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Peñarol

Club Atlético Peñarol (English: Peñarol Athletic Club), more commonly referred to as Peñarol and also known as Carboneros, Aurinegros, and (familiarly) Manyas, is a Uruguayan sports club based in Montevideo. The name "Peñarol" comes from the Peñarol neighbourhood on the outskirts of Montevideo. Throughout its history the club has also participated in other sports, such as basketball and cycling. Its focus has always been on football, a sport in which the club excels, having never been relegated from the top division. The club traditionally plays in yellow and black-striped shirts.

In international competition, Peñarol is the third-highest Copa Libertadores winner with five victories and shares the record for Intercontinental Cup victories with three. In September 2009, the club was chosen as the South American Club of the Century by the IFFHS.

Apart from men's football, other active sports sections of Peñarol are rugby union, futsal, women's football, and athletics.

Origins
On 28 September 1891, employees of the Central Uruguay Railway Company established the Central Uruguay Railway Cricket Club (CURCC) of Montevideo, with the purpose of stimulating the practice of cricket, rugby football and "other male sports" (literal from the Spanish).

The Central Uruguay Railway company had operated in Uruguay since 1878, with 118 employees, 72 British, 45 Uruguayan and one German. The club was known as CURCC in the neighborhood of Peñarol—the latter from the Peñarol neighborhood, about 10 km from Montevideo, whose name in turn derived from an Italian city. The club's first president was Frank Henderson, who remained in that position until 1899.

In 1892, the CURCC shifted its focus from cricket and rugby to association football. The football club's first game was against a team of students from the English high school and ended with a 2–0 victory. In 1895, Uruguayan footballer Julio Negrón was chosen as the team's first non-British captain.

First titles
In 1900 the CURCC was one of four charter members of the Uruguay Association Football League, making its debut in official competition on 10 June against Albion and winning 2–1. The club won its first Uruguayan championship that year, repeating in 1901, 1905 and 1907. In 1906 Charles W. Bayne took over the railroad, and refused to sponsor the football team due to financial and work issues. Conflict between the company and the football club led to the severance of their relationship in 1913.

In 1908, the club left the Uruguayan league after the league rejected their request to replay a game with F.C. Dublín. CURCC had lost 2–3 on the road, and believed their poor showing was due to refereeing mistakes caused by pressure from rabid home fans. As a sign of good faith, Nacional also retired from the league, since both teams agreed that "Los Partidos se ganan en la Cancha", or "matches are won on the pitch". Back in competition the following year, relations between the CUR and the club became frostier after fans burned a train car used for rival teams.

A year after the club's 1911 Uruguayan championship, the club attempted reforms to its policies. Proposals included greater participation by non-CUR players and a name change to "CURCC Peñarol". In June 1913, the proposals were rejected; the company wanted to distance itself from the club's local reputation. The railroad company, decided to separate the " foot-ball " section of the team from the company on Saturday 13 December 1913. That is when Peñarol was founded. The following day it was the first time a " Clasico " was officially played between Nacional and Peñarol.

CURCC kept playing football in the amateurism until it was dissolved on 22 January 1915 and donated all their trophies to the British Hospital of Montevideo, not to Peñarol.

C.A. Peñarol
On 12 March 1914, Peñarol replaced CURCC's spot in the Uruguayan Football League after its foundation in 1913. A request submitted to the Uruguayan Football League two days later and approved the following day. During its first years Peñarol was not successful, although a new stadium (Las Acacias) opened on 19 May 1916. The club won its first two league titles in 1918 and 1920.

In November 1922 the Asociación Uruguaya de Fútbol (AUF) disqualified Peñarol because the club played an exhibition game with Racing, an Argentine club affiliated with Asociación Amateurs de Football (a dissident association established in 1919 that rivalized with the official entity, AFA). Peñarol and other clubs then organised a new league, the Uruguayan Football Federation (FUF), and the club won the 1924 championship. The league was short-lived; Peñarol won the 1926 Copa del Consejo Provisorio, triggering a merger between the AUF and the FUF.

First European tour
In 1927, Peñarol made its first tour to Europe, playing a total of 19 matches against teams from Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Spain, Czechoslovakia and France. The tour extended from April to June. The first match of the tour was vs. the Vienna combined, which Peñarol lost by 3–1. The Uruguayan team then played Bayern Munich (1–2), SpVgg (1–2), Hertha BSC (Berlin) (0–1). The first win was v. Eintracht Frankfurt (3–1). The lineup for that match was Luis Biscardi, Demis D’Agosto, José Benincasa, Pascual Ruotta, Gildeón Silva, Antonio Aguerre, Ladislao Pérez, Antonio Sacco, Pablo Terevinto, Peregrín Anselmo, Antonio Campolo. Goals were scored by Suffiotti (2) and Ruotta. The tour continued in Switzerland, v. Young Fellows (1–0), Rapid Vienna (0–5), then facing Sparta Prague (losing by 1–0).

On 5 June, Peñarol played its first game in Spain v. FC Barcelona, losing by 1–5. The second test was played one day later, finishing in a tie (1–1). Other notable games of the tour were the two tests v. Atlético Madrid (5–2 and 4–3).

Peñarol played a total of 19 matches in 80 days (6 in Spain, 5 in Germany, 4 in Switzerland and 1 in Czechoslovakia and France), totalizing 7 wins, 4 draws and 8 losses. The team scored 32 goals and received 33, with Antonio Sacco being the topscorer with 9 goals.

After its first European tour in 1927, Peñarol won the Uruguayan championship in 1928 and 1929; the following year, the club defeated Olimpia 1–0 in its first game at the Centenario Stadium in Montevideo.

Consolidation
In 1932, Peñarol and River Plate played the first game of the professional era. Peñarol won the first Uruguayan professional championship with 40 points, five more than runners-up Rampla Juniors. After placing second in 1933 and 1934, the club won four consecutive league tournaments between 1935 and 1938; they also won the 1936 Torneo Competencia.

The club stayed in second place until 1944, when Peñarol again won the Uruguayan Championship (defeating Nacional in a two-game final, 0–0 and 3–2). In 1945 the club retained the title, with Nicolás Falero and Raúl Schiaffino the top goal scorers of the playoffs with 21 apiece. Peñarol was again victorious in 1949, four points ahead of runner-up Nacional with Óscar Míguez the top scorer.

After placing second in 1950, Peñarol won the Uruguayan Championship the following year; this was also the start of the Palacio Peñarol's four-year construction. During the 1950s, the club also won national championships in 1953, 1954, 1958 and 1959.

International success
Their 1959 championship qualified Peñarol for the recently created Copa Libertadores, an international competition then known as the Copa de Campeones de América. Peñarol won the first two tournaments, beating Olimpia of Paraguay in 1960 and Palmeiras of Brasil in 1961. That year the club won its first Intercontinental Cup, defeating Benfica of Portugal 2–1 in the third game. Peñarol won three more league titles (1960, 1961 and 1962), for five consecutive championships. Béla Guttmann coached the team in 1962.

After a quiet year in 1963, Peñarol won the Uruguayan Championship in 1964 and 1965 and the Copa Libertadores in 1966, defeating River Plate 4–2. That year the club won its second Intercontinental Cup, defeating Real Madrid 2–0 in Centenario Stadium and Santiago Bernabéu. During the next few years the club won national championships in 1967 and 1968 and the Intercontinental Champions' Supercup in 1969 (a tournament with South American Intercontinental Cup winners). Peñarol had the longest undefeated run in Uruguayan league history: 56 games, from 3 September 1966 to 14 September 1968. Copa Libertadores all-time top scorer Alberto Spencer played for Peñarol at this time.

In 1970 the club again reached the Libertadores final again, losing to Estudiantes de La Plata. The club set a tournament record for greatest goal difference, defeating Valencia of Venezuela 11–2. With Fernando Morena as the team's star, the club won the Uruguayan championship for three consecutive years, from 1973 to 1975. After placing second in 1976 and 1977, Peñarol won again in 1978. That year, Morena set two records: most goals scored in a Uruguayan season (36) and most goals scored in a single game (seven, against Huracán Buceo on 16 July). The 1970s ended with another championship in 1979. Morena was top scorer in the Uruguayan tournament six straight times, and top Copa Libertadores scorer in 1974 and 1975.

After beginning the 1980s with a third-place finish in 1981, Peñarol won the Uruguayan Championship with Fernando Morena and Rubén Paz (the tournament's top scorer). The next season the club again won the Copa Libertadores, defeating Cobreloa of Chile 1–0 on a goal from Fernando Morena (the tournament's top scorer with seven goals) in the game's final minutes. Later that year the club won the Uruguayan championship and its third Intercontinental Cup, defeating Aston Villa 2–0.

Despite financial problems during the 1980s, Peñarol won the national championship in 1985 and 1986, and a fifth Copa Libertadores in 1987. The club defeated América de Cali 1–0 with a goal by Diego Aguirre in the final seconds of extra time, when a tie would have gone to the Colombians on the goal differential. It was the third Copa Libertadores won by Peñarol at the Nacional de Chile, following victories in 1966 and 1982.

Peñarol celebrated its hundredth anniversary in 1991, despite a controversy ignited by archrivals Nacional concerning Peñarol's 1913 name change. With Pablo Bengoechea and the young Antonio Pacheco on the team and Gregorio Pérez behind the bench, Peñarol again won the Uruguayan championship five straight times (1993–97). The club also reached the Copa Conmebol final in 1994 and 1995, rounding out the century with a national championship in 1999 (defeating Nacional 2–1 in the final, despite Julio Ribas on the bench).

The next year, Peñarol lost the Uruguayan championship final against Nacional; many of the team's players were jailed after a tournament fight. Peñarol won the national championship again in 2003 for Diego Aguirre, defeating Nacional in the final. The club did not win another national title until the 2009–10 season, when it won the Clausura tournament with 14 victories in 15 games (12 of them in a row). In the Clausura final, Peñarol defeated Nacional 2–1. The championship qualified the team for the Libertadores 2011, where Peñarol reached the final with Santos.

The club was congratulated on its 120th anniversary in September 2011 by presidents Joseph Blatter, Michel Platini, and Nicolás Leoz.

Badge
Throughout the club's history minor changes have been made to its symbols, but it has kept its original colors. The shield and flag were designed by architect Constante Facello and consist of five black stripes, four yellow stripes and eleven yellow stars on a black background (representing the eleven players).

Uniforms
Since its founding, Peñarol's colors have been yellow and black. They were inspired by the Rocket locomotive designed by George Stephenson, which won an award in 1829.

The first jersey was a plain shirt, divided into four square sections which alternated black and yellow. A variant had two vertical halves (black on the right and black-and-yellow stripes on the left), with black shorts and socks. Peñarol's official jersey (black and yellow stripes) dates back to 1911 and has been worn almost continuously, with only slight variations.

Inspiration for Romanian club FC Brașov
Peñarol inspired Romanian club FC Brașov to change its official colors in December 1966 from white and blue to yellow and black. The change came following a tournament of Romania's Olympic football team in Uruguay. After a match with Peñarol, Csaba Györffy, player at FC Brașov, received from Peñarol's captain Alberto Spencer the shirt with which he played. Györffy was fascinated by the combination of yellow and black stripes and decided at the return in the country to wear the shirt during his training sessions with the team. The decision to change the colors of the club was taken by coach Silviu Ploeşteanu, who considered that, in the new colors, the team will be seen better on the field. Since January 1967, the team from Brașov has yellow-black as official colors, recalling Peñarol.

