Focşani

Focșani grew beside the Milcov, the stream that marked the boundary between Moldavia and Wallachia. In time there were two towns of the same name, one on each side of the frontier separating the two Romanian principalities. Their markets and customs posts stood where travellers and merchants crossed between the neighbouring principalities.

Documents of the sixteenth century mention Focșani as a thriving market town. In 1574 the Moldavian prince Ioan Vodă fought Ottoman forces at Jiliște nearby. Travellers later described the settlement's position on the border; the Ottoman writer Evliya Çelebi noted its production of saltpetre in the seventeenth century. The frontier made Focșani both a place of exchange and a point at which the affairs of the two principalities met.