Iasi, city in eastern Romania and capital of Iasi County, on the Bahlui River (a tributary of the Prut River). The city is an important communications and commercial center. Chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and plastics rank among the chief products. Iasi is the seat of the Orthodox metropolitan region of Moldavia and of a Roman Catholic archbishopric. Places of interest include a cathedral, two 15th-century churches, a library housing the chief records of Romanian history, and the first Romanian university, the Al. I. Cuza University of Iasi (founded in 1860). Founded before the 14th century, Iasi was the capital of the principality of Moldavia from 1565 to about 1860. It was burned repeatedly: by the Tatars in 1513, by the Ottomans in 1538, and by the Russians in 1686. The Treaty of Jassy (1792) concluded the Russo-Turkish War of 1787. During World War I (1914-1918), Iasi temporarily replaced Bucharest as the capital of Romania. Population (1997 estimate) 346,613.
