+ Civil architecture is the richest and the most diversified area of the architectural art. Being extremely heterogeneous in the scope, destination, functionality and graphic expression, civil architecture comprises an ample area of types, species and categories and includes: architecture of historic quarters, architecture of urban ensembles, architecture of markets and streets with historic and artistic value, as well as landscape architecture, architecture of palaces, castles, courts and boyars' mansions (either urban or suburban and rural), architecture of administrative, social-cultural, functional, medical and curative, educational, hotel and funeral edifices. One should distinguish the architecture of museums and memorial estate, architecture of theatres and cinemas, architecture of libraries, cultural centers and clubs, etc. in the framework of the social-cultural architecture.

Constructions with civil destination, which used to be built before the XIXth century in Basarabia, do not exist any more. Still, it is a well-known fact that they used to be in the past. One may easily find a plenty of recollections about inns, shops, storehouses, pubs, palaces, mansions, performance halls, etc. in the old chronicles and local toponymy dating from the previous epochs of the XIXth century. Road, one-night shelter constructions from medieval Moldova, frequently named as "han (inn)", "ratos (hostelry)" and "fagadau (tavern)" were widely spread during the Middle Ages, their existence having been confirmed by the toponymy of certain Basarabian villages, such as the locality of Ratos in the former Rayons of Criuleni and Telenesti and the village of Fagadau in the former Rayons of Camenca and Falesti.

The ruins of Orhei Vechi (the city of Sehr-al-Djeadid) still preserve the vestiges of certain constructions of Tartar civil architecture, present in the form of steam baths, two caravanserais and road constructions, meant to act as a shelter to caravans and pack animals, typical of the entire East.

One of the oldest Basarabian inns was preserved in Chisinau, which is located on 4 Octavian Goga Street. The aforementioned inn, constructed not earlier than the 1st third of the XIXth century, still bears the typological characteristics of an architectural and volumetric plan and was consolidated already in the XVIIIth century, much before its construction.

The public baths, sometimes called as "feredeie", were quite popular in Medieval Moldova. It is common knowledge that in the 30-40's of the XVIIth century, a marble bath was constructed within Vasile Lupu's Court in Iasi, which enchanted the visitors by its splendor, among which was the famous eye-witness of those times, Mr. Paul from Aleppo. The fact of existence of public baths in Moldova is uncontestable, as the name of the street "Feredee" in Iasi, former capital of Moldova, may serve as an undeniable proof of this.