In the second half of the XIX century provincial circuses, menageries, theatres and other shows were quite widespread in the Bessarabian province. In the same period, the design of the first circus buildings began to be seen there. So, in 1892 the Italian citizen O. Ferroni planned to approve the project for standard buildings in the large cities of Bessarabia in the future. Archival documents also confirm the approval of the project for the construction of the Chisinau wooden circus in 1893-1895 and the opening of the circus theater in Bendery in 1889-1905. Along with the favorite circuses, the long-awaited menageries appeared with performing animals and birds. One of the first references to the menagerie in Chisinau dates back to 1893, when the Austrian-citizen W. Anderlik erected a canvas building. In the same year, the famous Sur circus gave some performances in Chisinau in a temporary building, which was organized by A. Kremzer. Another type of spectacular building, the sports pavilion consisting of a skating ring, was built in Chisinau in 1910 thanks to the activity of two entrepreneurs G. Polyakov and E. Levin. In 1912-1913, the new owner J. Korinberg proposed to set musical evenings and dramatic performances there, turning the pavilion into the future “Olympus” theatre. Other entrepreneurs: J. Haskelevich, G. Fraiberg and J. Khaimovich received permission to open the theatre-illusion with an electrical substation in Ismail. Also, the same illusion was opened in Bendery by entrepreneur C. Khatskelevich, about which documents were preserved from 1910-1917 in the National Archive of the Republic of Moldova. Thus, circuses, menageries, theatres-illusions existed in Bessarabia in the XIX century and developed as a special and independent type of art, however, the problems associated with the history of the appearance and construction of spectacular buildings in Bessarabian region remained far from being explored and needed further study.