Horodiște

The village of Horodiște is located in the north-west of Riscani district, on the right bank of the Ciuhur River, which flows from the surroundings of Ocnita and flows into the Prut River. In the northern part of the village on the left side of the river there are picturesque cliffs over 130 m high, called Holm, with a huge cave "Țiglău", where the locals used to take shelter during emergencies. 

The feast day of the village is on Great Sunday, and the village is documented on 3 July 1429. 

Archaeological excavations show traces of human activity dating back more than 70,000 years, when prehistoric people settled in the cave on the edge of the present village. Flint objects and tools have been found here. The middle layer of the cave contains flint objects dating from the 12th-11th millennia BC. 

In the Neolithic period (10,000 - 12,000 years ago) human settlements appear, people settled in this cave. 

From the beginning two villages were founded, and later two more. The inhabitants built their houses of wood and clay, herded cattle, farmed, practised various domestic crafts, etc. The development of the villages was halted by a fire. When Dacia was conquered by the Roman Empire, two villages were founded on these sites, where free Dacians lived, ploughed and sowed the land, raised cattle, and had trade links with merchants in the cities of the Roman Empire. These villages were again devastated and burned down following the Hun invasion. As a result of the migration, new settlements emerged. Settlements were located along small rivers, which formed hamlets of 3-5 settlements. One of these hamlets was our village. Archaeologists describe a rectangular shaped settlement on the territory of these settlements, located at a depth of 130 cm from the ground level, oriented on the East-West axis. On the steep bank of the river Ciuhur there are traces of a fortress with moat and mound, built during the migration period to serve as a place of refuge during enemy invasions. In different periods, nomadic tribes of shepherds passed through the area, leaving seven burial mounds. 

On June 3, 1429 in a book from the Suceava court of Alexander the Good, a settlement on Ciuhur with the name "Horodiște" is mentioned. 

The name of the village comes from the Slavic word "Огородить" (to fence). In the past there were fences that protected the village near the border. This is also the origin of the name of the village of Horodiște - "Городище" (fortified settlement). In 1541, in his second reign, Petru Rares, enthroned by the Turks, waged a series of wars and built the great monastery of Probolta. He gave estates and villages to army commanders and brave soldiers "for righteous and faithful service". A document says that "By the mercy of God we, Petru Voievod, ruler of the country of Moldavia... and Oprea Ungureanu served us justly and faithfully. Therefore.. we give a village on Ciuhur, namely Horodiște, which that village .... and grandchildren and great-grandchildren and their entire lineage who will prove most faithful forever". 

On September 4, 1605, the ruler Ieremia Movilă gifts a number of villages to the Dragomirna Monastery, including Horodiște on Ciuhur... 

The Tsarist times 

The toponym Basarabia was applied to Bugeac, a small strip north of the mouth of the Danube, which was under Ottoman rule. After 1812 the territory between the Prut, Dniester, Danube and Black Sea was annexed by Russia. Bessarabia was divided into 8 counties. The counties were divided into districts. Tens of thousands of Bessarabian peasants, including those from the village of Horodiste, groaned under the colonial yoke. Many Bessarabians were displaced to the Caucasus and Siberia, where Moldovan villages are still preserved today. The Russian Empire succeeded in almost 6 centuries of division and domination. The Tsarist government decided to carry out an agrarian reform out of fear of losing control. At that time there were 49 families living in Horodiste, 48 of which were given 9.5 ares of land. 

Later the town experienced a social and economic rise. There were two water mills in the village belonging to Nicolae Rosetti Roznovanu and his wife, Ecaterina Ghica Roznovanu (the countess who owned and then sold the estates of Pociumbeni and Druță to the landlord Teodor Vârnav, the first Romanian memorialist). Ecaterina Ghica also owned the manor in Lipcani, where she was buried, and the church from the small town with the parish of St. Ecaterina was in honour of the countess.  The countess also wrote a complaint in the 1860s in which she asked the county authorities to stop deforestation around the village of Horodiște. 

