Varnitsa, the "new Stockholm"

Few people in Moldova know that in the early eighteen century, a small village of Varnitsa located near Bender (Tighina) was known as the "new Stockholm". After the Battle of Poltava, King Charles XII and Hetman Ivan Mazepa managed to escape with a small detachment and took refuge in Moldavia, a country ruled at that time by Turkish sultan Ahmed III, where they spent a total of five years. As soon as Charles XIIl and his soldiers left their camp in Varnitsa in 1714, Turks wiped it out. In 1925 a memorial was erected on the site where the camp was believed to have been located.