SUCZAWA

The name of Suceava (Suceava), the former capital of Moldova, the headquarters of the hospodars, it first appeared in a document dated at 1388 r. Hospodar Petru Musat asked Władysław Jagiełło for a loan of the amount 3000 gold in silver. King of Poland, threatened by the Teutonic Knights, granted the hospodar a non-returnable loan, in return for what Moldovans – as far as possible – they blocked the activities of the Teutonic allies. Petru Musat started minting his own coin and built the first fortress in Suceava.

W XV w. Many Polish Armenians came to this wealthy commercial city; they even built their own monastery and church. When, at the end of this century, the Turks threatened the cities and castles of Genoese on the Black Sea, Genoese merchants called on Poles for help. But the Moldavian hospodar Stefan the Great himself wanted to seize valuable Genoese possessions and closed the gates of Suceava. Polish troops circled the fortress, but failed to get it. The expedition ended in an inglorious defeat, which is commemorated by the proverb "The nobility perished under King Olbracht”. Suceava's golden age has come to an end with the end of Polish support. The capital of the principality was moved to Jass, and the fortress was demolished on the orders of the Turks. The city was ravaged by the Turks several times, Poles and Hungarians; w XVI w. Suleiman the Magnificent burned them completely, and in the 17th century – Tatars.

Interesting, that mothers in Suceava sometimes scare their children… Sobieski. King Jan III was here often, and because he hated diplomatic scams, He dealt with swindlers without mercy – whips at best. During one of the numerous expeditions, Sobieski's army turned the Armenian monastery into a fortress, which to this day is called Zamca (from pol. "lock”).

A sleepy town for many centuries, today it is the administrative center of the Suceava district and the entrance gate to Bukovina (especially for Poles, because there is a direct bus from Przemyśl). It is worth seeing churches and a historic fortress here, and after a day of sightseeing, hit the road again.

Orientation

Trains stop at two stations, Gara Suceava and Gara Suceava Nord; both are located a few kilometers north of the center, in the area of ​​Piata 22 December.

You have to cross the road from Gara Suceava to the center, buy a ticket at a kiosk and take a trolleybus #2 the 3 (ok. six stops from the station at the top of a low hill). From Gara Suceava Nord you go by trolleybus #5.

Luggage storage at Suceava train station is located at the information desk on the main platform (open 24 hours a day).

information

Tourist offices – ONT tourist office (tel.221297; pn.-pt. 8.00-20.00, sb. 9.00-13.00), Nicolae Balcescu street 2, is located next to the Hotel Suceava on Piata 22 December.

Road assistance is provided by Automobil Clubul Roman (tel.210997), on the strade of Nicolae Balcescu 8, on the west side of the Main Post Office.

Money – BANC (Curtea Domneasca street; pn.-pt. 9.00-13.00), exchanges traveller's checks for a fixed commission 4 $.

Post and telecommunications – Telephones can be found at the Main Post Office at strada Nicolae Balcescu; open every day. 7.00-22.00. Country code for Suceava: 030.

Travel agencies – Biro CFR (pn.-pt. 9.00-18.00) located on the strada Nicolae Balcescu 8, obok hotel Suceava.

ONT, Nicolae Balcescu street 2, has cars with a driver – 50 $ in half a day, is visited 3 the 4 monasteries; 80 $ for the whole day, 5 or 6 monasteries.

It is much more profitable to use the services of Bucovina Estur (Stefan cel Mare street 24, tel.223259, fax 520223). A car with a driver costs here for the whole day 60 $, you can also rent a Dacia without a driver for the price 50 $ per day (plus gasoline). Reservations one week in advance are advisable in summer, because the rental company only has three vehicles. The office is open Mon-Fri. 9.00-18.00, in summer also on Sat. 9.00-17.00. The staff speak English.

Sightseeing

Near the bus stop on Piata 22 Decembrie you can see the foundations of the 15th-century Ducal Palace. There is a great Orthodox church of St.. Dimitri with a massive bell tower (1535). A bit further there is the main vegetable market.

Przy Ciprian Porumbescu street 5, slightly west of Piata 22 December, Hanul Domnesc rises, A sixteenth-century farmhouse inn, today an ethnographic museum with a nice collection of folk costumes, ceramics, wooden and other objects (gum. pn.).

Returning to Piata 22 December, you can take a walk along Stefan cel Mare street to the south, next to the Central Park (central Park) to the surprisingly interesting Regional Historical Museum at Stefan cel Mare 33 (gum. pn.). The old exhibition, glorifying communism, replaced with a new one, brought only to 1945 r. Signatures are only in Romanian.

If anyone would like to go back a bit towards the park, he can take the Mitropolis strada and walk southeast to the Monastery of St.. John the New (Saint John the New; 1522). The interior of the monastery is enlivened by beautiful original frescoes. The paintings are outside, unfortunately, faded, but they give some idea of ​​the painted churches of Bukovina. Next to the belfry there is a small 17th century chapel., with the upper part of the facade decorated with a strip of frescoes.

Further downhill the Mitropoliei runs outside the city, passing on the left a large wooden gate with the inscription "Parcul Cetatii”. Behind it you can follow the park alley to the left (along the benches) to the huge equestrian statue of Hospodar Stefan the Great (1966). Twenty meters earlier from the road to the monument, there is another lane to the left, leading to the elevation of the Cetatea de Scaun fortress (1388), which in 1476 r. resisted the armies of Muhammad II, the conquerors of Constantinople (today's Istanbul).

On the slope in front of the fortress stands, rebuilt in the 17th century. church of Mirauti (1390), where the princes of Moldavia were once crowned. There is a path leading to it through the park to the west (left) from the fortress.

To the remains of the Zamca fortress, northwest of downtown, Zamcia is leading the way.