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Botoşani (population:129,000) is a city in Bukovina, Moldavia, Romania and it is the capital of the Botoşani County.
Origin of the name
The name of the city probably has its origin in the name of a boyar family called Botaş, that lived in this place since the 11th century. The name of this family can be found in old records since the time of Stefan cel Mare as one of the most important families of Moldavia.
Another origin of the name is that of a Tatar chief, Batus or Batu Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan, who occupied this region in the 13th century.
History
The city was initially a market town, being placed on several commercial roads, in the 16th century, it was already "the biggest and the oldest fair of Moldavia".
Large communities of Jewish and Armenian traders were present in this city starting with the 17th century.
Botosani is the birth place of Romania's greatest poet (Mihai Eminescu, 1850-1889) and historian (Nicolae Iorga, 1871-1940). It is also the location of A.T. Laurian National College, one of Moldavia's Romania's oldest (founded 1859) and most prestigious pre-college educational institutions.
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