slavaroid

Built in 1981 in Chișinău, capital of Moldavian SSR, the Circul de Stat was one of the most significant and renowned circuses in the USSR.

Architects Semyon Mikhailovich Shoikhet and Ala Kirilenko designed a natural stone round building with an elegant semicircular foyer, panoramic summer terraces and a detachable dome.
The 13 metres-wide main arena could host up to 1900 people.

Losing its importance after the fall of the Soviet Union and permanently abandoned in 2004, the Soviet circus lays now in semi-decay.
The smaller arena was modernised in 2014, while the rest of the building is left to rot waiting for a possible redevelopment and a relaunch in the future.

Slightly crumbly and vaguely ill-kept, the charming Cosmos has surely seen better days.

The state-owned hotel, planned by architects B. Banykin and Irina Kolbayeva, was constructed between 1974 and 1983 during the massive urban redevelopment of the capital following war and earthquake devastation.

In its golden years it was one of the largest and most modern accomodations in Moldavian SSR. Under the blazing starbursts and the neon capital letters on the top floor, swinging angled-shaped balconies form a dynamic concrete pattern overlooking Negruzzi square and Kotovsky equestrian statue.

Although not working anymore on its full capacity, the Cosmos hotel and its former glamour still twinkle like a Soviet modernist gem among post-war architecture in Chișinău.