One of the least known and least visited regions in Europe, the territory of the former Moldovan SSR — encompassing today’s Moldova and the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic — is a small yet fascinating land that deserves to be fully explored and understood. Beyond its renowned wineries and gleaming monasteries, its greatest charm lies above all in the details.

“Drum bun” means “have a nice trip” in the Moldovan language.

Driving off the beaten path, the traveller comes across numerous well-crafted Soviet-era road signs. Like large, imposing concrete sculptures, they have stood for decades, marking sovkhozes, rayons, and towns. Hammers and sickles, ears of corn, red stars, and collective farm women carrying grapes emerge amid gentle green hills and long, dusty roads.

As most of them are slowly but inexorably disappearing — left to decay, updated, or simply replaced — preserving their peculiar role within socialist architectural heritage has now become essential.

For this reason, from 2016 onwards we have travelled extensively throughout the territory, documenting these underrated remnants of the past and building a lasting, on-the-road photographic catalogue.

Elena Amabili
Alessandro Calvaresi