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In the evening of October 9, 2011, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia laid flowers at the monument to Stephan III the Great (Ștefan cel Mare), the founder of the Moldavian statehood, in Kishinev. His Holiness was accompanied by Metropolitan Vladimir of Kishinev and All Moldova.

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The bronze monument to Stephan III the Great who ruled Moldavia from 1457 to 1504 was erected in 1927 and opened in a solemn ceremony in 1928. The metal for it had been given by the Romanian government. It was guns captured from the Turks during the 1877-1878 war of independence.

Twice, in 1940 and in 1944, the monument was transferred to Romania. It was finally returned to Kishinev in 1945 to become one of the first things to be restored in the post-war city.

Patriarchal Press Service/DECR Communication Service