Kit manufacturers

 * Notes

Stadium
Peñarol's first stadium was the José Pedro Damiani, also known as Las Acacias. It was bought in 1913 and inaugurated on 19 April 1916 with a 3–1 victory over Nacional. The stadium's gate was that of the former Estadio Pocitos, Peñarol's first stadium where the first goal in the history of the FIFA World Cup was scored in 1930.

The stadium is in the Marconi neighbourhood of Montevideo. Its pitch is of 37949 m2, and it has a capacity of 12,000. Because Peñarol was not allowed to play there due to security concerns, the club home ground was the city owned Estadio Centenario. Opened on 18 July 1930, the Centenario stadium is in Parque Batlle and can hold 65,235.

Las Acacias has acted as the home ground for all Peñarol's Youth Teams.

On 28 September 2012, the club proposed a 40,000-capacity stadium in the outskirts of Montevideo, about 7 km from the Aeropuerto Internacional de Carrasco. The name of their newest stadium is Campeón del Siglo (CDS), opening in March 2016 and which has been the home ground ever since.

Palacio Peñarol
The Palacio Peñarol, in downtown Montevideo, is the club's headquarters and basketball stadium. It was opened on 21 June 1955; and is located. The Palacio has 3896 m2 in addition to basketball, it is home the club's museum and offices. After the October 2010 collapse of the Cilindro Municipal, the Palacio Peñarol became an important venue for Uruguayan basketball.

Complejo Deportivo Washington Cataldi
The Complejo Deportivo Washington Cataldi, commonly known as Los Aromos, is a training ground for the main team. In Villa Los Aromos of Barros Blancos, in the Canelones department, Los Aromos was bought in 1945; under the direction of architect José Donato, it was built in two years.

Centro de Alto Rendimiento
For the club's 118th anniversary, the Centro de Alto Rendimiento was inaugurated. The new facility, which opened on 28 September 2009, includes five football pitches, a weight room and a gymnasium with artificial turf.

Frank Henderson School
The Frank Henderson School, named in honor of the club's first president, is a few kilometers away from the Centro de Alto Rendimiento. It was built to develop the club's young players, and houses those who come from other areas.

Supporters
In Uruguayan football, loyalty to Peñarol or Nacional divides the country. The clubs are evenly matched, and have a large fan base. Many surveys of public opinion have been conducted, but none have been conclusive. In 1993 the Factum consulting firm reported that Peñarol was the favorite team of 41 percent of football fans, while 38 percent supported Nacional. Factum conducted another survey in 2006, confirming its previous results: Peñarol with 45 percent and Nacional with 35 percent.

MPC Consultants surveyed 9,000 Uruguayans; Peñarol had 45 percent of the supporters, and Nacional 38 percent. An online survey on the webpage Sportsvs.com showed Nacional with 50.35 percent and Peñarol with 49.45 percent.

Since its formation, Peñarol's barra brava has been involved in violence against other clubs and the Uruguayan police. Incidents provoked by these fans have cost Peñarol 31 points since 1994; the penalties cost the team three tournaments (Apertura 1994, Clausura 1997 and Clausura 2002).

Fan club
In 2010 the club attempted to increase its fan base to improve its sustainability. During Clausura 2010 promotions were offered, marketing managers hired and the peñas (local fan clubs) encouraged. The campaign was successful; in February 2013 the club had over 62,000 members, the largest fan club in Uruguay.

Rivalries
The Uruguayan Derby between Peñarol and Nacional goes back to 1900, the oldest football rivalry outside the British Islands. The first game ever played between Nacional and CURCC was on 15 July 1900 and ended 2–0 in favor of CURCC. CURCC was ahead at first, but Nacional caught up during the late 1910s. Nacional took the lead by fourteen games in 1948, and would not surrender it until the late 1970s (except briefly in 1968). Since then, Peñarol has been the leader; its longest lead was 26 games in January 2004. Including the amateur and professional eras, league and friendly games, the teams have met 511 times in the past with 182 victories to Peñarol, 166 to Nacional and 163 ties.

A notable game for Peñarol fans is occurred on 9 October 1949 in the Uruguayan Cup first round, and is known as the Clásico de la fuga (the "escape derby"). At the end of the first half Peñarol was leading 2–0, but at halftime Nacional decided not to return. While Peñarol fans believe that Nacional did not want to be defeated by a Peñarol team known as the Máquina del 49 ("Machine of 49"), Nacional supporters claim it was a protest against poor officiating.

On 23 April 1987 for a friendly game, Peñarol and Nacional were tied 1–1 with 22 minutes remaining when three Peñarol players (José Perdomo, José Herrera and Ricardo Viera) were ejected after a foul and subsequent protests. Peñarol then had to face a full Nacional team with only eight players on the pitch. With eight minutes remaining Diego Aguirre set up Jorge Cabrera, who scored the winning goal. This win by the aurinegro was known as the Clásico de los 8 contra 11 (the "8 against 11 derby").

Peñarol and Nacional have faced each other in the final game of the Uruguayan Championship thirteen times, with Peñarol winning eight. The most recent was in 2018, when Peñarol won the championship 2–1.

Manyas: The Movie
In early October 2011 Manyas: The Movie, a documentary about Peñarol's fans, was released in Uruguay. Produced by Kafka Films and Sacromonte and directed by Andrés Benvenuto, the film features interviews with fans, football journalists, psychologists and politicians. Manyas: The Movie was deemed of cultural interest by the Culture and Education Ministry of Uruguay and of ministerial interest by Uruguay's Ministry of Tourism and Sport. The film had the most-successful premiere of any Uruguayan film, selling 13,000 tickets during its first weekend and 30,000 over its first fifteen days.

World's Biggest flag
After raising $35,000 in raffles and donations, on 12 April 2011 Peñarol fans unveiled the largest flag ever unfurled in a stadium up to that moment. Nacional unfurled a bigger one years later that covered three stands of the stadium. The flag, 309 m long and 46 m wide for a surface area of 14124 m2, covered one-and-a-half grandstands in Centenario Stadium. In 2013, Club Nacional de Football displayed a flag which was 600 metres long by 50 metres wide. This is now the world's biggest flag.

Noted players
Néstor Gonçalves has the most official games in the club's history (571 matches), between 28 April 1957 and 28 November 1970. The team's all-time top scorers in the Primera División are Fernando Morena (203), Alberto Spencer (113) and Óscar Míguez (107). Morena's (whose 230 goals—203 with Peñarol and 27 with River Plate—make him the highest-scoring player in the Uruguayan League) 440 goals with Peñarol are a record as well. He scored the most goals in a single Uruguayan season (36 in 1978), and is the club's second-best goal scorer in international competition with 37 goals (behind Alberto Spencer, who scored 58 goals between 1960 and 1970). Spencer and Morena are the top scorers in Copa Libertadores history, with 48 and 37 goals respectively for Peñarol.

Peñarol has made a large contribution to the Uruguay national football team. Three Peñarol players were on the Uruguayan team which played Argentina in 1905. Five Peñarol players were on the Uruguayan squad which won the 1930 FIFA World Cup: goalkeeper Miguel Capuccini, defender Peregrino Anselmo and midfielders Lorenzo Fernández, Álvaro Gestido and Carlos Riolfo. Peñarol had nine players on the Uruguayan squad which won the 1950 FIFA World Cup: goalkeeper Roque Máspoli, defenders Juan Carlos González and Washington Ortuño, midfielders Juan Alberto Schiaffino and Obdulio Varela and forwards Ernesto Vidal, Julio César Britos, Óscar Míguez and Alcides Ghiggia. Schiaffino and Ghiggia scored the team's two goals in the Maracanazo, the final game against Brasil. Peñarol is the only club which has represented Uruguay in all its World Cup appearances.

Managers
While there is no hard information about managers in the amateur era of Uruguayan football, Peñarol has had a total of 62 coaches during its professional era. The first manager was Leonardo de Luca, who coached the team for two years and won the Uruguayan Championship (the first professional tournament in Uruguay) in 1932.

Of these 62 managers, 53 were Uruguayan; two were Hungarian (Emérico Hirschl and Béla Guttmann), two British (John Harley and Randolph Galloway), one Serbian (Ljupko Petrović), two Brazilian (Osvaldo Brandão and Dino Sani), one from Chile (Mario Tuane) and two from Argentina (Jorge Kistenmacher and César Luis Menotti).

Hugo Bagnulo and Gregorio Pérez have coached Peñarol the longest, leading the first team for eight seasons: Bagnulo for four stints and Pérez for five. Athuel Velásquez had the longest uninterrupted coaching period for Peñarol (five straight years, between 1935 and 1940). Bagnulo has the most Uruguayan championships (five); Pérez and Velásquez follow, with four each. In international competition Roberto Scarone was the most successful manager, winning two Copa Libertadores and an Intercontinental Cup with Peñarol.

Professional-era managers
Caretaker managers in italics

 * Leonardo de Luca (1932–34)
 * José Piendibene (1934)
 * Athuel Velásquez (1935–40)
 * José Piendibene (1940–41)
 * Leonardo de Luca (1941)
 * Luis Manuel Morquio (1941)
 * Lorenzo Fernández (1941–42)
 * John Harley (1942)
 * Leonardo de Luca (1942–43)
 * Juan Pedro Arremón (1943)
 * Pedro de Hegedüs (1943)
 * Aníbal Tejada (1944)
 * Alberto Suppici (1945)
 * Aníbal Tejada (1946)
 * Jorge Clulow (1947)
 * Randolph Galloway (1948)
 * Imre Hirschl (1949–51)
 * Juan López (1952–55)
 * Roque Máspoli and Obdulio Varela (1955–55)
 * Imre Hirschl (1956)
 * Gerardo Spósito (1957)
 * Hugo Bagnulo (1958–59)
 * Roberto Scarone (1959–61)
 * Béla Guttmann (1962)
 * Pelegrín Anselmo (1962)
 * Roque Máspoli (1963–67)
 * Rafael Milans (1968–69)
 * Osvaldo Brandão (1969–70)
 * Roque Máspoli (1970–71)
 * Juan Eduardo Hohberg (1971)
 * Ondino Viera (1972)
 * Juan Ricardo Faccio (1972–73)
 * Hugo Bagnulo (1973–74)
 * José María Rodríguez (1974)
 * Hugo Bagnulo (1974–75)
 * Juan Alberto Schiaffino (1975–76)
 * Roque Máspoli (1976)
 * Dino Sani (1977–80)
 * Mario Tuane (1980)
 * Luis Prais (1980)
 * José Etchegoyen (1980)
 * Jorge Kistenmacher (1980)
 * Alcides Ghiggia (1980)
 * Luis Cubilla (1981)
 * Hugo Bagnulo (1982–83)
 * Osvaldo Balseiro (1983)
 * Hugo Fernández (1984)
 * César Luis Menotti (1984–85)
 * Roque Máspoli (1985–86)
 * Ramón Silva (1986)
 * Óscar Tabárez (1987)
 * Fernando Morena (1988)
 * Roque Máspoli (1988)
 * Ladislao Mazurkiewicz (1988–89)
 * Walter Roque (1989)
 * Roberto Fleitas (1989–90)
 * César Luis Menotti (1990–91)
 * Juan Duarte (1991)
 * Ricardo "Tato" Ortiz (1991–92)
 * Ljupko Petrović (1992)
 * Roque Máspoli (1992)
 * Walter Olivera (1992)
 * Juan Ricardo Faccio (1992)
 * Gregorio Pérez (1993–95)
 * Jorge Fossati (1996)
 * Alejandro Botello (1996)
 * Gregorio Pérez (1997–98)
 * Julio Ribas (1999–01)
 * Gregorio Pérez (2002)
 * Diego Aguirre (2003–05)
 * Fernando Morena (2005)
 * Luis Garisto (2006)
 * Mario Saralegui (24 April 2006 – 30 June 2006)
 * Gregorio Pérez (15 July 2006 – 30 June 2007)
 * Gustavo Matosas (2007)
 * Mario Saralegui (11 March 2008 – 19 January 2009)
 * Julio Ribas (20 January 2009 – 14 September 2009)
 * Víctor Púa (14 September 2009 – 14 December 2009)
 * Diego Aguirre (7 December 2009 – 6 June 2010)
 * Manuel Keosseian (1 July 2010 – 23 November 2010)
 * Edison Machín (2010)
 * Diego Aguirre (7 December 2010 – 6 September 2011)
 * Gregorio Pérez (6 September 2011 – 27 February 2012)
 * Jorge Gonçalves (27 February 2012 – 1 March 2012)
 * Jorge da Silva (1 March 2012 – 30 June 2013)
 * Diego Alonso (19 June 2013 – 6 October 2013)
 * Jorge Gonçalves (7 October 2013 – 28 January 2014)
 * Jorge Fossati (28 January 2014–14)
 * Paolo Montero (2014–15)
 * Pablo Bengoechea (2015–16)
 * Jorge da Silva (2016–October 2016)
 * Fernando Curutchet (October 2016-December 2016)
 * Leonardo Ramos (December 2016 - June 2018)
 * Diego López (June 2018 – December 2019)
 * Diego Forlán (January 2020 – September 2020)
 * Mario Saralegui (September 2020 – December 2020)
 * Mauricio Larriera (December 2020 – August 2023)

