Soroca always has been a fortress town at the Nistru River crossing. The Genovian traders called this place Olihonia. Later it appears in documents as Soroca (1499). Recognising its strategic importance many Rulers have consolidated the walls of Soroca fortress: Stefan cel Mare, Petru Rares, etc. In its present shape the fortress was made by craftsmen from Transilvania in 1543-1546. It is perfectly round, with five bastions situated at equal distances from each other. Only soldiers lived in the citadel, but during sieges the natives could find protection there too. There is an old legend about the white stork and Soroca fortress. It says that, during a long siege, the starving defenders survived thanks to their courage and a white stork, which brought them bunches of grapes. Today a stork with bunches in its beak is one of the symbols of Moldova.
The locality has extended very much in the XIX c., when there was a period of prosperity. Soroca became a regional centre with big squares, modernised streets, hospitals, grammar schools, conventionalised churches, etc. In the Soviet period the town became an important industrial centre for the north of Moldova.
Places to visit:
The fortress of Soroca in the centre of town; the Bechir canyon with its convent from the IX c.; the “Hill of the sedentary gypsies”; the building of a former grammar school for girls (XIX c.); the former district hospital (XIX c.); the Regional Museum; churches “T.Stratulat” and “The Assumption of Lord’s Mother”.
To south of the town, on the Nistru riverside there is a resort zone “Trifauti”. 7 km to the north of the fortress is situated Cosauti a famous village of masons, a convent, a landscape’s reserve, natural monument.