Suceava: Medieval Throne of Moldova

When I left Constanta I took a Micro-bus to the city of Bacau. I had no where to stay, I got dropped off and luckily the taxi driver I got knew a place where I could stay for a decent price. I slept there and then did some interviews in the city the next morning. I saw Elder Suppes, one of my good buddies, known him since he was in the MTC where I volunteered. I didn't take any pictures, Bacau was a clean place, but nothing really that interesting, and I was gone by 1:00 on a train up to Suceava. On the way, near Piatra Neamt I saw a 'Tank Graveyard' with hundreds of tanks lined up, but overgrown by plants and stuff, a relic of the massive army of the Communist Era.


Moldova is a much more hilly place than the flat Wallachian plain. It was in this more difficult terrain that the Austro-German-Bulgarian forces of the Central Powers were halted by the remnants of the Romanian Army and massive reinforcements from the Russian Army, along with problems of overstretched supply lines and bad weather, in the winter of 1916 after Romania's disastrous entrance into the First World War.


I got to the North Suceava train station and caught a bus into town.


Suceava is situated up on a large hill. The city has been largely modernized and the historic part of the city is quite limited. While a rather run down, small, and unimportant city in modern Romania, Suceava boasts a rich Medieval history. It was the capitol of the Moldovan Principality for 200 years, between 1388 to 1565, and had connections with the Polish, Hungarian, and Russian Medieval states. It was the throne of Stefan the Great and Holy, one of Romania's greatest heroes.


After checking into my hostel, which was pretty nice, I took a walk to go explore the old Medieval ruins of the Throne of Moldova. I had to hike down the hill of the modern city into a small valley, and then climb up the stairs onto a nearby hill.


Atop the hill was a massive statue commemorating Stefan the Great and Holy, Prince of Moldova from 1457 to 1504. He fought against Polish, Hungarian, and Ottoman attempts to seize his lands and was a brilliant military commander, who emerged victorious in all but four of his 48 recorded major campaigns. Even though he was of the Eastern Orthodox faith, the Pope in Rome declared him a 'True Defender of the Faith' for his actions against the Ottomans. He built 44 Orthodox Churches, traditionally, one for each of his victories.


After passing the statue I had to wander through a wood for a while trying to orient myself with a hand drawn, not to scale, map given to me by the hostel.


I finally saw this chalk written sign pointing me in the right direction 'To the citadel'.


I finally came upon the old citadel, the Throne of Moldova. It was an ancient fortress which had many layers showing the development of European Medieval castle technology. An early Medieval square keep was the original fortification which concentric circles of walls and defenses were added to over the decades. Round bastions and a moat were the final additions.


I talked to the ticket seller for the fortress, he was reading a book on Romanian history and I discovered that he was working on his post-graduate work and planning to write about Moldovan history. It was fun talking a bit of shop with another historian to be.


Here is the original keep, with newer defenses around it. I had a lot of fun running around the fortress. There wasn't anything inside, but it was nice enough. A beautiful day, a few families were picnicking in the walls and I climbed up on some of the ruins.


After visiting the citadel I followed a different path down from the fortress and down into the small valley separating the Medieval ruins from the modern city. The very 'backwoods' nature of Suceava is extremely evident.


The modern city does contain a few other important Medieval sites, like the Church of Saint John. It also has some more modern buildings from the 1800s containing the history museum and also the first Romanian Secondary School, established in the late 1800s.


The old town hall is a beautiful building also.


However, the majority of the city is Communist apartment blocs which are dull and ugly, even if once in a while they have some originality, like this one for instance. After a long day of interviews, trains, and exploring, I was worn out and sweaty. So, I returned to the hostel to relax. I actually ended up having a long conversation with a older Dutch lady who was very interested in the local history before I finally got to bed. The next day I would go out and explore one of the famous painted monasteries near Suceava.