The perfect circle
Five towers round a courtyard.
Diego Delso — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Diego Delso — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Photobank MD from Chisinau, Moldova — CC0 · Photobank MD from Chisinau, Moldova — CC0 · Photobank MD from Chisinau, Moldova — CC0 · Photobank MD from Chisinau, Moldova — CC0
Soroca Fortress is a round stone fort on the right bank of the Dniester River, in the town of Soroca in northern Moldova. It is a perfect circle ringed by towers with pointed wooden roofs, and it is one of the finest and most complete medieval forts in the region. Stephen the Great built a wooden fort here in 1499 to guard a crossing on the river. The stone fortress you see today was built between 1543 and 1546 under Prince Petru Rareș. Polish soldiers of King John Sobieski later defended it. It was restored in 2013 to 2015 and again in 2021 to 2023, in projects shared with Romania and Ukraine. The fort is about 30 m across, with walls 3 m thick. It has four round towers and a square gate tower, each of four levels, the lower two built for cannon. The gate tower had three doors, one of them a portcullis dropped in battle, and a small chapel for the garrison above. You walk the inner courtyard and the upper gallery along the walls. The fortress is 135 km in a straight line north of Chișinău. Tickets are sold at a separate ticket office, not at the main gate. An undated report gives opening hours of 08:30 to 17:30, so check before you go. The stairs inside the towers are narrow and steep.
Five towers round a courtyard.
A walk along the walls.
Three doors and a chapel.
Strada Independenței, on the Dniester bank, Soroca
At a separate ticket office, not the main gate.
Yes, but the tower stairs are narrow and steep.