Due to the archeological researches, in the last 50 years, various aspects of the medieval city of Old Orhei have been studied. A great emphasis was placed upon the medieval stone fortress. By the year 1946, when the archeological investigations at Old Orhei only started, the medieval citadel was demolished to the ground level, only its trapezoidal shaped ground perimeter of about 0.5 meters high was visible.

As a result of methodological researches from the 50s of these vestiges the foundations of the medieval stone fortress from Orhei was discovered. The excavations at that point concluded that the stone fortress overlapped smaller ground and wood fortress built earlier. Gh. Smirnov on the basis of the stratigraphic observations reached the conclusion that the two fortresses represent two evolution stages of the local establishment form the Old Orhei. The ground fortress was dated with the XII-XIII centuries and belonged to the natives before the Mongolians came in the region. On the other hand the stone fortress was dated to the XV century, and is considered the work of the voivode Stefan the Great. P. Barnea was concerned later with the chronology problem of the two fortresses. Even though he did not perform any excavations within these objectives, he came out with his own vision upon the respective problem. According to the author's opinion, the first medieval ground and wood citadel at Old Orhei, belongs to Alexander's the Good era (first quarter of the XV century). The second fortress was built during the times of Stefan the Great (as Gh. Smirnov concluded earlier).

IN the 1980s T. Nesterov, after several architectural investigations drew the conclusion about the oriental character (different from the medieval Moldovan fortresses from the XIV-XV centuries) of the stone fortress form the Old Orhei. This fact led him to the assumption that the respective complex could be older that it was thought before. At a similar conclusion came and Ion Hancu.

In order tot verify the latter hypothesis, in the years 1996-1998 at Old Orhei archeological investigations were organized at Old Orhei within the area of the two fortresses. Excavations were made next to the eastern wall (near the northeastern corner of the fortress), next to the western wall (by the north western corner and the central part of the wall) and within the precincts of the stone fortress (in the southwestern corner). As a result of the researches a perfect stratigraphy was depicted found and a variety of archeological materials enabling the scholars to appreciate objectively the opinions of different authors about the chronology of the two fortresses from the Old Orhei, and especially of the stone citadel.

Above all, without any doubt it was set that the ground fortress, as Gh. Smirnov believed was prior to the Mongolian domination of the region. It was superposed over the Golden Horde's cultural layer from the middle XIV century.

It was also determined that the stone fortress from Old Orhei was built during the Golden Horde rule. Proofs of the latter archeological stratigraphy and the archeological complexes (two huge kilns for burning lime, for preparation of the mortar, and few additional pits, provided with pottery material and coins from the XIV century) in the fortress area.

From the perspective of these researches the archeological materials correspond with the data obtained by the archeologists. Hence, the chronology problem of the medieval stone fortress from the Old Orhei is to be revised and dated with an earlier period that in was stated before, namely with the XIV century.

Gh.Postica

• Foreword
• The archeological complex Old Orhei
• Monumental Buildings
• Archeological researches in the years 1996-1998
• Orhei Codrii
• The chronology of the medieval stone fortress
• Cave Monasteries
• The index of early medieval archeological monuments