Piatra lui Crăciun

Piatra lui Crăciun was a market town in the Bistrița valley at the foot of the Eastern Carpathians. Known also simply as Piatra, it grew among the early towns of the Moldavian principality. The surrounding valley preserves traces of much older settlement, including the Dacian fortified site at Bâtca Doamnei.

Stephen the Great established a princely court here between 1468 and 1475; a document of 1491 mentions it. The church of the court was built in 1497–1498, followed by its bell tower in 1499. These buildings gave the ruler a residence in the mountain country and left a lasting mark on the market town, whose name would later be joined to that of Neamț. Its Jewish community had a burial ground by the early seventeenth century.