Current staff

 * Coach: Darío Rodríguez
 * Assistant coaches: Juan Manuel Olivera
 * Trainers: Eduardo Del Capellán
 * Goalkeepers' Coach: Óscar Ferro
 * Fitness coach: Alejandro Valenzuela
 * Assistant fitness coach: Sebastián Roquero
 * Head of medical department: Edgardo Rienzi
 * Club Doctor: Horacio Deccia
 * Nurses: Miguel Domínguez, Fernando Robaina
 * Kinesiologists: Marcos Sosa, Mauricio Velázquez
 * Equipier: Miguel Santos
 * Props man: Germán Pellejero

Administration
During a meeting presided over by Roland Moor on 28 September 1891, it was stipulated that responsibility for the Central Uruguay Railway Cricket Club would belong to the principal administrator of the Central Uruguay Railway Company of Montevideo. The first president of the club was Frank Henderson, who remained in that office until 1899.

After Henderson CUR administrators remained as chairmen of the sports club until 1906, when Charles W. Bayne took over the CUR. Bayne refused to sponsor the CURCC because of vandalism by fans and absenteeism by workers. He was replaced by CUR employee Roland Moor.

Conflicts remained between the company and the sports club, which resulted in the separation of CURCC's football section from the company and a name change to Club Atlético Peñarol. Jorge Clulow, an Englishman with Uruguayan nationality, was chosen chairman of the club; he remained in office from 1914 to 1915.

Presidents
Honorary
 * 1891–99: Frank Henderson
 * 1899–05: Frank Hudson
 * 1906–08: Roland C.J. Moor
 * 1909–13: Percy Sedgfield
 * 1914–15: Jorge H. Clulow
 * 1916–17: Francisco Simón
 * 1918: Félix Polleri
 * 1919: César Batlle Pacheco
 * 1920: Félix Polleri
 * 1921–28: Julio María Sosa
 * 1929: Arturo Abella
 * 1930–31: Luis Giorgi
 * 1932: Juan Antonio Scasso
 * 1933–34: Alberto Demicheli
 * 1934: Pedro Viapina
 * 1935–36: Luis Giorgi
 * 1937: Francisco Tochetti
 * 1938: Alberto Mantrana Garín
 * 1939: Eduardo Alliaume
 * 1940: Francisco Tochetti
 * 1941–42: Bolívar Baliñas
 * 1942: Álvaro Macedo
 * 1943: Armando Lerma
 * 1944–48: Constante Turturiello
 * 1949–51: Eduardo Alliaume
 * 1952–55: José Buzzetti
 * 1956: Raúl Previtali
 * 1957: Eduardo Alliaume
 * 1958–72: Gastón Guelfi
 * 1973–84: Washington Cataldi
 * 1985–86: Carlos José Lecueder
 * 1987–90: José Pedro Damiani
 * 1991–92: Washington Cataldi
 * 1993–07: José Pedro Damiani
 * 2008–2017: Juan Pedro Damiani
 * 2017-2020: Jorge Barrera
 * 2020- : Juan Ignacio Ruglio
 * 1929: Julio María Sosa
 * 1938: Francisco Tochetti
 * 1949: Constante Turturiello
 * 1953: Mantrana Garin
 * 1953: Carlos Balsán
 * 1961: Gastón Guelfi
 * 1978: Washington Cataldi
 * 1991: José Pedro Damiani
 * Julio María Sanguinetti

Statistics

Peñarol played 26 seasons of the Uruguay Association Football League, from its creation in 1900 until the end of the amateur era in 1931 (absent 1923–26, when the club was disaffiliated from the AUF). During this period Peñarol won the Uruguayan Championship nine times, with its best years in 1900 and 1905 (when the club won the championship without conceding any points). Peñarol was undefeated in 1901, 1903 and 1907. Its worst year was 1908; the team left the league after ten games, forfeiting the other eight. Peñarol's largest goal difference in a game during its amateur era was in 1903, when they defeated Triunfo 12–0.

The club placed second in 1923 (when they scored a record 100 goals), and won in 1924; its most impressive victory was a 10–0 win over Roberto Cherry during the cancelled 1925 season. Both tournaments were organised by dissident body Uruguayan Football Federation (FUF).

Since the beginning of the professional era in 1932, Peñarol and Nacional are the only teams who have played every season for the Uruguayan championship. Peñarol has the most Uruguayan League titles (winning 38 times between 1932 and 2013) and the greatest number of undefeated championships (1949, 1954, 1964, 1967, 1968, 1975 and 1978). Its best performances were in 1949 and 1964, seasons when the team scored 94.44 percent of possible points; its worst season was 2005–06, when it finished in 16th place after winning 32.32 percent of possible points. A 12-point deduction given the team by the AUF because of unrest after a game with Cerro relegated them to that position.

Peñarol's best victory was a 9–0 win against Rampla Juniors in 1962; its worst defeat was 0–6 against Nacional. On the international scene, its best result was an 11–2 win over Valencia of Venezuela on 15 March 1970; its worst was against Olimpia of Paraguay, a 0–6 loss on 10 December 1990 during the Supercopa Sudamericana.

Peñarol holds a number of national and international records. The club has the longest undefeated run in the Uruguayan league: 56 games, from 3 September 1966 to 14 September 1968. This is also the longest undefeated run in South American professional football (second place if amateur leagues are counted).

It was the first club to win the Copa Libertadores de América undefeated, in 1960. Peñarol has the greatest number of appearances in the Copa Libertadores (40), and the second most appearances in the finals (10) after Boca Juniors. The club holds the record for the biggest win (11–2 against Valencia), and the biggest goal difference in a two-legged elimination (defeating Everest from Ecuador 5–0 and 9–1). Peñarol is one of the teams with five Intercontinental Cup appearances, the first to reach that number.

South American Club of the Century
In 2009, the International Federation of Football History & Statistics released a list of the best clubs of the 20th century on each continent. The organization awarded points for each victory in a quarterfinal or higher in international competition but only took into account games played after 1932 for the Professional era. Peñarol was the number-one team in South America, above Independiente of Argentina and arch-rivals Nacional.

Basketball
Peñarol's basketball records date back to the late 1920s, when Club Piratas was formed; in 1931, it became Peñarol. Its first league game (in the fourth division of Uruguayan basketball) was played in 1940. By 1943 the team, playing in the first division for Ramón Esnal, finished third. The following year Peñarol won the Federal Championship, a tournament attracting the best basketball teams in Montevideo; in 2003, the league changed its name to Liga Uruguaya de Basketball.

In 1945, Peñarol jumped from the Uruguayan Basketball Federation to play in a new league; when the upstart league failed, the club rejoined the federation in 1947. In 1952 Peñarol again won the Federal Championship, winning the Winter Tournament in 1953 and 1955. After a low period (with relegation in 1968), Peñarol won the Uruguayan Championship in 1973, 1978, and 1979;the latter was the first professional tournament in league history. In 1982 the club enjoyed its most successful season, winning the Federal Championship and the Winter Tournament The club also won the Campeonato Sudamericano de Clubes in 1983. In 1985 the club was relegated, beginning a downward spiral which ended with its expulsion from the league in 1997. However, the club rejoined in 2018 the Federación Uruguaya de Basket Ball, in the third tier.

Cycling
Peñarol has participated in the Vuelta Ciclista del Uruguay (Tour of Uruguay) since it began in 1939. Although the team rode well during its early years, it was not until the ninth edition (in 1952) that a Peñarol cyclist would win the race (Dante Sudatti, with an overall time of 48 hours, 38 minutes and 38 seconds). Peñarol cyclists also won the general classification 1953 and 1956; in the latter year, the club won the team championship.

After again winning the team championship in 1959, Peñarol would only win one individual championship in 1964. The team later improved, winning three individual titles in a row from 1989 to 1991 and the team victory in 1990 and 1991. 2002 was the fourth year that the club won both the individual and team classifications. Peñarol has competed in other road races, including José María Orlando's 1990 victory in the Rutas de América.

Futsal
Peñarol began playing futsal in 1968. During its first two decades, the club won on the national and international levels (including a victory in the 1987 World Interclub Championship). In 1995 FIFA took over the sport, and Peñarol began competing in AUF tournaments. The team won the first three Uruguayan Championships (1995, 1996, and 1997), also finishing at the top in 1999 and 2004. It won another three consecutive tournaments in 2010, 2011 and 2012.

Beach soccer
In January 2013 Peñarol inaugurated its beach soccer section. Diego Monserrat, goalkeeper of the Uruguay national team for many years, was the institution's first coach in this sport, while also goalkeeper Felipe Fernández was the club's first captain. In the second half of the same month, Peñarol won one of the three groups of five teams, that formed the qualification tournament to the "Super Liga", name given to the Uruguayan Championship of the discipline. After victories on quarterfinals and semi-finals, Peñarol was declared champion of the tournament without the need of a final, after the other semi-final was suspended.

Rugby
Peñarol have announced that they will form a rugby union section to compete in the inaugural 2020 season of the Superliga Americana de Rugby, to be start in February 2020. Peñarol Rugby will be the only representative of Uruguay at the competition.

Peñarol Rugby was the Champion of the 2022 Súper Liga Americana de Rugby season.

