Botoșani is first mentioned in
"Letopiseţul Ţării Moldovei" (The Chronicles of the land of
Moldavia), covering the history of the region from 1359 to 1594. The chronicle
was written by Grigore Ureche, a Moldavian chronicler who records a devastating
invasion of the city by Tatars on November 28, 1493. Being placed at the
junction of several commercial roads the city was initially a market town; in
the 16th century, it already had "the
biggest and the oldest fair of Moldavia".
