This trade route was also called Tartar Road. This road crossed in Tighina with the fluvial road leading from Hotin to Soroca, White Fortress and the Black Sea. In a charter dated 8 October 1408, by which the prince Alexander Ist ofered privileges to merchannts of Lvov while trading with the Principality of Moldova, it is emphasized the role Tighina as a customs center. Tuhus, 8 October 1408 is the date of the first documented mention of Tighina as a town and customs center. At the end of the 15th century, near the old locality Tighina, a fortress of wood and earth was built, thus completing the defence system of medieval Moldova times and being in those times one of the most powerful citadels. This is confirmed by Dimitrie Cantemir, who wrote in "Description of Moldova":"Tighina called by the Turks Bender, until recently a very fortified fortress, and now fortified by the Turks themselves with many works on the part of the Dniester River..In vain were all Turkish sieges, before determining her subjection conditions". Dimitrie Cantemir considered Tighina fortress, before passing into the hands of the Ottomans, as "the most fortified fortress of the whole country". The fortress was meant to impede the entry to Moldova, through the pass from Tighina, of the Tatars who participated in the Ottoman campaigns of 1476 and 1484 Ottoman against Stefans the Great. In the summer of 1538, the Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent enters Moldova. The country is attacked from the north by the Polish people and southeast by the Tatars. The Prince Petru Rares, betrayed by boyars took refuge in Tranylvania and the Sultan entered Suceava and took possesions of the treasure of the country. In the Principality of Moldova, the Ottoman suzerainty regime is installed and the same time a part of the territory of Moldova is puled apart of the country and transformed into vilayet (povince of the Ottoman Empire). Tighina becomes a vilayet and is renamed to "Bender" - in Turkish "Fortified pass". After the edification of the fortress, Bender becomes an administrative center of the territory recently pulled apart from the Principality of Moldova. At the end of the 16th century Moldovandetachments attacked several times Bender fortress, but without success. In the summer of 1574 Ion Voda the Brave had besieged it with his army. To counteract such attacks, in 1579 near Bender, a new stronghold was built. During the same period Bender was also attacked by the Zaporozhhian Cossacks. In 1818 the fortress was visited by the Russian Emperor Aexander I, and in 1828 by Nikolai I. In the first half of the 19th century Bender is included among first category fortresses of the Russian Empire. In 1897 Bender fortress loses the status of military objective.
