An important part of urban anthropology presents the research of city images, which were developed and now exist on different levels of social reality, as well as representations of the residents about their city. Images perform some essential functions: they underlie urban identities and form bonds with the symbolic capital of a city and its attractiveness for the residents. My former empiric research of the urban identities allowed to trace some special characteristics of how Chisinau is perceived by different groups of its residents. The participants of research speaking about their views and emotions relating to the city, used their personal images of Chisinau as individual experience of space and place. Taking into consideration social or sometimes even constructivist nature of a city image it appears consistent to analyze images, reflected (or created) in the photographic albums and touristic guides - a kind of ideal presentations, and compare them with Chisinau images, existing among its residents. In view of this there were selected some printed publications issued during the Soviet period and the years of independence of the Republic, including two edited encyclopedias (with 1984 and 1997 years of issue). The comparison of these sources was carried out according to the identified categories and their contents. The results showed a certain evolution of the “ideal” Chisinau image, which served reflection of the time of its formation/creation, being a vivid illustration of the epoch and sociocultural milieu. Some images were in line with representations existing in the contemporary urban milieu of Chisinau. At the same time ideological shifts explain coexistence of various urban identities, for they were formed during different historical periods, and consequent incoherence of representations about the city, which is characteristic for the present stage of its development.