The Town of Vaslui

Vaslui is the seat of the county of the same name, in eastern Romania, in the Central Moldavian Plateau, at the confluence of the Bârlad and Vaslui rivers. Attested as a town and customs point as early as the reign of Alexander the Good (the first reliable documentary mention dating from 1435), Vaslui became, for a time, the capital of the Lower Land of Moldavia, located at the centre of the medieval country. Vaslui is best known for the Battle of Vaslui (Podul Înalt), on 10 January 1475, in which Stephen the Great won one of the most significant medieval military victories in Europe, defeating a numerically far superior Ottoman army led by Suleiman Pasha. The battle was regarded as "the greatest defeat of Islam by a Christian army", and Pope Sixtus IV called Stephen an "athlete of Christ". The medieval Princely Court stood on the site of today's town, and the urban settlement developed around it. Among the cultural landmarks are the Princely Court, probably begun by Alexander the Good and rebuilt by Stephen the Great in 1490–1491, today an archaeological reserve; the Church of the "Beheading of St John the Baptist", founded by Stephen the Great in 1490 in memory of the victory at Podul Înalt and considered the first urban-type church of his era; and the "Stephen the Great" County Museum, founded in 1974, with collections of archaeology, history, ethnography and art. Vaslui is worth visiting for its exceptional historical significance, tied to medieval anti-Ottoman resistance, and for the heritage devoted to the age of the great voivode.