Soroca

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Soroca ( rum. )

Сороки ( Russian )

State : Moldova RepublicRepublic of Moldova Moldova
Administrative unit : Soroca district
Coordinates : 48 ° 10 ′  N , 28 ° 18 ′  E Coordinates: 48 ° 10 ′  N , 28 ° 18 ′  E
 
Residents : 37,600
Soroca (Republic of Moldova)
Soroca
Soroca

Soroca ( Romanian ), Russian and Ukrainian Сороки ( Soroki , "Elster"), is a city in the northeast of the Republic of Moldova on the right bank of the Dniester (Romanian Nistru, Russian Dnestr). The eighth largest city in the country with around 37,600 inhabitants (2015 calculation) is the capital of the Rajon of the same name . A fortress preserved on the river bank testifies to the strategic importance of securing Bessarabia borders in the 15th and 16th centuries. A district is characterized by imposing villas belonging to the Roma minority, which is popularly known as the “Gypsy capital of Moldova”.

location

Soroca at the nest from the monument
Luminarea recunostintei in the south

Soroca is located 160 kilometers north of the state capital Chișinău at an altitude of 45 meters on the right (western) bank of the Nistru, which meanders here in several loops through the flat undulating plain . The opposite eastern bank belongs to Ukraine and is almost flat. In contrast, a low ridge runs parallel to the west bank, which extends south of the city almost to the river bank and only leaves space for the arterial road leading to the south. Where the surrounding plains are not planted with wheat, maize and sunflowers, steppe grass vegetation prevails on brown earth soils . The natural forest cover of the hills consists of oaks , beeches and ash trees , a rarity is a reforestation with pines on the hilltop on the southern outskirts.

Soroca is connected to Chișinău via the well-developed M2 expressway, which leads past Orhei and Florești from the state capital . Ten kilometers north of Soroca, the M2 reaches an official border crossing with Ukraine in the village of Cosăuți. There a car ferry crosses the river to the Ukrainian border town of Jampil . The distance on the road (R9) along the Nistru to the northeastern border town of Otaci is 56 kilometers, to the southwest via Floreşti to the largest city of northern Moldova, Bălți , it is just over 80 kilometers. After twelve kilometers from the R9, the R7 branches off to the southwest and reaches via Zgurița and Drochia Rîșcani , which is on the main route ( E583 ) between Bălți and Edineț in the north.

history

The area around Soroca had been inhabited since the end of the Paleolithic , as is shown by finds from a settlement near Cosăuți that was excavated from 1981 to 1991. Uncovered remains in the village of Sobari (municipality of Cremenciug) in the Soroca district are interpreted as a "church without an apse", which indicates the existence of some settlers in early Christian times.

In the 12th and 13th centuries there was a ford across the river in Soroca, which was controlled by traders from Genoa . They named their fortress Olchionia (Olihonia or Alciona). In the Principality of Moldova (around 1350–1538) the fortress was of great strategic importance for securing the eastern border against the Tatars . Under the Moldovan prince Ștefan cel Mare (ruled 1457–1504) the fortress was a square wooden building on the river bank. In 1469 or 1470 the Moldovan army Ștefan cel Mares defeated the attacking Volga Ural Tartars of the Golden Horde under the command of Akhmat Khan near the village of Lipnic in the northern Ocnița district . Both sides recorded heavy losses. The name Soroca is first mentioned in documents in 1499.

The fortress ( Cetatea Sorocii ) preserved today was built by master builders from Transylvania between 1543 and 1546 by order of Prince Petru Rareș , son Ștefan cel Mares . In addition to Soroca, three other fortresses secured the eastern border of Bessarabia on the Dniester: Bender (expanded to today's shape in 1538), Chotyn (stone walls since the 13th century) and Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyj (Akkerman fortress at the mouth of the Dniester into the Black Sea). After the middle of the 16th century, Soroca's strategic importance gradually waned. Nevertheless, in the 17th century the fortress played a role in the conflict between the Habsburg monarchy and the Ottoman Empire . During the Prut campaign in 1711, the Moldovan soldiers withstood the siege by the Ottoman troops until the advancing Russian troops under Peter the Great lifted the siege. During the Russo-Austrian Turkish War in the 1730s, the fortress came under fire and was damaged several times. The voivode and historian Dimitrie Cantemir (1673–1723) reports on the attacks on the fortress in his History of the Ottoman Empire from 1745.

