STEPHEN THE GREAT AND HOLY COMMEMORATION/ The Soroca Citadel

The Soroca settlement is first recorded in a document dated 1499. The foundation is attributed to Stephen the Great, who would have ordered the building of a citadel on the right bank of the Dnester River, on the site of Alciona, an old Genoa fortress.

Originally a wooden castle surrounded by earth walls, Petru Rares rebuilt Soroca in stone on a circular plane, provided with four circular towers arranged in a cross. It was an important defence point for the eastern borders of Moldavia in the 16th-17th centuries.

July 2 marks the commemoration of 510 years since the death of Moldovan ruler Stephen the Great (ruling between 1457-1504), one of the most important Romanian figures of the Middle Ages. On June 20, 1992, he was sanctified by the Romanian Orthodox Church as Pious Voivode Stephen the Great and Holy. AGERPRES