Ștefan cel Mare

A statue on the move

At the entrance to the largest park in Chișinău stands a bronze prince. The statue was unveiled in nineteen twenty-eight. Twelve years later, it was taken away to Vaslui, in Romania. It came back in nineteen forty-two and left again in nineteen forty-four. Only in nineteen eighty-nine did it return to its original spot. Few statues have moved so often. The man it portrays is Ștefan cel Mare, Stephen the Great.

A different Moldavia

Ștefan was born in Borzești, sometime between fourteen thirty-three and fourteen forty. On the fourteenth of April fourteen fifty-seven he took the throne, and he ruled the Principality of Moldavia until fifteen oh four. That country was larger than today's Republic of Moldova. It stretched from the Carpathians to the Dniester and the Black Sea. It included the east of present-day Romania, with the capital Suceava, the land between the Prut and the Dniester, which is now the Republic of Moldova, and parts of present-day Ukraine. His reign lasted forty-seven years, in a land where princes often followed one another in quick succession.

Vaslui, January fourteen seventy-five

Moldavia lay between three powers: the Ottoman Empire, Hungary and Poland. On the tenth of January fourteen seventy-five, Ștefan defeated an Ottoman army at Vaslui. Pope Sixtus the Fourth then called him a true defender of the Christian faith. A year later, at Războieni, he lost to Sultan Mehmed the Second, but the Ottomans withdrew. In fourteen eighty-four, however, the harbour fortresses of Chilia and Cetatea Albă did fall into their hands.

Stones and fortresses

Ștefan had dozens of stone churches and monasteries built. The best known is Putna Monastery, consecrated in fourteen seventy. He also left his mark on the territory of present-day Moldova. In fourteen ninety-nine, he had a wooden fort built at Soroca, by a ford across the Dniester. Half a century later, the fort was rebuilt in stone. The round fortress with its five bastions still stands today.

A holy prince

Ștefan died in Suceava on the second of July fifteen oh four. He was buried at Putna, the monastery he had built himself. In nineteen ninety-two, the Romanian Orthodox Church declared him a saint. That is why streets and schools often carry his full name, Ștefan cel Mare și Sfânt, Stephen the Great and Holy.

A name in the city

In Chișinău, the main boulevard bears his name, as does the park behind the statue. Between nineteen eighty-nine and nineteen ninety-one, the national movement gathered here, and there were fierce clashes with its opponents too. The bronze statue by Alexandru Plămădeală has thus become more than a reminder of the Middle Ages. Five centuries after his death, Ștefan stands once again on the spot where he was placed in nineteen twenty-eight, at the edge of the boulevard that bears his name.