Soroca Fortress

  The special place in the historical and cultural heritage of the Moldavian people was given to the fortress in Soroca. It is located in the center of Soroca approximately 160 km to the north from Chisinau. In the Middle Ages Soroca was the part of the whole defensive system of the Moldavian state consisting of 4 fortresses on Dniester, 2 on Danube and 3 in the north of the country.

Thus, princedom borders were under good protection “belt of the stone fortresses”. The fortress Soroca was erected at the crossing through Dniester on the place of the old strengthening.
In 1499 by order of the governor Stefan the Great on the place of the Genoa fort Olkhonia they build the wooden fortress of the square form. In 1543-1546 under the government of the ruler Petru Rares the fortress was reconstructed literally from the foundation. For construction they used stone and it look the same way as now, i.e. absolutely round, with the diameter of 37.5 m and 5 towers equidistant from each other. At creation of this fortress the master based their calculations on the harmony supreme law – "golden section", therefore this construction is unique among the monuments of  the defensive architecture in Europe.
 
The Soroca fortress is known also for that during the time of "Prut campaign" in 1711 against the Turks Moldavian groups of Dmitry Cantemir and Russian armies under command of tsar Peter I have united here. During the various periods this fortress was visited by Bogdan Khmelnitskiy, Timush Khmelnitskiy, Alexander Suvorov, etc.
 
It is the unique medieval monument of the Moldova which remained in the original form. Besides, the small military church located over the central gates also survived

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