Cuza Vodă Street

Known in the past as “Golia alley”, this street connects Union Square, the city’s heart, with Târgu Cucu, the former Jewish Quarter. In the beginning, the area was dominated by the palaces of the boyar families (Cantacuzino, Balș, Sturdza, Ghica, Callimachi etc.) After 1830, in front of them, a merchant building front was erected, with basements for storage, shops on the ground floor and a residential first floor, some having Art Nouveau decorations. In the corner of the Union Square, there is Braunstein`s Palace (1914), initially a luxury hotel. Right next to it, there is Select Hotel, built in a French eclectic style, by the Jewish Austrian philanthropist and banker Jacob Neuschotz. Between the two buildings, not connected initially, between 1865-1944 there was the only Reformed Jewish temple in Iași, Beth-Jacob (then Neuschotz). (PHOTO : Mihai BULAI)