The first Jewish settlement in Soroca is mentioned in 1657. A Jewish community existed from the 18th century. Bessarabia came from the Ottoman to the Russian sphere of power in 1812 . By 1897, the Jewish population had grown to 8,763, which was over half of Soroca's residents. Many were employed in agriculture, growing grapes and tobacco. In 1918 Bessarabia became Romanian . Until the Second World War there were several Jewish schools, a hospital and an old people's home. Of the 15,019 inhabitants in 1930, 5,452 were Jews (36.3 percent). In June 1940 the Romanian government of Bessarabia withdrew from the Red Army . Bessarabia belonged to the Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic (MSSR) until Romania entered the war on June 22, 1941 on the side of the Axis Powers . The Soviet army left the field in the days that followed. Most of the Jews left in the city perished under the German-Romanian occupiers; they were murdered on the spot, as in the rest of Bessarabia, or deported to Transnistria . At the end of 1941 there were practically no more Jews living in Bessarabia. In August 1944, the Soviet troops returned to Bessarabia and re-established the MSSR.

In Soviet times the city was called Soroki. In 1993, two years after Moldova's independence from the Soviet Union and the associated economic collapse, the city's population was estimated at over 41,400. By 2005 that number had dropped to an estimated 28,400 and by 2015 it had recovered to 37,600 residents according to a calculation.

Cityscape

Main street in the center: Strada Independenței to the south
Assumption Cathedral. Believers venerate the image of Mary and finally crawl under the wooden frame.

Soroca is one of 65 places with city status and the eighth largest city in Moldova. The city is divided into several differently built residential areas on the river bank and at the height of the hill adjoining to the west. The business district is formed by the north-south running main axis ( Strada Independenței ), a parallel embankment street and another parallel street inland, which together with cross streets form a checkerboard pattern. Along the shady avenues are lined up mostly single-storey residential houses built next to each other and in between villas from the beginning of the 20th century. There are also some modern banks, the post office and other administrative buildings. The center is the city park ( Parcul Central ), which is bordered to the west by the town hall, a block from the socialist period, and in front of which there is a stone statue of Ștefan cel Mares. The market for fruit and vegetables grown in the region as well as clothing and shoes, which is only active in the morning, is located at the southern end of this district near the bus station. There are several secondary educational institutions, an ethnographic museum ( Strada Independenței, 68 ) and two hotels not far from the city park and the bus station. A little north of the city park, the fortress stands on the river bank in the middle of another park.

The most venerated church in the city center is the Assumption Cathedral ( Catedrala Adormirea Maicii Domnului , Assumption of the Virgin Mary ), which was completed from 1840 to 1842 according to a plan by the architect Antuan Vaisman from 1832 in neoclassical style. It was donated by the Moldovan nobleman Costache Cerchez. The nave is surmounted by a dome over a drum that is octagonal on the outside and circular on the inside . A three-story square bell tower was added in front of the entrance in 1878 to create an anteroom.

Wooden church Sf. Martiri Brâncoveni

The Demetrius Church ( Biserica Sfântul Dumitru ) is a little further northeast, closer to the river bank. It was built between 1814 and 1827 in neo-baroque style and is the oldest church in the city. Further south, the wooden church Biserica Sfinții Martiri Brâncoveni was inaugurated around 2012 on a tree-lined green area on the bank. The two-story church, built on a high wall plinth, is reminiscent of the wooden churches in Maramureș from the 17th / 18th century with its overhanging steep shingle roof . Century.

