many were deported. It was one of the worst pogroms during World War II. After
World War II, in 1947, there were about 38,000 Jews living in Iași. Because of massive emigration to Israel, in 1975 there were about 3,000 Jews living in Iași and four synagogues were active.
Greek community The history of the city and its development is marked by the thriving commercial community of
Greeks, as well as their occupation of public positions. The Greek-born
monarchs of Moldavia, politicians, teachers, clergy, doctors, philosophers, and writers contributed decisively to the emergence of Iași as an intellectual center. The struggle for the liberation of
Greece began in Iași. or one third of the Jewish population, were massacred in the pogrom itself or in its aftermath, and many were deported. Particularly brutal was the massacre of Jews who were forced on sealed trains in the brutal summer heat. Over half of the occupants perished in these trains, which were aimlessly driven throughout the countryside with no particular destination. In May 1944, the Iași area became the scene of ferocious fighting between Romanian-
German forces and the advancing
Soviet Red Army and the city was partially destroyed. The German
Panzergrenadier Division Großdeutschland won a defensive victory at the
Battle of Târgu Frumos, near Iași, which was the object of several
NATO studies during the
Cold War. By 20 August, Iași had been taken by Soviet forces. Iași suffered heavy damage due to Soviet (June–July 1941, June 1944) and American (June 1944) airstrikes, respectively. The bombing of Soviet aviation and artillery on 20 August 1944, resulted in more than 5,000 civilian deaths and the destruction of two-thirds of the city.
Post-World War II era Iași experienced a major wave of industrialisation, in 1955–1989. During this period of time, it received numerous migrants from rural regions, and the urban area expanded. In the
Communist era, Iași saw a growth of 235% in population and 69% in area. The local systematisation plans of the old city started in 1960 and continued in the 1970s and 1980s as part of the larger national
systematisation programme; however, the urban planning was sometimes arbitrary and followed by dysfunctions. By 1989, Iași had become highly industrialised, with 108,000 employees (representing 47% of the total workforce) active in 46 large
state-owned enterprises, in various industries: machine building and heavy equipment, chemical, textile, pharmaceutical, metallurgical, electronics, food, energy, building materials, furniture. After
the end of the Communist regime and the transition to a free market economy, the private sector has grown steadily, while much of the old industry (such as the industrial sector) gradually decayed. ==Geography==