Сhișinău Water-Supply System in the 19th Century

• Published in: Dialogica: Revistă de studii culturale şi literatură (Online) Vol. IV; no. 1; pp. 91 - 105
• Main Authors: Mariana ȘLAPAC, Alla CEASTINA
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Moldova State University 01.04.2022
• Subjects: bernardazzi; chișinău; eclecticism; fountain; harris; scheidewandt; schmidt; water tower; water-supply system
• ISSN: 2587-3695; 1857-2537
• DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.6508056

In the 19th century the issue of water- supply system for Chișinău remained a top priority. Even before the construction of the aqueduct, the city Fountain was the main source of water. In 1834, the Turkish master Ioan Suyolci, invited from Odessa, completed the necessary constructions at the city Fountain. However, then all the problems were not solved, and the mouth of the main water source was constantly polluted. In 1862, the city Duma raised the issue of building the Chișinău water-supply line. The city architect Alexander Bernardazzi and the engineer Ludwig Fortini participated in the exploration for the opening of new wells in the Buiucani Valley. In the 70s of the 19th century some fountain masters and engineers, among which were Marcel Sourroubille, Von Eltz, Shevtsov, Foss, Kogan, Metz, Durasov and others, who proposed their projects for the construction of a water supply system in Chișinău. In the 1880s engineers Altukhov and Sytenko made new proposals, and engineer N. Lyapunov presented his project using Fontain’s water. But only thanks to the efforts of the city mayor Karl Schmidt, according to the project approved by the Odessa branch of the Russian Imperial Technical Society, the construction of the Chișinău water-supply system with two identical water towers was completed in December of 1892. The engineer of the Railway Communications Dmitry Dyatkov took part in the work design, later being hired as a technical supervision of its construction. Also, architects Alexander Bernardazzi and Leopold Sсheidewandt and engineers E. Harris, M. Ozemblovsky, K. Gasquet and others took an active part in the construction of the water supply system. At present, one of the two buildings of water towers, built in the eclectic style (at the corner of Alexei Mateevich and Metropolitan Gavriil Banulescu-Bodoni streets), has survived, which today is a valuable monument of industrial architecture and the residence of the Historical Museum of Chișinău.