Chisinau, Moldova

Chișinău is the capital of Moldova and home to roughly 700,000 people. The settlement on the Byk River was first recorded in 1436, though nearly all of its standing buildings date from after a 1940 earthquake and the Second World War. On Great National Assembly Square, the 1840 Triumphal Arch faces the Nativity Cathedral across the central plaza. The city anchors Moldova's wine trade, and the nearby Mileștii Mici cellars hold about two million bottles in a 200 km underground network. How those tunnels came to rank as the world's largest deserves a closer look.