Iasi

Iaşi (pronunciation in Romanian: /jaʃʲ/) (also historically referred to as Iassy in French or Jassy in German), is a city and municipality in north-eastern Romania. The city was the capital of the Principality of Moldavia from 1564 to 1859, the United Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia between 1859–1862 and Romania between 1916–1918.
The city has the oldest Romanian university and accommodates an annual count of over 70,000 students in 5 public and 3 private universities. It is home to more than 50 churches and hosts 5 cultural centres: British, French, German, Latin American & Caribbean and Hellenic. Cultural life gravitates around the National Theater (the oldest in Romania), the Opera House, the Iaşi State Philarmonic, the Tătăraşi Atheneum, a famous Botanical Garden (the oldest and largest in Romania), the Central University Library (the oldest in Romania), an array of museums and memorial houses, an independent theater and several student organizations.

EDUCATION:

The first Romanian High Education structure was established in the autumn of 1813, when engineer Gheorghe Asachi laid the foundations of a class of engineers, its activities taking place within the Greek Academy of Iaşi.

After 1813, other moments marked the development of higher education in Romanian, regarding both humanities and the technical science. In 1835, Academia Mihăileană was founded in Iaşi by Prince Mihail Sturdza.

Iaşi is home to the oldest Romanian modern university (University of Iaşi), opened by (and nowadays named after) Domnitor Alexandru Ioan Cuza in 1860. The city is host to five universities, and is widely regarded as the cultural "heart" of the Old Kingdom (that is Moldavia, Wallachia, and Dobruja - the three regions comprising Romania until 1918).

A society of physicians and natural historians has existed in Iaşi since the early part of the 19th century, and a number of periodicals are published. One of the oldest medical universities in Romania, founded in 1879, is in Iaşi. It is now known as the "Grigore T. Popa" University of Medicine and Pharmacy.

In 1937, the two applied science sections of the university of Iaşi became departments of the newly created Gheorghe Asachi Polytechnic School; In the period before and after World War II, the later (renamed Polytechnic Institute in 1948) extended its domain of activity, especially in the field of engineering, and became adopted a Technical University in 1993.

Public Universities:

• "Al. I. Cuza" University
• "Gh. Asachi" Technical University
• "Gr. T. Popa" University of Medicine and Pharmacy
• "G. Enescu" University of Arts
• "I. Ionescu de la Brad" University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine

Besides the universities, there are schools of art and music. The University's Central Library, where the chief records of Romanian history are preserved, is the oldest and the second largest in Romania.