Esports
Peñarol also has an esports division, with squads competing in League of Legends and FIFA leagues organized by the Uruguayan Virtual Football Association.

title: Peñarol


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User:Gebeleizis

Gebeleizis was the god of lightning and horizon for the Dacians. The user with this name has obtained his PhD diploma in physics in Upstate New York (University of Rochester) and is a big fan of the martial arts. I also have a blog in Esperanto on http://bendisplanet.blogspot.com.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: User:Gebeleizis


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User talk:Gebeleizis

Sure, I'd be happy to do that. We like to list languages based on how those languages spell their own names so does Romana work? --mav

 * OK - I went ahead and placed the above link on the Main Page. --mav

Block warning
Gebeleizis, you've reverted the Esperanto article 5 times in just a few hours. That is in violation of 3RR, which is a blockable offense. (That is, if you do it again, I or another admin will block your account.) Please discuss this on the talk page in a rational manner. Present your evidence. We might accommodate a 3M figure as you suggest, and might change the lower estimate too. Personally I would like to be able to justify a 3M figure, but I'm not going to misrepresent the evidence to do so. Please cooperate instead of fighting against the other editors. kwami 02:47, 8 January 2006 (UTC) Go to the discussion page of the article. I've added arguments to my editing there. I have not done anyting wrong and see no point to accept an error in an article just because somebody simply WANTS IT SO without bringing me any arguments. I have only EDITED the article, didn't use any revert command. So, please explain and prove me that my no. is wrong and I will not try to make any more changes. But come with valid arguments, not with threats. Gebeleizis.

 * Yes, you have done something wrong, and it is only proper for me to "threaten" (warn) you. Would you rather that I first warn you that your behavior is unacceptable, or simply block you without warning? You reverted a compromise to the population figure. ('Revert' means to undo a change or edit to an article. It doesn't matter how you accomplish this.) And you did it five times. Evidently you're new to Wikipedia. When you make a change and find that other editors disagree with you, it is polite to discuss it on the talk page. Present your evidence (as it looks like you just have), and discuss it, so that everyone's happy with the results. This doesn't always work, but it works most of the time, while edit wars almost never work. kwami 03:05, 8 January 2006 (UTC)
 * Well, if the reverts to my first edits were given an explanation I'd have gone to the discussion page from the beginning. But the way I saw them, even after citng my source as ethnologue.com, was a total disregard of my opinion. I'm happy that now we can discuss this issue and find the best way to agree about a number :-). I may have seemed "unpolite" but you could be more polite with me as well. Gebeleizis.

 * Sorry if I was impolite. Last time I checked I had 800 articles on my watch list - some editors have ten times that number, - and that's a lot to keep up with. About half the edits we see are junk, and most of us don't have time to spend 5 minutes on each to explain why, especially since half the time the edit is anonymous and we don't have anyone to explain it to. If the person repeats, then we might take the time (depends on what else is going on). I'm not saying your edit was bad, only that we've seen it several times before, and it was anonymous. And three different editors reverted you, which should suggest that it isn't just one nutcase opposing you. But you're right; you took the time to include a reference, and I should have at least taken the time to direct you to the old talk page discussion, where we covered that ref and several others besides. kwami 05:18, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

It's OK, no problem. I'll go first on the discussion page before attempting to change the no. of speakers again. Gebeleizis.

Hello!
Hi! I was looking at the article for Esperanto recently, and ran across some of your comments. I find it interesting that you apparently speak both Romanian (native speaker?) and Esperanto, as I'm fairly interested in learning both, myself (I'm a native speaker of American English, currently learning Spanish and planning to learn Japanese as well, with additional interests in learning Hungarian and American Sign Language; Spanish, because it's useful and fairly easy and there's a lot of stuff in it; Japanese because I love the culture and media from Japan; Hungarian and Romanian because I write, and I have characters in one of my favorite of my original fiction stories that are Transylvanian and are supposed to be speaking to each other in Romanian, one of whom has the "Gift of Tongues" and would therefore speak fluent Hungarian as well as Romanian, and one whom speaks Romanian as a second language, with her first having been Hungarian, as a child; American Sign Language because it's useful and easy to get a job in around here; and Esperanto... just because :P ). I love languages and learning about other cultures (I'm even somewhat considering becoming a translator or even a language teacher, since in the U.S., there's always a job somewhere for either of those, or at least a need for them). I was sort of wondering if you would be interested in becoming friends on here, or of corresponding some time. :) I must confess I'm not much of a physics person (I prefer things like biology or very occasionally computer-related sciences when it comes to science; physics sometimes makes my head hurt for the strangeness and complexity of it all), but I do have a lot of other interests. Please respond on my Talk page (or notify me on my Talk page of your response here), so I'll know if you've answered this comment yet. Runa27 08:32, 22 May 2006 (UTC)

title: User talk:Gebeleizis


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Stephen the Great

Stephen III, commonly known as Stephen the Great (Ștefan cel Mare; ); died on 2 July 1504), was Voivode (or Prince) of Moldavia from 1457 to 1504. He was the son of and co-ruler with Bogdan II, who was murdered in 1451 in a conspiracy organized by his brother and Stephen's uncle Peter III Aaron, who took the throne. Stephen fled to Hungary, and later to Wallachia; with the support of Vlad III Țepeș, Voivode of Wallachia, he returned to Moldavia, forcing Aaron to seek refuge in Poland in the summer of 1457. Teoctist I, Metropolitan of Moldavia, anointed Stephen prince. He attacked Poland and prevented Casimir IV Jagiellon, King of Poland, from supporting Peter Aaron, but eventually acknowledged Casimir's suzerainty in 1459.

Stephen decided to recapture Chilia (now Kiliia in Ukraine), an important port on the Danube, which brought him into conflict with Hungary and Wallachia. He besieged the town during the Ottoman invasion of Wallachia in 1462, but was seriously wounded during the siege. Two years later, he captured the town. He promised support to the leaders of the Three Nations of Transylvania against Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary, in 1467. Corvinus invaded Moldavia, but Stephen defeated him in the Battle of Baia. Peter Aaron attacked Moldavia with Hungarian support in December 1470, but was also defeated by Stephen and executed, along with the Moldavian boyars who still endorsed him. Stephen restored old fortresses and built new ones, which improved Moldavia's defence system as well as strengthened central administration. Ottoman expansion threatened Moldavian ports in the region of the Black Sea. In 1473, Stephen stopped paying tribute (haraç) to the Ottoman sultan and launched a series of campaigns against Wallachia in order to replace its rulers – who had accepted Ottoman suzerainty – with his protégés. However, each prince who seized the throne with Stephen's support was soon forced to pay homage to the sultan.

Stephen eventually defeated a large Ottoman army in the Battle of Vaslui in 1475. He was referred to as Athleta Christi ("Champion of Christ") by Pope Sixtus IV, even though Moldavia's hopes for military support went unfulfilled. The following year, Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II routed Stephen in the Battle of Valea Albă, but the lack of provisions and the outbreak of a plague forced him to withdraw from Moldavia. Taking advantage of a truce with Matthias Corvinus, the Ottomans captured Chilia and their Crimean Tatar allies Cetatea Albă (now Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi in Ukraine) in 1484. Although Corvinus granted two Transylvanian estates to Stephen, the Moldavian prince paid homage to Casimir, who promised to support him to regain Chilia and Cetatea Albă. Stephen's efforts to capture the two ports ended in failure. From 1486, he again paid a yearly tribute to the Ottomans. During the following years, dozens of stone churches and monasteries were built in Moldavia, which contributed to the development of a specific Moldavian architecture.

Casimir IV's successor, John I Albert, wanted to grant Moldavia to his younger brother, Sigismund, but Stephen's diplomacy prevented him from invading Moldavia for years. John Albert attacked Moldavia in 1497, but Stephen and his Hungarian and Ottoman allies routed the Polish army in the Battle of the Cosmin Forest. Stephen again tried to recapture Chilia and Cetatea Albă, but had to acknowledge the loss of the two ports to the Ottomans in 1503. During his last years, his son and co-ruler Bogdan III played an active role in government. Stephen's long rule represented a period of stability in the history of Moldavia. From the 16th century onwards both his subjects and foreigners remembered him as a great ruler. Modern Romanians regard him as one of their greatest national heroes, and he also endures as a cult figure in Moldovenism. After the Romanian Orthodox Church canonized him in 1992, he is venerated as "Stephen the Great and Holy" (Ștefan cel Mare și Sfânt).

Early life

Stephen was the son of Bogdan, who was a son of Alexander the Good, Prince of Moldavia. Stephen's mother, Maria Oltea, was most probably related to the princes of Wallachia, according to historian Radu Florescu. The date of Stephen's birth is unknown, though historians estimate that he was born between 1433 and 1440. One church diptych records that he had five siblings: brothers Ioachim, Ioan, Christea; and sisters Sorea and Maria. Some of Stephen's biographers hypothesize that Cârstea Arbore, father of the statesman Luca Arbore, was the prince's fourth brother, or that Cârstea was the same as Ioachim. These links with the high-ranking Moldavian boyars are known to have been preserved through matrimonial connections: Maria, who died in 1485, was the wife of Șendrea, gatekeeper of Suceava; Stephen's other brother-in-law, Isaia, also held high office at his court.

The death of Alexander the Good in 1432 gave rise to a succession crisis that lasted more than two decades. Stephen's father seized the throne in 1449 after defeating one of his relatives with the support of John Hunyadi, Regent-Governor of Hungary. Stephen was styled voivode in his father's charters, showing that he had been made his father's heir and co-ruler. Bogdan acknowledged the suzerainty of Hunyadi in 1450. Stephen fled to Hungary after Peter III Aaron (who was also Alexander the Good's son) murdered Bogdan in October 1451.

Vlad Țepeș (who had lived in Moldavia during Bogdan II's reign) invaded Wallachia and seized the throne with the support of Hunyadi in 1456. Stephen either accompanied Vlad to Wallachia during the military campaign or joined him after Vlad became the ruler of Wallachia. According to reports from the 1480s, Stephen spent part of that interval in Brăila, where he fathered an illegitimate son, Mircea. With the assistance of Vlad, Stephen stormed into Moldavia at the head of an army 6,000 strong in the spring of 1457. According to Moldavian chronicles, "men from the Lower Country" (the southern region of Moldavia) joined him. The 17th-century Grigore Ureche wrote: "Stephen routed Peter Aaron at Doljești on 12 April, but Peter Aaron left Moldavia for Poland only after Stephen inflicted a second defeat on him at Orbic."

Early campaigns
One widely accepted theory, based on Ureche, states that an assembly of boyars and Orthodox clergymen acclaimed Stephen the ruler of Moldavia at Direptate, a meadow near Suceava. According to scholar Constantin Rezachievici, this elective custom has no precedent before the 17th century, and appears superfluous in Stephen's case; he argues that it was a legend fabricated by Ureche. While this election remains uncertain, various historians agree that Teoctist I, Metropolitan of Moldavia, anointed Stephen prince. To emphasize the sacred nature of his rule, Stephen styled himself "By the Grace of God, ... Stephen voivode, lord (or hospodar) of the Moldavian lands" on 13 September 1457. His use of Christian devices for legitimization overlapped with a troubled context for Moldavian Orthodoxy: the attempted Catholic–Orthodox union had divided the Byzantine Rite churches into supporters and dissidents; likewise, the Fall of Constantinople had encouraged local bishops to consider themselves independent of the Patriarchy. There is a long-standing dispute about whether Teoctist was a dissenter, belonging to one of the several emancipated Orthodox jurisdictions, or a loyalist of Patriarch Isidore. Historian Dan Ioan Mureșan argues that the evidence is for the latter option, because Moldavia appears on the list of Patriarchate jurisdictions, and because Stephen, though he tested the Patriarch by sometimes using imperial titles such as tsar by 1473, was never threatened with excommunication.

