Some remarks on the configuration of urban space in the pre-modern town of Iaşi

Abstract

The morphology analysis of the pre-modern town in the East-European space is encumbered by the lack of maps and zoning plans, as well as by the small quantity of preserved documentary sources. In the case of Iași, the Russian military maps of the 18th century, together with the General plan of Iași made by the French engineer Joseph Bayardi, creates the base for analysis, corroborated by the historical documentary sources recently edited. The general analysis we carry out considers the origins, emergence, evolution and distribution of the town quarters/cores, the streets configuration as well as the size, distribution and evolution of urban plots. The analysis uses both cartographic and  documentary sources, supported by analogies with the similar situations in the rest of Moldavia, which are documented by archaeology, and in Central and Western Europe, when the analogy is appropriate.