Hotin (Ott. Khōtīn; Turk. and Romanian Hotin; Ukrainian Khotyn; Polish Chocim; Russian Khotin) is a fortress and town on the right bank of the Dniester (Turk. Turla) River. Formerly in Moldavia, Hotin is now in Ukraine and is the administrative centre of the raĭon of Hotin, in Chernivtsi Oblast. At the turn of the fourteenth century, a castle was constructed by Moldavian rulers at an older fortified site, where the mediaeval trade route from the Baltic to Constantinople crossed the Dniester. Because it guarded the border between Moldavia and Poland,