A cross was recently placed on a hill in Bălănești village of Nisporeni district, which is the highest point in the Republic of Moldova, on the initiative of the local Adam family that is related to writer Grigore Adam, who is from the village. The cross is made from metal, while the stand is from stone. The height of the cross together with the plinth is almost 10 meters.

Ludmila Adam, a member of the family that set up the cross, has told IPN that the idea appeared last winter. “My son Roman lives in Ireland together with his family. He saw on the Internet a short movie showing a Bălănești visitor’s dissatisfaction with the absence of signs to the highest place in Moldova. My son, who was born in Bălănești, felt embarrassed and told us about his feelings,” said the woman. She went on to add that her granddaughter Eva asked her father if they can place a cross on the highest point in Moldova. Roman designed a project to set up the cross and this was implemented several days ago.

The cross was made in Bălănești. Only the marble plaque with an inscription that was put on the cross was made and imprinted at a workshop in Chisinau. The place around the cross is to be laid out and blessed.

Ludmila Adam said the cross was put not exactly on the highest place in Moldova – 429.5 m above the level of sea - but at a distance of 15 m from that place as they needed to obtain too many authorizations from Chisinau. “Anyway, this was the best of the existing variants,” noted the woman.

Among native persons who made Bălănești famous in the country and abroad are actors Mihai Curagău and Constantin Adam, and doctor Vlad Brașoveanu, who performs liver transplant surgery and now works in Bucharest. The village has a museum that is devoted to writer Grigore Adam.