Comrat

Comrat is the capital of Gagauzia, the autonomous territorial unit in southern Moldova where the Gagauz live, a people who speak a Turkic language and are Orthodox Christian, a combination that is unusual anywhere. The town holds the regional assembly, a university teaching in Gagauz, a cathedral of 1856 and a museum of Gagauz history. The surrounding country is vineyards and open steppe farmland. The autonomous unit was established in 1994, and its institutions have operated from the town continuously since then.

History

Remains of the Chernyakhov culture and burial mounds of the Yamnaya culture have been found around the town. The name is thought to come from the Gagauz Kömür at, "black horse", still the town's symbol, and a settlement called Cumrad appears here on F. W. Bauer's map of Moldova of 1775; after 1819 Gagauz and Bulgarian settlers from the Balkans made up most of the population (Wikipedia, Comrat).

Highlights

• The regional assembly - the seat of the autonomous unit's institutions.
• The cathedral - the 1856 church of St John the Baptist.
• The Gagauz university - the institution teaching in the Gagauz language.
• The history museum - the collection on the Gagauz and their settlement here.

When to go

April to October is the pleasant season. Wine harvest in September is the busiest period. Winter is cold on the open steppe.

Practical notes

The town is workaday with limited facilities for visitors. Museum hours are irregular. There is little signage in anything but Russian and Romanian.

Nearby

Beșalma is south, and Cahul is southwest.

Key facts