Gypsy villa modeled on the
Capitol

The "Gypsy Hill " ( Dealul Țiganilor ) called the residential area on the hill, which can be reached from the center on the arterial road leading to the west, is of a certain supraregional fame . It owes its name and the attribution of Sorocas as the "Gypsy capital of Moldova" to a number of luxurious multi-storey villas, also known as "Gypsy palaces", which were built by wealthy, settled Țigani (gypsies). The sumptuously designed buildings, overloaded with a mix of styles, are largely unfinished.

The last official figures on the Roma of the Soviet era come from the 1989 census. 1,700 of the 0.3 percent of the country's population who were then listed as Gypsies (11,517 people) lived in Soroca. Soroca followed Chișinău and Otaci (1,933 people) in third place. In independent Moldova, the number of Roma in the city at the 2004 census was 1,525. The number of those who call themselves Gypsies is likely to be higher across the country and in Soroca. Where the above-average prosperity comes from is largely speculative. Artur Cerari, who lives in this quarter of Soroca, is considered to be the “gypsy baron”, the most economically successful gypsy of Moldova. Even better known than him was his late father Mircea Cerari (1939–1998), millionaire and since 1972 the self-proclaimed “King of the Gypsies” of Moldova, who is buried in the local cemetery. He maintained contacts with the leadership of the Soviet Communist Party.

The residential area of ​​the gypsies goes to the west, behind the large prison, into the residential area Planul Nou with simple apartment blocks. On the river bank, in a northerly direction from the center, after a strip of thin village buildings and a few industrial plants, the compact Soroca Noua settlement with large apartment blocks from the socialist era and a vegetable market follows. The industrial companies produce clothes, shoes ( Covali ) and canned goods ( Alfa-Nistru , 300 employees). The largest textile company is the Ermo Grup with 700 employees, followed by the Sotex Grup with 256 employees (as of 2012).

In the central part of the city, a boat carries people across the river, north of the fortress a car ferry operates. Both serve only the small border traffic of the local population. Small bays under the trees on the north bank of the river are used by the inhabitants as bathing places.

According to the 2004 census, 64 Jews live in Soroca. A synagogue built in 1804 , which today belongs to the Jewish community, is located at the northern end of the third parallel street west of the fortress. Another synagogue built in the early 20th century is currently used as a fire station. The Soroca Jewish cemetery located outside contains around 20,000 tombstones. It is surrounded by a partially crumbled wall and is maintained by the Jewish community.

A sight in the south of the city, two kilometers from the bus station along the embankment, is the "Candle of Gratitude" ( Lumânarea Recunoștinței ). The almost 30 meter high tower-like monument was erected at the southern end of the hill and can be reached on foot from the street via a staircase with 600 steps. Alternatively, a road leads from the north along the ridge to a parking lot above. The monument, completed in 2004, is intended to commemorate all those people who have made a contribution to the culture of Moldova, especially the author of the national poem Miorița, whose name is unknown . The creator of the monument is the writer Ion Druță (* 1928) from Soroca, who was elected honorary president of the Moldovan Writers' Union in 1987 and mentions the city in several works during his youth. Inside there is a chapel below, the structure cannot be climbed. However, the forecourt offers a good view of the Nistru.

fortress

Fortress with access from the river side

The ground plan of the fortress is circular with four upstream, also round corner towers and a rectangular entrance tower on the river side, which are equally spaced from one another. The outer diameter is 37 meters. The surrounding walls, which have only been restored in the upper area, are 3.5 meters thick and up to 25 meters high on the outside. Inside, the height is slightly lower because the floor of the inner courtyard has been filled up by around two meters due to the risk of flooding and for stabilization. The corner towers are three-story. Up to 200 soldiers defended the fortress. They could get water from a well in the yard. The battlements are connected with a circumferential wooden battlement. The cone-shaped, towering roofs over the towers do not correspond to the original roof covering. The fortress is shown on the back of the current 20- lei note.