In 1865, among the Russian landowners who owned large estates was the landlord Gheorghe (Egor) Rîșcanu, who owned 6000 ares. He lived on the lands of the present day Riscani district. Hence the name of Riscani district.  He owned the following settlements - Rîșcani, Ochiul Alb, Grinăuți , Brătușeni, Druță , Moșeni and Horodiște with 489 inhabitants. Gheorghe Rîșcanu had a family with 4 children - Alexandru, Jorj, Maria and Vera.  In order to keep the population in check, the tsarist government had large armed contingents deployed in the governorates. The "Voznesensky Polk" (military brigade) was stationed in Balti. Ivan Dimitrievich Bursky was assigned to this military unit from Siberia and married Maria, daughter of G. Rishcanu. When he gave his daughter Maria in marriage, her dowry included the Horodiște estate and the village with the same name. After his marriage Ivan Bursky helped by his father-in-law, went into the reserve and consolidated all his activity on the estate where he lived until 1922.  With the move to the estate, Ivan Burrsky became an administrator, but also ,,Zemskii nacialnic,,- head of the local administration.  The landlord gave cattle and other valuable gifts to the locals. Two children were born into the landlord's family - daughter Cococica and son Vladimir. The daughter was viciously ill and died young. Vladimir was a clever boy, studied abroad and knew 5 languages. Some claim that Vladimir may have met the Tsar's daughter Olga and even intended to marry her, but his concussion in the First World War thwarted all intentions.  

Vladimir Bursky later married a woman who worked at his court named Olga. He lovingly called her Olicica. They gave birth to a girl named Galina and a boy named Pachia. Galina married Malut of Erimia Gurău. During the Second World War, in 1944 fortifications were being built along the Prut. Young girls and women, who had only one child each, were mobilised and forced to dig trenches. Galina developed pneumonia, she did not recover and died. Pachia was born in 1925 and after marriage had three daughters: Valentina, Maria and Silvia... 

Under the Russian Tsar's decree, the landlords were obliged to build a school and a church in their villages. In the village, a church was built of wicker on a stone foundation.   This church was built with the money donated by Ivan and Maria Bursky. Around 1907 the building project was approved. The plan of the church and cemetery has been preserved. According to the inhabitants, the stone church was built on the site of the old wooden church in 1906-1907 and consecrated on the Great Sunday in 1914. Father Sordun from Văratic was ordained as priest. Others claim that the first priest was Father Zorilă from Pociumbeni. In 1962 the local authorities put a lock on the church door.   After 26 years, in 1989, the first Christian mass was celebrated. On the feast of the Great Sunday, the church and the village celebrate their feast day (Hram). 

Between 1901 and 1904, a school with two primary classes was built with education in Russian. In 1908 the pupils stopped attending the school, which reopened in 1910 with 30 pupils. 

Between 1918 and 1940 there were 4 classes taught in Romanian. In 1948, 7 classes were taught, with Mihai Leontev as principal. Between 1952 and 1961 a new school with 8 classes was built.  

1912-1918 

An event that shook humanity at the beginning of the 20th century was the First World War 1914-1918. In 1914 Bessarabia was under Russian rule and the men of the village were mobilized in the Tsarist army. Vladimir Bursky and others were called up. Some villagers were taken prisoner by the Germans. Vladimir Bursky suffered a concussion in one of the battles and did not fight again. He died during the famine in 1946. 

The family vault still stands today on the grounds of the centuries-old church, the only one in the region that was not subjected to Soviet transformations, but was only closed after all the women, including pregnant women with small children, lined up in front of the church in peaceful protest and opposition to the church becoming a mere warehouse. Today there are still the manor cellars, the vault, the church and some photographs. 

The Russians, being preoccupied with their own problems, paid less attention to the settlements. This encouraged the Basarabians to proclaim their independence, electing their first parliament - the Country Council - in 1918. Erimia Sofronie, a native of Horodiște, was among its democratically elected members. On 27 March 1918, the Declaration of Unification with Romania was signed. The village of Horodiște became a district in the Balti county. 

In 1946- 1947 there was a great drought and terrible famine. The peasants were burdened with various taxes - "postavcă". Those who could not pay the "postavca" were deported to Siberia and Kazakhstan. Accused of not fulfilling their obligations to hand over agricultural products to the state, 36 people were deported from the village of Horodiste. Two years later, forced collectivisation began. The "socialist period" commenced.