“The Cube” Square

The 1980s mark the urban communist systematisation of the former “Great Street”, nowadays the Holy Stephen the Great Boulevard. The archaeologist Nicolae Pușcașu saved from the excavator vestiges of the oldest ecclesiastic gothic edifices with Byzantine influences in Moldavia, dating from the 13th-17th century. A unique project was then proposed, by pushing the new building front to the back, covering the ruins with concrete, and transforming the underground into a museum with a cube-shaped skylight. The project was never completed, although the metal structure still dominates the square. It is flanked now by the imposing building „Cina” (dinner), on the other side of the boulevard, and by the blocs of flats with the „Stefan cel Mare” Galleries. Their basement eventually became the most dynamic area of bars and clubs in Iași. (PHOTO : Mihai BULAI)