As one of his earliest actions as prince, Stephen attacked Poland to prevent Casimir IV from supporting Peter Aaron in 1458. This first military campaign "established his credentials as a military commander of stature", according to historian Jonathan Eagles. However, he wanted to avoid prolonged conflict with Poland, because the recapture of Chilia was his principal aim. Chilia was an important port on the Danube that Peter III of Moldavia had surrendered to Hungary in 1448. He signed a treaty with Poland on the river Dniester on 4 April 1459. He acknowledged the suzerainty of Casimir IV and promised to support Poland against Tatar marauders. Casimir in turn pledged to protect Stephen against his enemies and to forbid Peter Aaron from returning to Moldavia. Peter Aaron subsequently left Poland for Hungary and settled in Székely Land, Transylvania.

Stephen invaded Székely Land multiple times in 1461. Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary, decided to support Peter Aaron, giving him shelter in his capital at Buda. In 1462, Stephen underscored his wish for good relations with the Ottoman Empire, expelling from Moldavia the Franciscans, who were agitating for a united church and a crusade. Stephen continued to pay the yearly tribute to the Ottoman Empire initiated by his predecessor. He also made a new agreement with Poland in Suceava on 2 March 1462, promising to personally swear fealty to Casimir IV if the king required it. This treaty declared that Casimir was the sole suzerain of Moldavia, prohibiting Stephen from alienating Moldavian territories without his authorization. It also obliged Stephen to recapture the Moldavian territories that had been lost, obviously in reference to Chilia.

Written sources evidence that the relationship between Stephen and Vlad Țepeș became tense in early 1462. On 2 April 1462, the Genoese governor of Caffa (now Feodosia in Crimea) informed Casimir IV of Poland that Stephen had attacked Wallachia while Vlad Țepeș was waging war against the Ottomans. The Ottoman Sultan, Mehmed II, later invaded Wallachia in June 1462. Mehmed's secretary, Tursun Beg, recorded that Vlad Țepeș had to station 7,000 soldiers near the Wallachian-Moldavian frontier during the sultan's invasion to "protect his country against his Moldavian enemies". Both Tursun and Laonikos Chalkokondyles note that Stephen's troops were loyal to Mehmed, and directly involved in the invasion. Taking advantage of the presence of the Ottoman fleet at the Danube Delta, Stephen also laid siege to Chilia in late June. According to Domenico Balbi, the Venetian envoy in Istanbul, Stephen and the Ottomans besieged the fortress for eight days, but they could not capture it, because the "Hungarian garrison and Țepeș's 7,000 men" defeated them, killing "many Turks". Stephen was seriously wounded during the siege, suffering an injury on his left calf, or his left foot, that would never heal his entire life.

Consolidation
Stephen again laid siege to Chilia on 24 January 1465. The Moldavian army bombarded the fortress for two days, forcing the garrison to surrender on 25 or 26 January. The sultan's vassal, Radu the Handsome, Voivode of Wallachia, had also laid claim to Chilia, thus the capture of the port gave rise to conflicts not only with Hungary, but also with Wallachia and the Ottoman Empire. In 1465 or earlier, Stephen peacefully regained the fortress of Hotin (now Khotyn in Ukraine) on the Dniester from the Poles. To commemorate the capture of Chilia, Stephen ordered the construction of the Church of the Assumption of the Mother of God in a glade on the Putna River in 1466. It became the central monument of Putna Monastery, extended by Stephen in 1467, when he donated the village of Vicov, and finally consecrated in September 1470.

At Matthias Corvinus' instance, the Diet of Hungary abolished all previous exemptions relating to the tax known as the "chamber's profit". The leaders of the Three Nations of Transylvania who regarded the reform as an infringement of their privileges declared on 18 August 1467 that they were ready to fight to defend their liberties. Stephen promised support to them, but they yielded to Corvinus without resistance after the king marched to Transylvania. Corvinus invaded Moldavia and captured Baia, Bacău, Roman and Târgu Neamț. Stephen assembled his army and launched a crushing defeat on the invaders in the Battle of Baia on 15 December. This episode was presented in contemporary Hungarian chronicles as a defeat of Stephen's armies. However, Corvinus, who received wounds in the battle, could only escape from the battlefield with the help of Moldavian boyars who had joined him. A group of boyars rose up against Stephen in the Lower Country, but he had 20 boyars and 40 other landowners captured and executed before the end of the year.

Stephen again swore loyalty to Casimir IV in the presence of the Polish envoy in Suceava on 28 July 1468. He conducted raids against Transylvania between 1468 and 1471. When Casimir came to Lviv in February 1469 to personally receive his homage, Stephen did not go to meet him. In the same year or in early 1470, Tatars invaded Moldavia, but Stephen routed them in the Battle of Lipnic near the Dniester. To strengthen the defence system along the river, Stephen decided to erect new fortresses at Old Orhei and Soroca around the same time. A Wallachian army laid siege to Chilia, but it could not force the Moldavian garrison to surrender.

Matthias Corvinus sent peace proposals to Stephen. His envoys sought Casimir IV's advice on Corvinus' proposals at the Sejm (or general assembly) of Poland at Piotrków Trybunalski in late 1469. Stephen invaded Wallachia and destroyed Brăila and Târgul de Floci (the two most important Wallachian centres of commerce on the Danube) in February 1470. Peter Aaron hired Székely troops and broke into Moldavia in December 1470, but his attack was probably anticipated by Stephen. The voivode defeated his rival near Târgu Neamț. Peter Aaron fell captive in the battlefield. He and his Moldavian supporters, among them Stephen's vornic and brother-in-law, Isaia, and the chancellor Alexa, were executed on the orders of Stephen. Radu the Fair also invaded Moldavia, but Stephen defeated him at Soci on 7 March 1471. Reportedly, he killed all but two of the Wallachian noblemen he captured in battle.

The relationship between Casimir IV and Matthias Corvinus became tense in early 1471. After Stephen failed to support Poland, Casimir IV dispatched an embassy to Moldavia, insisting that Stephen should comply with his obligations. Stephen met the Polish envoys in Vaslui on 13 July, reminding them of the hostile acts Polish noblemen committed along the border and demanded the extradition of the Moldavian boyars who had fled to Poland. In parallel, he sent his own envoys to Hungary to start negotiations with Corvinus. He granted commercial privileges to Saxon merchants from the Transylvanian town of Corona (now Brașov) on 3 January 1472.

Wars with Mehmed II
The Ottomans put pressure on Stephen to abandon Chilia and Cetatea Albă (now Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi in Ukraine) in the early 1470s. Instead of obeying their demands, Stephen declined to send the yearly tribute to the Sublime Porte in 1473. From 1472, he had friendly contacts with Uzun Hasan, sultan of Aq Qoyunlu, plotting an anti-Ottoman coordination. Taking advantage of Mehmed's war against Uzun in Anatolia, Stephen invaded Wallachia to replace Radu the Fair, an Ottoman-installed Muslim convert and vassal, with his protégé, Basarab III Laiotă. He routed the Wallachian army at Râmnicu Sărat in a battle that lasted for three days from 18 to 20 November 1473. Four days later, the Moldavian army captured Bucharest and Stephen placed Basarab on the throne. However, Radu regained Wallachia with Ottoman support before the end of the year. Basarab again expelled Radu from Wallachia in 1475, but the Ottomans once more assisted him to return. The Wallachians took revenge by plundering some parts of Moldavia. To restore Basarab, Stephen launched a new campaign to Wallachia in October, forcing Radu to flee from the principality.

Mehmed II ordered Hadım Suleiman Pasha, Beylerbey (or governor) of Rumelia, to invade Moldavia – an Ottoman army of about 120,000 strong broke into Moldavia in late 1475. Wallachian troops also joined the Ottomans, while Stephen received support from Poland and Hungary. Outnumbered three to one by the invaders, Stephen was forced to retreat. He joined battle with Hadım Suleiman Pasha at Podul Înalt (or the High Bridge) near Vaslui on 10 January 1475. Before the battle, he had sent his buglers to hide behind the enemy fronts. When they suddenly sounded their horns, they caused such a panic among the invaders that they fled from the battlefield. Over the next three days, hundreds of Ottoman soldiers were massacred and the survivors retreated from Moldavia.

Stephen's victory in the Battle of Vaslui was "arguably one of the biggest European victories over the Ottomans", according to historian Alexander Mikaberidze. Mara Branković, Mehmed II's stepmother, stated the Ottomans "had never suffered a greater defeat". Stephen sent letters to the European rulers to seek their support against the Ottomans, reminding them that Moldavia was "the Gateway of Christianity" and "the bastion of Hungary and Poland and the guardian of these kingdoms". Pope Sixtus IV praised him as Verus christiane fidei athleta ("The true defender of the Christian faith"). However, neither the Pope, nor any other European power, sent material support to Moldavia. Stephen was also approaching Mehmed with peace offers. According to disputed reports by the chronicler Jan Długosz, he was also playing down the invasion as the deed of "some fugitives and brigands" whom the Sultan would want to punish.

Meanwhile, Stephen's brother-in-law, Alexander, seized the Principality of Theodoro in the Crimea at the head of a Moldavian army. Stephen also decided to expel his former protégé, Basarab Laiotă, from Wallachia, because Basarab had supported the Ottomans during their invasion of Moldavia. He made an alliance with Matthias Corvinus in July, persuading him to release Basarab's rival, Vlad Țepeș, who had been imprisoned in Hungary in 1462. Stephen and Vlad made an agreement to put an end to the conflicts between Moldavia and Wallachia, but Corvinus did not support them to invade Wallachia. The Ottomans occupied the Principality of Theodoro and the Genoese colonies in the Crimea before the end of 1475. Stephen ordered the execution of the Ottoman prisoners in Moldavia to take vengeance for the massacre of Alexander of Theodoro and his Moldavian retainers. Thereafter the Venetians, who had waged war against the Ottomans since 1463, regarded Stephen as their principal ally. With their support, Stephen's envoys tried to persuade the Holy See to finance Stephen's war directly, instead of sending the funds to Matthias Corvinus. The Signoria of Venice emphasized, "No one should fail to understand the extent to which Stephen could influence the evolution of events, one way or another", referring to his pre-eminent role in the anti-Ottoman alliance.

Mehmed II personally commanded a new invasion against Moldavia in the summer of 1476. This force included 12,000 Wallachians under Laiotă, and a retinue of Moldavians under a certain Alexandru, who claimed to be Stephen's brother. The Crimean Tatars were the first to break into Moldavia at the Sultan's order, but Stephen routed them. He also persuaded the Tatars of the Great Horde to break into the Crimea, forcing the Crimean Tatars to withdraw from Moldavia. The Sultan invaded Moldavia in late June 1476.

