Mileștii Mici

Mileștii Mici is a commune in Ialoveni District, Moldova, composed of two villages, Mileștii Mici and Piatra Albă. It has a population of over 4,500 and is 18 km from Chişinău. For much of its history, the locals have extracted white stone from underneath the village. Several hundred kilometers of the underground extraction site exist today. Some of the shafts are used as cellars for storing Milestii Mici wines.

For the winery, see Mileștii Mici (winery).
Mileștii Mici
Commune
Mileștii Mici
Coordinates: 46.900835°N 28.795856°E / 46.900835; 28.795856
Country Moldova
DistrictIaloveni District
Government
 • MayorTrohin Dan
Population
 • Total4,969
Time zoneUTC+2 (EET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+3 (EEST)

History

Mileștii Mici is an ancient Moldovan village, having been mentioned in ancient books and chronicles. Archeological research has found settlement remains from many different epochs and cultures, beginning in the tenth to eleventh millennium BC.

In 1870, Emmanuel Brihunet, the priest of "Saint Nikolai" church in Mileștii Mici, discovered some references about the village in old manuscripts, dating from 30 March 1528.

In these early modern chronicles it is mentioned that King Petru Rares gave his grandson, Lashko-Voda from Isnovet, three other villages, two of which were situated around Isnovet River.

When the Soviet Union gained control under Moldova, there was an order to destroy the wine collection, but the workers made a secret door where they stored the collection.

Wine Cellars

Stretching for 250 km, of which only 120 km are currently in use, the Mileștii Mici cellar complex is also the largest in the world. In 2007 Mileștii Mici wine cellars were noted in Guinness World Records 2007 Yearbook, for having the largest (2 million) wine collections in the world.

References
  1. Results of Population and Housing Census in the Republic of Moldova in 2014: "Characteristics - Population (population by communes, religion, citizenship)" (XLS). National Bureau of Statistics of the Republic of Moldova. 2017. Retrieved 2017-05-01.


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