Registry Office – The Old City Hall -Cantacuzino Pașcanu Palace

The edifice was completed in 1780 on the site of the mansion of the beautiful Moldavian Princess Ruxandra, daughter of Vasile Lupu. In 1652, the voivode was forced to marry her with Tymofiy Bohdanovych Khmelnytsky, the son of Zaporozhian Cossack hetman (general). The manorial palace which belonged to the Cantacuzino-Pașcanu family for over a century, was conceived with arcades and vaults. It served as Iași City Hall between 1911-1969, and later as the headquarters of the “Flacăra Iașului” (Flame of Iași) newspaper and the “Cronica” magazine. In front of the building, the bust of the Prince Dimitrie Cantemir was erected, in order to remind the visitor of this brilliant scholar who was exiled to Russia in 1711. In 2005 the building became the Civil Registrar Office. This „Marriage Hall” comes alive when brides and grooms walk down its stairway, under vaults of flowers. (PHOTO : Dan BUTUC)