Himself supported by troops sent by Corvinus, Stephen adopted a scorched earth policy, but could not avoid a pitched battle. He suffered a defeat in the Battle of Valea Albă at Războieni on 26 July and had to seek refuge in Poland, but the Ottomans could not capture the fortress of Suceava, and similarly failed before Neamț. The lack of sufficient provisions and an outbreak of cholera in the Ottoman camp forced Mehmed to leave Moldavia, enabling the voivode to return from Poland. Folk tradition claims that Stephen had also been pledged a new army with the free peasantry of Putna County, grouped around the seven sons of a local lady, Tudora "Baba" Vrâncioaia. This contingent reportedly attacked the Ottomans' flank at Odobești. Another account, repeated by Ureche, is that Maria Oltea forced her son back into battle, pushing him to either return victorious or die.

The Byzantine historian George Sphrantzes concluded that Mehmed II "had suffered more defeats than victories" during the invasion of Moldavia. From summer 1475, during an interlude in the rivalry between Poland and Hungary, Stephen swore his allegiance to the latter. With Hungarian support, Stephen and Vlad Țepeș invaded Wallachia, forcing Basarab Laiotă to flee in November 1476. Stephen returned to Moldavia, leaving Moldavian troops behind for Vlad's protection. The Ottomans invaded Wallachia to restore Basarab Laiotă. Țepeș and his Moldavian retainers were massacred before 10 January 1477. Stephen again broke into Wallachia and replaced Basarab Laiotă with Basarab IV the Younger.

Stephen sent his envoys to Rome and Venice to persuade the Christian powers to continue the war against the Ottomans. He and Venice also wanted to involve the Great Horde in the anti-Ottoman coalition, but the Poles were unwilling to allow the Tatars to cross their territories. To strengthen his international position, Stephen signed a new treaty with Poland on 22 January 1479, promising to personally swear fealty to Casimir IV in Colomea (now Kolomyia in Ukraine) if the king specifically demanded it. Venice and the Ottoman Empire made peace in the same month; Hungary and Poland in April. After Basarab the Younger paid homage to the sultan, Stephen had to seek reconciliation with the Ottomans. In May 1480, he promised to renew the annual tribute that he had stopped paying in 1473. Taking advantage of the peace, Stephen made preparations to a new confrontation with the Ottoman Empire. He again invaded Wallachia and replaced Basarab the Younger with one Mircea, possibly Stephen's own son, but Basarab regained Wallachia with Ottoman support. The Wallachians and their Ottoman allies broke into Moldavia in the spring of 1481.

Wars with Bayezid II
Mehmed II died in 1481. The conflict between his two sons, Bayezid II and Cem, enabled Stephen to break into Wallachia and the Ottoman Empire in June. He routed Basarab the Younger at Râmnicu Vâlcea and placed Vlad Țepeș's half-brother, Vlad Călugărul (Vlad the Monk), on the throne. After Basarab the Younger returned with Ottoman support, Stephen made a last attempt to secure his influence in Wallachia. He again led his army to Wallachia and defeated Basarab the Younger, who died in the battle. Although Vlad Călugărul was restored, he was soon forced to accept the Sultan's suzerainty. Anticipating a new Ottoman attack, Stephen fortified his frontier with Wallachia and entered an alliance with Ivan III of Russia, Grand Prince of Moscow.

"...since [Stephen the Great] has ruled in Moldavia he has not liked any ruler of Wallachia. He did not wish to live with [Radu the Fair], nor with [Basarab Laiotă], nor with me. I do not know who can live with him."

- Basarab the Younger's 1481 letter to the councilors of Sibiu

Matthias Corvinus signed a five-year truce with Bayezid II in October 1483. The truce applied to all Moldavia, with the exception of the ports. Bayezid invaded Moldavia and captured Chilia on 14 or 15 July 1484. His vassal, Meñli I Giray, also broke into Moldavia and seized Cetatea Albă on 3 August. The capture of the two ports secured the Ottomans' control of the Black Sea. Bayezid left Moldavia only after Stephen personally came to pay homage to him. Although this prostration was largely without effect on Moldavian independence, the loss of Chilia and Cetatea Albă put an end to the Moldavian control of important trading routes.

Corvinus was unwilling to break his own truce with Bayezid, having tacit Ottoman backing for his own war in the west. However, he granted his vassal a territorial gift in Transylvania, comprising the domains of Ciceu and Cetatea de Baltă. According to various interpretations, this exchange occurred in or after 1484, and was meant to compensate Stephen for the loss of his ports. Medievalist Marius Diaconescu dates the lease of Cetatea to 1482, when Corvinus agreed to give Stephen a place of refuge, should Moldavia fall to the Ottomans, while Ciceu only became Stephen's castle in 1489. Both citadels were on land confiscated after conflicts between the Three Nations and Corvinus. Ciceu had been a fief of the Losonczi family, under litigation, while Cetatea had been a special domain of the Voivode of Transylvania, whose last titular owner before Stephen was John Pongrác of Dengeleg.

By then, war between the Poles and the Ottomans was in preparation, with clashes between the two sides occurring in 1484. Historian Șerban Papacostea notes that Casimir IV had always remained neutral during Stephen's conflicts with the Ottomans, but the Ottoman control of the mouths of the Dnieper and the Danube threatened Poland. The king, Papacostea argues, also wanted to strengthen his suzerainty over Moldavia, which helped him decide to intervene in the conflict on Stephen's behalf. Casimir formed or joined with an anti-Ottoman league, which, in 1485, had also gathered reluctant support from the Teutonic Knights. Historians provide different readings of the issue: according to Robert Nisbet Bain, Casimir's intervention also drove the Ottomans out of Moldavia; Veniamin Ciobanu however argues that the Polish involvement remained non-military, purely diplomatic.

Casimir then marched on Colomea with 20,000 troops. To secure his support, Stephen also went to Colomea and swore fealty to him on 12 September 1485. The ceremony took place in a tent, but its curtains were drawn aside at the moment when Stephen was on his knees before Casimir. Three days after Stephen's oath of fealty, Casimir IV pledged that he would not acknowledge the capture of Chilia and Cetatea Albă by the Ottomans without Stephen's consent. During Stephen's visit in Poland, the Ottomans broke into Moldavia and sacked Suceava. They also tried to place a pretender, Peter Hronoda, on the throne.

Stephen returned from Poland and defeated the invaders with Polish assistance at Cătlăbuga Lake in November. He again confronted the Ottomans at Șcheia in March 1486, but could not recapture Chilia and Cetatea Albă. He narrowly escaped with his life, reportedly after being helped by the Aprod Purice, whom tradition identifies as patriarch of the Movilești family. Historian Vasile Mărculeț agrees with Ottoman sources in noting that Șcheia was not a military victory for Moldavia, but overall a relative success for his enemy, Skender Pasha. Moldavians reported winning the day only because they narrowly avoided disaster; and because Hronoda, recognized a voivode by dissenting boyars, was captured and beheaded. In the end, Stephen signed a three-year truce with the Porte, promising to pay the yearly tribute to the Sultan.

Conflicts with Poland

Researcher V. J. Parry argues that, because the Poles were continuously harassed by the Great Horde, they were in no position to help Stephen. Eventually, in late 1486, Poland announced plans of actually starting a "crusade" against the Ottomans, to be led by John Albert; Stephen approached the Sejm to negotiate Moldavia's role in the affair. He kept out, with the expedition being rerouted from Lviv, then attacking the Tatars. Poland concluded a peace treaty with the Ottoman Empire in 1489, acknowledging the loss of Chilia and Cetatea Albă, without Stephen's consent. Although the treaty confirmed Moldavia's frontiers, Stephen regarded it as a breach of his 1485 agreement with Casimir IV. Instead of accepting the treaty, he acknowledged the suzerainty of Matthias Corvinus. However, Corvinus died unexpectedly on 6 April 1490. Four candidates laid claim to Hungary, including Maximilian of Habsburg, and Casimir IV's two sons, John Albert and Vladislaus.

Stephen supported Maximilian of Habsburg, who urged the Three Nations of Transylvania to cooperate with Stephen against his opponents. Most Hungarian lords and prelates, however, supported Vladislaus who was crowned king on 21 September, forcing Maximilian to withdraw from Hungary in November. For John Albert (who was his father's heir in Poland) did not abandon his claim, Stephen decided to support Vladislaus in order to prevent a personal union between Hungary and Poland. He broke into Poland and captured Pocuția (now Pokuttya in Ukraine). He believed that he was entitled to this former Moldavian fief, its revenue redirected toward paying the Ottoman tribute. Stephen also supported Vladislaus against the Ottomans who broke into Hungary several times after Corvinus' death. In exchange, Vladislaus confirmed Stephen's claim to Ciceu and Cetatea de Baltă in Transylvania. John Albert, in turn, was forced to acknowledge his brother as the lawful king in late 1491.

Casimir IV died on 7 June 1492. One of his younger sons, Alexander, succeeded him in Lithuania, and John Albert was elected king of Poland in late August. Ivan III of Moscow broke into Lithuania to expand his authority over the principalities along the borderlands. During the following years, Ivan and Stephen coordinated their diplomacy, which enabled Ivan to persuade Alexander to acknowledge the loss of significant territories to Moscow in February 1494.

Ottoman pressure also brought about a rapprochement between Hungary and Poland. Vladislaus met his four brothers, including John Albert and Sigismund, in Lőcse (now Levoča in Slovakia) in April 1494. They planned a crusade against the Ottoman Empire. However, John Albert wanted to strengthen Polish suzerainty over Moldavia and to dethrone Stephen in favour of Sigismund, which gave rise to new tensions between Poland and Hungary. Shortly after the conference, John Albert decided to launch a campaign against the Ottomans to recapture Chilia and Cetatea Albă. Fearing that the subjugation of Moldavia was John Albert's actual purpose, Stephen made several attempts to prevent his campaign. With Ivan III's support, he persuaded Alexander of Lithuania not to associate himself with John Albert. As reported by the Bychowiec Chronicle, the Lithuanian magnates also condemned the war, and simply refused to cross the Southern Bug.

For its part, the Polish army marched across the Dniester into Moldavia in August 1497. The Sultan sent 500 or 600 Janissaries to Moldavia at Stephen's request, joining the Moldavian forces gathered at Roman. Stephen sent his chancellor, Isaac, to John Albert, requesting the withdrawal of Polish forces from Moldavia, but John Albert had Isaac imprisoned. The Poles then laid siege to Suceava on 24 September. The campaign failed: Teutonic reinforcements never arrived, with Johann von Tiefen dying on the way. Before long, a plague broke out in the Polish camp, while Vladislaus of Hungary sent an army of 12,000 strong to Moldavia, forcing John Albert to lift the siege on 19 October.

The Poles started to march towards Poland, but Stephen ambushed and routed them at a ravine in Bukovina on 25 and 26 October. Several raids into Poland during the following months, including the sacking of Lviv, Yavoriv, and Przemyśl, cemented his victory. These were either ordered and directed by Stephen, or carried out through a combined force of Ottoman–Tatar–Moldavian irregulars commanded by Malkoçoğlu. Stephen made peace with John Albert only after Poland and Hungary concluded a new alliance against the Ottoman Empire, and Moldavia received direct access to Lviv's markets. Meanwhile, the Ottoman campaign ended in disaster, as a heavy winter induced famine; various Polish and Lithuanian reports also suggest that Stephen ordered false flag attacks against his panicking former allies.

