Centro 73

The villa at 73 Alexei Mateevici street in Chişinău, the capital of Moldova, was constructed in the early twentieth century and was rated as a local monument by the Academy of Sciences.^[1] After World War II, it was lived in by a Romanian general.^[2] In 2005, the president of the Academy bought the building, intending to live there, and after two years sold it to an Italian businessman. The villa then stood empty for several years.^[3]

Inspired by squatting movements in other European countries, artists and students occupied the villa in August 2010. It was in a bad condition and with the help of volunteers it was cleaned up.^[2] It opened to the public on 25 September 2010 as Centro 73, the first squatted, self-managed social centre in Moldova.^[4][3] The centre was used as a place for alternative culture and events such as concerts and exhibitions were organized.^[5][6] On 20 November 2010, Centro 73 did a solidarity action for freedom of political prisoners in Belarus.^[7]

The Italian owner intended to demolish the building despite its monumental status, which concerned the occupiers since in the previous two years, forty buildings out of a total of 977 monuments had been demolished.^[8] On 1 November 2010, a protest was organised by Centro 73 against demolitions under the slogan "Salvaţi Chişinăul istoric" ("Save historic Chişinău"). This was featured in local media such as Publika TV and Jurnal TV.^[8][9] The building was evicted in December 2010 and the squatters claimed a victory since the owner had pledged to renovate instead of destroying it.^[2] Afterwards, the same group of people briefly occupied the former Turkish embassy, also on Alexei Mateevici street.^[10] They then set up Art Labyrinth in collaboration with the city authorities. The legally established cultural centre based in an old museum provided space for concerts, meetings and art exhibitions.^[6]