US Embassy in the former Polish consulate building

Alexeia Mateevici Street, now in the historic centre of Chisinau, was called Sadova (Romanian: Viilor) in the 19th century and ran along the southern periphery of the then new, so-called Upper City. Behind it were only gardens and vineyards. The street was built up with one- and two-storey houses, mainly villas of the local aristocracy. Some of these have survived to this day and officially have the status of historical and architectural monuments.

After the collapse of the USSR, when embassies began to open in the capital of Moldova, which had been independent since 27 August 1991, this street became an attractive, prestigious address for the location of diplomatic representations. The first to do so, on 18 March 1992, was the opening of the US embassy in just such a turn-of-the-century urban villa, at number 103.

This entailed a partial reconstruction of the building. Originally, it was a building in the spirit of Western architecture, with clear historicist and classicist features, but with a provincial appearance. At the same time, it referred to local, indigenous rural building traditions. The folk trend was manifested in the massing, the portico with a balcony protruding in front of the façade, the characteristic shape of the roof, as well as the detailing, the decorative motifs.

In 2016, a plaque made of grey granite was placed on the main façade in three languages - Romanian, English and Polish , which reads: "This house housed the Consulate of the Republic of Poland between 1932 and 1940".

Locations of the Polish post in Chisinau

This was not the first location of the consulate in Chisinau. A Polish post in this city was opened soon after the end of the First World War and the restoration of Poland's independence. At first it was the Honorary Consulate and then the Polish Consulate with its seat in a one-storey building at 83 General Berthelot Street (now Alexeia Şciuseva). The building, which no longer exists today, witnessed significant events with a geopolitical dimension. From mid-1929, Marian Uzdowski (1890-post-1939) , a participant in the Polish-Bolshevik war, an intelligence officer of the Polish Army, a close associate of Jozef Pilsudski (1867-1935), whom he hosted in Chisinau in April 1932, held the post of consulate manager.

In the same year, a few months later, undoubtedly due to the Marshal's visit, the Polish Consulate moved to a larger, more representative premises on Viilor Street, now Mateevici 103. This building now houses the American Embassy . In 1933, Consul Uzdowski, who took over the post in Chernivtsi, was replaced by Alexander Poncet de Sandon (1895-1979) . It should be noted that Jozef Pilsudski was the only leader of another country to visit Chisinau between 1918 and 1940.

Józef Piłsudski in Kishinev

In the interwar period, the Kingdom of Romania, as a country bordering Poland and at the same time the USSR, was an important strategic partner of Poland. Bilateral relations were very lively. The Chief of State, Marshal Jozef Pilsudski, was a frequent visitor to Bucharest , both officially and privately on holiday. He was even friends with the royal family. He paid four official visits to Romania : in September 1922, September/October 1928, October 1931 and April 1932.

. The latter, though formally an unofficial visit, involved talks of state importance at the highest level. There was a meeting with King Charles II. Among other things, negotiations were discussed concerning the planned conclusion of non-aggression pacts with the Soviet Union, which was making claims to Bessarabia. Accordingly, in order to mark his solidarity with Romania, the Marshal, returning from his nearly month-long holiday in Egypt, visited not only Bucharest but also Chisinau.

He arrived in the Bessarabian capital by train on the morning of 17 April, accompanied by the Counsellor of the Polish Embassy in Bucharest, Lieutenant Colonel Tadeusz Kobylański (1895-1967) , and his personal bodyguard. He stopped at the headquarters of the Polish Consulate, which was then the office and at the same time the residence of Consul Uzdowski. From the forenoon hours, the Marshal held talks with the military command and civilian authorities of Bessarabia, discussing not only political issues but also opportunities for economic exchange. The intensive day did not end well, and towards evening the Marshal felt unwell , the doctors diagnosed influenza, fortunately - as the Kraków-based Ilustrowany Kurier Codzienny reported - light. The visit, originally planned as a one-day affair, was thus prolonged by two days. The visitor remained at the consulate until 19 April under the attentive care of the consul's wife, Julia Uzdowska. He then returned to Bucharest by overnight train, arriving at Warsaw's Central Station via Kolomyja and Lviv.

The Józef Piłsudski Memorial in Kishinev

More than eighty years later, this significant event was commemorated by the erection of a monument to Jozef Pilsudski in the centre of the Moldovan capital. Just one kilometre long, Mitropolit Petr Movily (Peter Mogila) Street has been enriched with a third monument. In addition to the street's patron, the Orthodox Metropolitan of Kyiv Movily and the Romanian poet of the Romantic era, Mihai Eminescu, a Pole, Marshal Jozef Pilsudski, was honoured.

On the initiative of the Polish Embassy in Moldova, a bronze bust on a granite square pedestal with an inscription in Polish was erected in the square at the junction of Mitropolita Petra Movily and 31 August 1989 : "Jozef Pilsudski 1867-1935" and in Romanian "Marshal of Poland/Friend of Bessarabia". The monument was unveiled on 20 November 2014 by the Presidents: Bronislaw Komorowski of the Republic of Poland and Nicolae Timofti of the Republic of Mold ova (as noted by the magazine of Poles in Moldova "Tomorrowland", it took place "in pouring rain"). The Polish president described his visit as a gesture of support for Moldova in its European aspirations. The creators of the monument are the Moldovan sculptors Veaceslav Jigliţchi (Vyacheslav Żyglicki) and Veaceslav Zaiţev (Vyacheslav Zaitsev) and the architect Eugen Bâzgu.

In time, through the efforts of Polish diplomats, the surrounding space was planted with greenery. Every year on 11 November, the bust of Józef Piłsudski gathers the staff of the Polish Embassy and representatives of the Polish community. Vyacheslav Vygotsky, who is of Polish descent, is also the author of two other Kishinev monuments - the benches of John Paul II and Adam Mickiewicz.

In November 2018, the Museum of Moldovan History in Chisinau opened the exhibition 'Jozef Pilsudski - Statesman of Poland and Europe' , developed by the Józef Piłsudski Museum in Sulejówek and prepared by the Polish Institute in Bucharest, to popularise the figure of Marshal Piłsudski in the country between the Prut and Dniester rivers.