Mileştii Mici

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For Mileştii Mici (winery), see Milestii Mici (winery).

Mileştii Mici is first of all a village in the Republic of Moldova of over 9000 inhabitants, situated at 18 km from Chisinau. Since ages, the locals extracted white stone from underneath the village, several hundreds of kilometers of the underground extraction site exist at the moment, a part of which are used as cellars for stocking the Milestii Mici wines.

[edit] History

Milestii Mici villageis one of the most ancient Moldavian villages, mentioned in ancient books and chronicles. The archeological researches found here remains of the settlings of different epochs and cultures, beginning with the Xth – XIth millennium BC.

The priest of the "Saint Nikolai" church, situated in Milestii Mici and found in 1870, Emmanuel Brihunet, revealed some references about the village in old manuscripts, dating from 30th of March, 1528.

In these ancient chronicles it is mentioned that the King Petru Rares gave to its grandson Lashko-Voda from Isnovet village three other villages, two of which were situated below, and one higher than Isnovet River.

[edit] Wine Cellars

Stretching for 250km, of which only 120km are currently in use, the Mileştii Mici cellar complex is also the largest in the world. In 2007 Mileştii Mici wine cellars were noted in Guinness World Records 2007 Yearbook, for having the largest (2 million) wine collections in the world.