STEPHEN THE GREAT AND HOLY COMMEMORATION/ The Suceava Citadel

A foundation of Petre I Musat (1375-1391), the citadel, for the first time recorded on February 10, 1388, was equipped with interior walls around the old fort on an order of Stephen the Great.

The structure was built in two stages: a first "curtain" of square walls 1.5 m thick, 15 m high with defence towers at the end were erected before 1476. Also on an order of the ruler, the old entrance was built off and a new entrance was opened on the southern side, with access to the citadel being provided by a partially fixed, partially mobile bridge. Before 1497, the second "curtain" of 2-m thick walls with defence towers directly affixed, was finished. A very broad defence ditch surrounded the citadel east, south and west.

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