Botoșani

History

Botoșani is first mentioned in 1439, in which one chronicle says that "the Mongols came and pillaged all the way to Botușani". In 1498, Moldavian voivode Stephen the Great defeated the Ottoman army of Sultan Bayezid II near Botușani. The town is then mentioned only during the conflicts between Moldavia and Poland: several battles were fought near the town, in 1500, 1505 and 1509. At the junction of several commercial roads including the "Moldavian Road", which linked Iași to Hotin, the city was initially a market town. By 1579 it already had "the biggest and the oldest fair of Moldavia". During World War II, Botoșani was captured on 7 April 1944 by Soviet troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front in the course of the Uman–Botoșani Offensive. Some of the most famous Romanian cultural representatives such as Mihai Eminescu, Romania's national poet, and Nicolae Iorga, the famous Romanian historian, were born in Botoșani. Contemporary poet Maria Baciu also hails from Botoșani. It is also the location of A.T. Laurian National College, founded in 1859, one of Romania's oldest and most prestigious pre-university educational institutions.