Stefan Cel Mare - Famous But Mysterious

In Bucharest, I live near Stefan Cel Mare Street, one of the city’s main avenues. He was a key historical figure in Romania, so I was surprised to see how much the Moldovans love him. He is on all Moldovan money, and his statue is in the city center(above). The main street of Chisinau is called Stephen Cel Mare. When I asked about this in Moldova, I was told he was a Moldovan king who conquered Romania (Moldavia and Trannsylvania). It seemed suspect to me that the Romanians would hold him in high regard as well if this were the case. When I asked in Romania, I was told he was a Romanian, who had Basarabia as part of his kingdom. Basarabia is apparently the term Romanians use for present-day Moldova when they want to underscore the fact that is really just another part of Romania, and this attitude why most Moldovans don’t much care for the Romanians. I did some looking on the internet. He was actually the ruler of Moldavia, which is the part of present day Romania that borders Moldova. He was born, died, and was buried in present day Romania. So by this definition he was, in fact, Romanian. However, at the time he was alive, ancestral Romania, or Wallachia, was a separate kingdom, while Moldova was part of Moldavia at the time. According to this, he was closer to being Moldovan. By the strictest deffinition, he was Moldavian and neither completely Romanian nor Moldovan. Bottom line: I’m confused on this one. He did delay the invasion of the Turks in the 14th century, so this gives both countries a reason to like him, regardless of where he was from, or who he conquered.