An old legend about a white stork and the Soroca fortress says that during a long siege, the hungry defenders owed their survival to a white stork who brought them grapes.

sons and daughters of the town

literature

  • Andrei Brezianu: Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Moldova . (European History Dictionaries, No. 37) The Scarecrow Press, Lanham (Maryland) / London 2007, p. 331
  • Frieder Monzer, Timo Ulrichs: Moldova. With Chișinău, all of Bessarabia and Transdnestria . Trescher, Berlin 2013, pp. 159–163

Web links

Commons : Soroca  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Jump up Anatolie David, Adam Nadachowski, Victoria Pascaru, Piotr Wojtal, Ilie Borziac: Late Pleistocene mammal fauna from the Late Palaeolithic butchering site Cosãuþi 1, Moldova . In: Acta zoologica cracoviensia , 46 (1), Krakau, March 28, 2003, pp. 85-96
  2. Ion Tentiuc, Alexandru Popa: Some Considerations Regarding rock-cut monasteries and spreading of the Christianity in Eastern Moldova During the Late Roman Period and Early Middle Age. In: Aurel Zanoci, Tudor Arnăut, Mihail Băț (eds.): Studiae Archeologiae et Historiae Antiquae . University of Chișinău 2009, pp. 349–365, here p. 351
  3. Fortress Soroca (Cetatea Soroca) . ( Memento of the original from September 25, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. tur-gazeta.md @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.tur-gazeta.md
  4. Dimitrie Cantemir : History of the Ottoman Empire after its growth and decline. Hamburg 1745 (text search Soroka )
  5. Shmuel Spector and Geoffrey Wigoder: The Encyclopedia of Jewish Life Before and During the Holocaust , Volume III (Seredina-Buda - Z), New York University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8147-9378-9 , pp. 1218 and 1219
  6. ^ Moldova. Virtual Jewish Library
  7. Miriam Weiner: Soroki. In: Jewish Roots in Ukraine and Moldova: Pages from the Past and Archival Inventories. (The Jewish Genealogy Series) Miriam Weiner Routes to Roots, 1999, p. 376
  8. Vladimir Solonari: The Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic during the Second World War (1941-1945). In: Klaus Bochmann u. a. (Ed.): The Republic of Moldova, p. 93
  9. Andrei Brezianu: Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Moldova. 1st edition 2000, p. 191, 2nd edition 2007, p. 331
  10. ^ Wilfried Heller, Mihaela Narcisa Arambașa: Geography. In: Klaus Bochmann, Vasile Dumbrava, Dietmar Müller, Victoria Reinhardt (eds.): The Republic of Moldau. Republica Moldova. A manual. Leipziger Universitätsverlag, Leipzig 2012, p. 165, ISBN 978-3-86583-557-4
  11. Catedrala orasului Soroca în perioada interbelică . Ziarul Lumina (Romanian)
  12. Demographic, national, language and cultural characteristics. (Excel table in Section 7) National Bureau of Statistics of the Republic of Moldoca
  13. Elena Marušiakova, Veselin Popov: Roma . In: Klaus Bochmann, Vasile Dumbrava, Dietmar Müller, Victoria Reinhardt (eds.): The Republic of Moldau. Republica Moldova. A manual. Leipziger Universitätsverlag, Leipzig 2012, p. 213
  14. James J. Botkos: Artur Cerari . jamesbotkos.org
  15. ^ Frieder Monzer, Timo Ulrichs: Moldova, p. 161
  16. ^ Preliminary Technical File. Soroca, Moldova. Kyiv Initiative Regional Program. Pilot Project on the Rehabilitation of Cultural Heritage in Historic Towns, approx. 2012, p. 10
  17. Demographic, national, language and cultural characteristics. (Excel table in Section 7) National Bureau of Statistics of the Republic of Moldoca
  18. ^ Diana Dumitru: Jewish monuments and cemeteries . ( Memento of the original from September 12, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. History workshop Europe @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.geschichtswerkstatt-europa.org
  19. ^ Jewish Heritage Sites and Monuments in Moldova. ( Memento of the original from December 27, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. United States Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad, Washington 2010, pp. 68-70 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.heritageabroad.gov
  20. Soroca. moldovaholiday