Last years

From about 1498, power in Moldavia quietly shifted toward a group of boyars and administrators, comprising, among others, Luca Arbore and Ioan Tăutu. Stephen's son and co-ruler, Bogdan, was also taking on princely responsibilities from his father. He conducted the negotiations with Poland about a peace treaty. The treaty, which Stephen ratified at Hârlău in 1499, put an end to Polish suzerainty over Moldavia. Stephen again stopped paying tribute to the Ottomans in 1500, although by then his health had declined. In February 1501, his delegation arrived in Venice, asking for a specialist doctor. As reported by Marin Sanudo, his envoys also discussed the possibility of Moldavia and Hungary joining the Ottoman–Venetian War. The Doge of Venice, Agostino Barbarigo, sent a physician, Matteo Muriano, to Moldavia to treat his counterpart.

Stephen's armies again broke into the Ottoman Empire, but they could not recapture Chilia or Cetatea Albă. The Tatars of the Great Horde invaded southern Moldavia, but Stephen defeated them with the support of the Crimean Tatars in 1502. He also sent reinforcements to Hungary to fight against the Ottomans. By then, however, the treaty with Poland was no longer enforced, prompting Stephen to recapture Pocuția in 1502. Although Alexander of Lithuania was by then the new King of Poland, no understanding could be reached between him and Stephen, and the two became enemies. At around that time, Luca Arbore, acting either as Stephen's envoy or on his own, stated a Moldavian claim to Halych and other towns of the Ruthenian Voivodeship. Hungary and the Ottoman Empire concluded a new peace treaty on 22 February 1503, which also included Moldavia. Thereafter Stephen again paid a yearly tribute to the Ottomans. Stephen survived his doctor, who died in Moldavia in late 1503. Another Moldavian delegation was sent to Venice to ask for a replacement, but also to propose a new alliance against the Ottomans. This was one of his last acts of international diplomacy. When Stephen was dying, various boyars, who opposed Bogdan, rebelled, but they were suppressed. On his deathbed, he had urged Bogdan to continue to pay the tribute to the Sultan. He died on 2 July 1504 and was buried in the Monastery of Putna.

Family
A woman named Mărușca (or Mărica) most probably gave birth to Stephen's first recognized son, Alexandru. Historian Ioan-Aurel Pop describes Mărușca as Stephen's first wife, but other researchers note that the legitimacy of the Stephen–Mărușca marriage is uncertain. According to Jonathan Eagles, Alexandru either died in childhood or survived infancy and became his father's co-ruler. This older Alexandru died in July 1496, not before marrying a daughter of Bartolomeu Dragfi, the Transylvanian Voivode. He is probably not the same Alexandru who, in 1486, was sent by Stephen as a voluntary hostage to Istanbul, where he married a Byzantine noblewoman. This Alexandru was still alive by the end of his father's rule and beyond, when he became a pretender to the throne, and ultimately a contested prince. A 1538 letter by Fabio Mignanelli describes the surviving Alexandru, or "Sandrin", as a posthumous son of Stephen, but this is likely an error.

If Stephen fathered two or three sons named Alexandru, the one who was for a while his designated successor was born to Evdochia of Kiev, whom Stephen married in 1463. An Olelkovich, she was closely related both to Ivan III of Moscow and to Casimir IV of Poland and Lithuania. Stephen's charter of grant to the Hilandar Monastery on Mount Athos refers to two children of Stephen and Evdochia, Alexandru and Olena. Olena was the wife of Ivan Molodoy, the eldest son of Ivan III, and mother of the usurped heir Dmitry.

Stephen's second (or third) wife, Maria of Mangup, was of the family of the Princes of Theodoro. She was probably also cousins with the Muscovite Grand Princess Sophia Palaiologina and was related to Trebizond's royal couple, Emperor David and Empress Maria. The Stephen–Maria marriage took place in September 1472, but she died in December 1477. During her brief stay in Moldavia, Maria supported the Latin Patriarchate of Constantinople, contributing to the friendly contacts between Stephen and Catholic powers. Stephen's third (or fourth) wife, Maria Voichița, was the daughter of Radu the Fair, Voivode of Wallachia. She was the mother of Stephen's immediate successor, Bogdan, and a daughter named Maria Cneajna. The latter married into the House of Sanguszko. Stephen is known to have fathered two other sons who died in childhood, at a time when he was married to Maria Voichița: Bogdan died in 1479, and Peter (Petrașco) in 1480. Scholars are divided as to whether their mother was Evdochia, Maria of Mangup, or a very young Maria Voichița. Bogdan was also known as "Vlad"—a regal name rarely used in Moldavia, but common for Wallachian princes. The choice was either "an underlining of the Moldo–Wallachian unity which Prince Stephen had sought to achieve", or, more precisely but less certainly, a proof that Stephen wished to make Bogdan-Vlad his co-ruler over Wallachia. Archivist Aurelian Sacerdoțeanu believes that Bogdan-Vlad also had a twin, Iliaș.

In 1480, Stephen finally recognized his first-born, Mircea, born from his 1450s affair with Călțuna of Brăila, and groomed him to take the throne in Wallachia. According to Sacerdoțeanu, recognition came only after the death of Mircea's legal father, who may have been one of the boyars spared at Soci. Stephen also fathered another illegitimate son, Petru Rareș, who became prince of Moldavia in 1527. The church regards his mother, Maria Rareș, as Stephen's fourth wife, although she is known to have been married to a burgher. Stephen V "Locust", who held the Moldavian throne in 1538–1540, also presented himself as Stephen's illegitimate son. According to Sacerdoțeanu, his claim is credible. A local tradition in Putna County (today's Vrancea) attributes to Stephen other extra-conjugal affairs, with many peasants reporting that they consider themselves "of his blood" or "of his marrow".

Stability and violence
Stephen reigned for more than 47 years, which was "in itself an outstanding achievement in the context of the political and territorial fragility of the Romanian principalities". His diplomacy evidenced that he was one of the "most astute politicians" of Europe in the 15th century. This skill enabled him to play off the Ottoman Empire, Poland and Hungary against each other. According to historian Keith Hitchins, Stephen "paid tribute to the Ottomans, but only when it was advantageous...; he did homage to King Casimir of Poland as his suzerain when that seemed wise ...; and he resorted to arms when other means failed."

Stephen suppressed the rebellious boyars and strengthened central government, often applying cruel punishments, including impalement. He consolidated the practice of slavery, including the notion that different laws applied to slaves, reportedly capturing as many as 17,000 Roma during his invasion of Wallachia, but also selectively freeing and assimilating Tatar slaves. He supposedly used both communities as "slaves of the court", treasuring their specialized skills; nevertheless, one folk legend additionally claims that Stephen practiced human sacrifice against Roma slaves, to alleviate the floods at Sulița. According to Marcin Bielski, during the 1498 expedition to Poland, the voivode participated in, or at least tolerated, the capture of as many as 100,000 people. At least some of these were colonized in Moldavia, where, according to various reports of the period, they founded "Ruthenian" undefended towns. According to historian Mircea Ciubotaru, these may include Cernauca (now Chornivka in Ukraine), Dobrovăț, Lipnic, Ruși-Ciutea, and a cluster of villages outside Hârlău.

Stephen also welcomed freemen as settlers, establishing some of the first Armenian colonies in Moldavia, including one at Suceava, while also settling Italians, some of whom were escapees from the Ottoman slave trade, in that city. Early on, he renewed the commercial privileges of Transylvanian Saxons who traded in Moldavia, but subsequently introduced some protectionist barriers. His own court was staffed with foreign experts, among them Matteo Muriano and the Italian banker Dorino Cattaneo. However, as a "crusader" in the 1470s, Stephen encouraged the religious persecution and extortion of Gregorian Armenians, Jews, and Hussites, some of whom became supporters of the Ottoman Empire.

In addition to his colonization policies, Stephen restored Crown lands that had been lost during the civil war that followed Alexander the Good's rule, either through buying or confiscating them. On the other hand, he granted much landed property to the Church and to the lesser noblemen who were the main supporters of the central government. His itinerant lifestyle enabled him to personally hold court in the whole of Moldavia, which contributed to the development of his authority.

When talking with Muriano in 1502, Stephen mentioned that he had fought 36 battles, only losing two of them. When the enemy forces mostly outnumbered his army, Stephen had to adopt the tactics of "asymmetric warfare". He practised guerilla warfare against invaders, avoiding challenging them to open battle before they were weakened due to the lack of supplies or sickness. During his invasions, however, he moved quickly and forced his enemies to do battle. To strengthen the defence of his country, he restored the fortresses built during Alexander the Good's rule at Hotin, Chilia, Cetatea Albă, Suceava and Târgu Neamț. He also erected a number of castles, including the new fortresses at Roman and Tighina. The pârcălabi (or commanders) of the fortresses were invested with administrative and judicial powers and became important pillars of royal administration, their work controlled by a new central office, the armaș (first attested in 1489). The pârcălabi included members of the princely family, such as Duma, who was Stephen's cousin; before his execution, Isaia, the voivode's brother-in-law, had supervised Chilia and Neamț Citadel.

Stephen hired mercenaries to man his forts, which diminished the military role of the boyars' retinues within the Moldavian military forces. He also set up a personal guard 3,000 strong and, at least for a while, an Armenian-only unit. To strengthen the defence of Moldavia, he obliged the peasantry to bear arms. Moldavian chronicles recorded that if "he found a peasant lacking arrows, bow or sword, or coming to the army without spurs for the horse, he mercilessly put that man to death". The military reforms increased Moldavia's military potential, enabling Stephen to muster an army of more than 40,000 strong.

Cultural development
The years following Stephen's wars against the Ottoman Empire have been described as the era of "cultural policies" and "great architectural upsurge". More than a dozen stone churches were erected at Stephen's initiative after 1487. The wealthiest boyars followed him, and Stephen also supported the development of monastic communities. For instance, the Voroneț Monastery was built in 1488 and the monastery at Tazlău in 1496 to 1497.

The style of the new churches evidences that a "genuine school of local architects" developed during Stephen's reign. They borrowed components of Byzantine and Gothic architecture and mixed it with elements of local tradition. Painted walls and towers with a base forming a star were the most featuring elements of Stephen's churches. The prince also financed the building of churches in Transylvania and Wallachia, which contributed to the spread of Moldavian architecture beyond the boundaries of the principality. Stephen commissioned votive paintings and carved tomb stones for many of his ancestors' and other relatives' graves. The tomb room of the Putna Monastery was built to be the royal necropolis of Stephen's family. Stephen's own tombstone was decorated with acanthus leaves (a motif adopted from Byzantine art) which became the featuring decorative element of Moldavian art during the following century.

Stephen also contributed to the development of historiography and Church Slavonic literature in Moldavia. He ordered the collection of the annals of the principality and initiated the completion of at least three Slavonic chronicles, noted in particular for doing away with the conventions of Byzantine literature, and for introducing new storytelling canons. Some portions of these historiographic texts were corrected, and perhaps even dictated, by Stephen himself. The Chronicle of Bistrița, which was allegedly the oldest chronicle, narrated the history of Moldavia from 1359 to 1506. The two versions of the Chronicle of Putna covered the period from 1359 to 1526, but it also wrote of the history of the Putna Monastery. They were accompanied by a large number of lay and religious texts (including the Gospels, in several versions by Teodor Mărișescul; as well as commentary on the Nomocanon and Slavonic translations from John Climacus). Some were richly decorated with miniatures, such as portraits of Stephen (in the Humor Monastery Gospel, 1473) and his courtier Ioan Tăutu (Psalter of Mukachevo, 1498). The "Moldavian style", developed at Neamț Monastery by the disciples of Gavriil Uric, became influential outside Moldavia, creating a fashion among Russian illustrators and calligraphers.

