Harta orașului Iași și a zonei înconjurătoare din 1855
The Map of Iași City and of its Surrounding Area in 1855

Summary/Abstract: In this study we set out to present an unknown map regarding the capital of the Principality of Moldavia, Iași city, and its surroundings from the middle of the 19th century. The map is entitled Jassi und Umgebung, it is provided by the Military Archives in Vienna (Kriegsarchive) and was created during the Austrian military occupation of Moldavia (1854–1857), during the Crimean War. The map points out yet again that, during that period, the Austrian army initiated geodetic activities in Moldavia, not only in Wallachia, as was known until now. Its realization was subordinated to an old political and military objective of the Habsburg monarchy for the exploration and mapping of its own territory but also of its political and economic influence areas located in the vicinity of its borders. For this reason, I briefly presented other military maps and plans regarding the Principality of Moldavia and the area of Iași in the 18–19th centuries, highlighting the historical context in which the map was drawn in 1855. Given the above, I paid a special attention to the identification of the officers who made the map (Anton Krzisch, Eduard van der Schlott / Sloot, Gustav von Löw, Rudolf von Friess and Franz Matosović), whose military careers we reconstructed in order to understand, on the one hand, how and where they acquired the cartographic knowledge and skills and, on the other hand, if they also made other topographic works related to the Romanian Principalities.Due to its technical properties, dimensions (527 × 527 mm) and large scale (1 : 28 800), the map offers the most detailed and precise topographic perspective up to 1855 over an area of about 230 km2, which includes the Iasi city, centrally located, and 25 villages around it. The map shows the geographic forms and land usage, roads, structure of localities and households, locations and structures of ecclesiastical (churches, monasteries, cemeteries) and economic (mills, taverns, fountains and aqueducts, bricks, slaughterhouse, telegraph) objectives, headquarters of some institutions, public and private gardens, residences of the social elite in Iași and in its vicinity, etc. Topographic information is important and consistent, which is why the map can be used as a source of documentation for research topics in various fields: history and archaeology, geography and cartography, urbanism, toponymy and others.

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