Prima reşedinţă domnească a Ţării Moldovei

Résumé

The First Princely Residence of the Mediaeval State of Moldavia

The author of the article attempts to review the historical data regarding the first residence of the princes of the Moldavia in the Middle Ages. First of all, he recapitulates the mediaeval meaning of the term residence (in Romanian: curte). Until now, according to the chronographically tradition, the Romanian historiography has accepted the theory according to which the ancient town of Baia was the first residence of the major state institution. The author’s opinion is that another locality must be considered as the first state residence of mediaeval Moldovia that is the present village of Volovăţ, in Suceava County. Although this idea was announced in previous years, it is only, in these pages that most of the arguments are clearly exposed (even if not as a final certitude). However, a new direction in the scientific research has now been pointed for the studies regarding the nebulous history of the beginning of the Moldavian mediaeval state.