National hero
Stephen received the sobriquet "Great" shortly after his death. Sigismund I of Poland and Lithuania referred to him as "that great Stephen" in 1534. The Polish historian Martin Kromer mentioned him as the "great prince of the Moldavians." According to Maciej Stryjkowski, by 1580 the Wallachians and Moldavians alike sang ballads honoring Stephen, whose portrait was displayed at the court of Bucharest; his raids in Wallachia were generally overlooked in such testimonials. Despite being honored for his skill, he was still primarily known under sobriquets indicating his standing and age: in 16th-century Moldavia and Wallachia, he was casually known as Ștefan cel Vechi and Ștefan cel Bătrân ("Stephen the Ancient" or "the Old"). Oral history also maintained Stephen's Byzantine self-references, often calling him an "emperor" or a "crai (king) of the Moldavians".

In the mid-17th-century, Grigore Ureche described Stephen as "a benefactor and a leader" when writing of his funeral. A boyar by birth, Ureche also mentioned Stephen's despotic cruelty, bad temper, and diminutive stature — possibly because, according to scholar Lucian Boia, he resented authoritarian princes. In tandem, local folklore came to regard Stephen as a protector of peasantry against noblemen and foreign invaders. For centuries, free peasants claimed that they inherited their landed property from their ancestors to whom it had been granted by Stephen for their bravery in the battles.

Such precedents also made Stephen a cult figure in Romanian nationalism, which sought the union of Moldavia with Wallachia, and in rival Moldovenism. Early in the 19th century, the Moldavian regionalist Gheorghe Asachi made Stephen the topic of historical fiction, popular prints, and heraldic reconstructions. Asachi, and later Teodor Balș, also campaigned for the erection of a Stephen the Great statue, which was supposed to represent resistance against Wallachian encroachment. The Moldavian separatist Nicolae Istrati wrote several theatrical works which contributed to the Stephen cult. Other Moldavians, shunning separatism, paid their own homage to the medieval hero. In the 1840s, Alecu Russo inaugurated the effort to collect and republish folklore about Stephen, which he believed was the "source of truth" about Romanian history. One of the first epic poems to deal with the voivode was "The Aprod Purice", by Constantin Negruzzi, which fictionalizes the battle of Șcheia. In the Bessarabia Governorate, which had been carved out of Moldavia by the Russian Empire, the peasantry and intellectual class both appealed to Stephen as a symbol of resistance. His "golden century" was a reference for Alexandru Hâjdeu and Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu. The latter dedicated him a large number of works, from poems written in his native Russian to Romanian-language historical novels in which Stephen is a leading protagonist.

By then, the cult of Stephen's "patriotic virtues" had been introduced to Wallachia by Ienăchiță Văcărescu and Gheorghe Lazăr. Wallachian scholar Nicolae Bălcescu was the first Romanian historian to describe Stephen as a national hero; his rule, Bălcescu argued, was an important step towards the unification of the lands inhabited by Romanians. During that period, Stephen became explicitly mentioned in the Romantic poetry of Andrei Mureșanu, in particular as the "mighty shadow" described in Romania's future national anthem. In 1850s Wallachia, Dimitrie Bolintineanu produced a lukewarm ballad depicting Stephen fleeing for battle, and his mother Oltea ordering him back. It became a hugely popular after being set to music. His later works also contribute to the nationalist cult, or fictionalize his erotic life. The nationalist investment in Stephen was by then resisted by other writers, in particular George Panu, Ioan Bogdan, and other Junimea members, who favored a critique of Romantic nationalism. In Panu's works, Stephen appears as merely a "Polish vassal"; the one-time Junimist A. D. Xenopol also chided the voivode for his loss of Chilia and his supposed betrayal of Wallachia.

Anniversaries of the most important events of Stephen's life have been officially celebrated since the 1870s, including in 1871 the defiant show of solidarity at Putna. This doubled as a protest against Austria-Hungary, which had annexed Bukovina; it was organized by Teodor V. Ștefanelli and was notably attended by poet Mihai Eminescu. Nationalist interpretations still prevailed, particularly after 1881, when Eminescu dedicated his poem Doina (written in the style of traditional Romanian song) to Stephen, calling upon him to leave his grave to again lead his people. His statue was ultimately raised in Iași in 1883.

On the 400th anniversary of the voivode's death in 1904, ceremonies included the completion of a stone monument in Bârsești, by locals who claimed descent from Vrâncioaia. Also then, Nicolae Iorga published Stephen's biography. Against Xenopol's verdict, Iorga emphasized that Stephen's victories were to be attributed to the "true unity of the whole people" during his reign. Many more works of literature appeared in the Kingdom of Romania and other Romanian-inhabited regions, helping to consolidate Stephen's cultural legacy. One such contribution was the 1909 play Apus de soare, by Barbu Ștefănescu Delavrancea, including advice attributed, in the public's mind, to historical Stephen: "Moldavia was not my ancestors', was not mine, and is not yours, but belongs to our descendants and our descendants' descendants to the end of time."

Depicting Stephen as a dying sage, it was followed by two other Delavrancea plays, which insisted on the prince's pragmatic cruelty and the effects this had on his succession. By then, Stephen as a statesman had also become a point of reference and a benchmark for the long and stabilizing rule of Carol I, King of Romania. Over the following three decades, Stephen's deeds became the inspiration for literary works by Iorga, Mihai Codreanu, and especially Mihail Sadoveanu. In the 1930s, the Iron Guard embraced Stephen the Great's cult for its own purposes, with special emphasis on his contribution as a Christian monarch.

The reading of Stephen as a pan-Romanian nationalist peaked during the late stages of Communist Romania. Initially, the regime looked down on Stephen's treatment of the peasantry, and only emphasized his connections with the East Slavs or his clampdown against boyardom. This stance was overturned by national communism. Initially, censorship toned down or removed references to his legacy in Soviet Bessarabia or Pokuttya; in the 1980s, however, official historians claimed that Stephen was literally a "lord of all Romanians". Iorga's book has been republished several times, including on the 500th anniversary of Stephen's death. On the same anniversary, Stephen was presented as a symbol of "national identity, independence and inter-ethnic harmony" in the Republic of Moldova, where he also endures as the symbol of "Moldavian particularism" or "Moldovan patriotism". Thus, Stephen was invoked by both the Popular Front of Moldova, which favored Romanian identity, and the Moldovenist Party of Communists. The latter describes Stephen as "the founder of Moldavian statehood", claiming direct continuity from his principality to the present-day state.

As Eagles notes, "Stephen is an ever-present icon" in both Romania and Moldova: "statues of his image abound; politicians cite him as an exemplar; schools and a university bears his name; villages and the main thoroughfares of towns and cities are named after him; there is a Ștefan cel Mare metro station in central Bucharest; and his crowned head has adorned every banknote in the post-Soviet Moldovan republic". According to a 1999 opinion poll, more than 13% of the participants regarded Stephen the Great as the most important personality who had "influenced the destiny of the Romanians for the better". Seven years later, during a programme called the 100 Greatest Romanians on Romanian Television, he was voted "the greatest Romanian of all time".

Holy ruler
In Athonite legends, Romanian stories, and Moldavian chronicles alike, Stephen's victories against the Ottomans and Hungarians were already regarded as God-inspired, or as placed under the direct patronage of various saints (George, Demetrius, Procopius, or Mercurius). Veneration of Stephen himself was first recorded in the 1570s, but, according to Ureche, he had been regarded as a saint soon after his funeral: "not on account of his soul ... for he was a man with sins ... but on account of the great deeds he accomplished". The positive nuances of Ureche's report were also repeated by Miron Costin.

The abbot of Putna Monastery, Artimon Bortnic, initiated the investigation of the tomb room of the monastery in 1851, referring to important shrines in Russia and Moldavia. In 1857 (a year after Stephen's tomb was opened), the priest and journalist Iraclie Porumbescu already wrote of the "holy bones of Putna". In at least some legends attested by 1903, the voivode is depicted as an immortal sleeping hero, or, alternatively, as the ruler of heaven. However, Stephen the Great was ignored when the Romanian Orthodox Church canonized the first Romanian saints in the 1950s.

Teoctist, Patriarch of All Romania, canonized Stephen along with 12 other saints at Saint Spyridon the New Church in Bucharest on 21 June 1992. On this occasion, the patriarch emphasized that Stephen had been a defender of Christianity and protector of his people. He also underlined that Stephen had built churches during his reign. Stephen's feast day is 2 July (the day of his death) in the calendar of the Romanian Orthodox Church. On his first feast after his canonization, a new ceremony was held to celebrate Stephen the Great and Saint in Putna. 15,000 people (including the President of Romania at the time, Ion Iliescu, and two ministers) attended the event. Patriarch Teoctist noted that "God has brought us together under the same skies, just as Stephen rallied us under the same flag in the past."

Arms
Stephen's rule consolidated the usage of the coat of arms of Moldavia, featuring the aurochs head (first attested in 1387), sometimes as a helmet atop his personal arms. He revived the elaborate design introduced under Alexander the Good, which also featured a rose, crescent, sun and star (often, but not always, five-pointed); its tinctures remain unknown. This arrangement was not familiar to heraldists in Western Europe. By the 1530s, they represented Moldavia with attributed arms featuring Maures; these arms, though originally used for Wallachia, possibly echoed Stephen's victories over the Ottomans.

The personal arms and heraldic flags used by Stephen have been the topic of additional scrutiny and debate. Stephen is known to have used a party per cross shield with one striped quarter, but the colors are uncertain: one prevailing interpretation is that the dominant tinctures were or and vert, although they may also have been gules and argent. These may derive from the colors used by the House of Basarab (which were possibly used by Stephen's in-law Radu the Handsome), from the coat of arms of Hungary, or from a purely Moldavian tradition. The division and the striped pattern are possibly Hungarian; they survived in some of Stephen's seals even during his dispute with the Hungarian crown. He also continued to use the fleur-de-lis, an Angevin symbol, but altered it into a "double-headed lily", then renounced it altogether. Similarly, he used the Cross of Lorraine, pattée, possibly in reference to the Pahonia. Following his 1489 dispute with Poland, that charge was altered into a double cross fleury.

Stephen's heraldic symbols progressively merged with those attributed to the House of Mușat, and were intensively used by all princes who claimed full or partial descent from Alexander the Good—including Peter the Lame, a Wallachian pretender to Moldavia's throne. The Putna tombstones of Stephen's two sons who died during his lifetime, Bogdan and Peter, already display the aurochs within the "Mușat coat-of-arms".

A Moldavian banner also survives in hand-colored versions illustrating Johannes de Thurocz's Chronica Hungarorum, with varying tinctures. These were first identified as Stephen's flags by Constantin Karadja, and described by later authors as a version of the or-an-vert scheme in the coat of arms. Other clues suggest that the field was a solid one of or, charged with an aurochs of or, but also that the preferred "single Moldavian" color was gules. Gules is also the color of Stephen's alleged war flag, defaced with an icon of Saint George and the Dragon and donated by the prince himself to Zograf monastery. However, scholar Petre Ș. Năsturel cautions that this may not be a heraldic object of any kind, but rather a votive offering. The "war flag", he notes, is too small to carry in battle, and does not match with images in either Thurocz or Marcin Bielski, nor with the description in Alexander Guagnini.

title: Stephen the Great