Suceava is the largest city and the seat of Suceava County, situated in the historical region of Bukovina, north-eastern Romania, and at the crossroads of Central and Eastern Europe. During the late Middle Ages, more specifically from 1388 to 1564, the city was the third capital of the Principality of Moldavia.

From 1775 and 1918, Suceava was controlled by the Habsburg Monarchy, initially part of its Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, then gradually becoming the third most populous urban settlement of the Duchy of Bukovina, a constituent province of the Austrian Empire and subsequently a crown land within Austria-Hungary. It was only surpassed by Cernauti and Radauti, both located to the north. Furthermore, given its diverse ethnic background during the late Modern Age, Austrian architect Rudolf Gassauer stated that the city of Suceava could have well been perceived back then as a 'miniature Austria'.

During this time, Suceava was an important, strategically-located commercial border town with the then Romanian Old Kingdom. At the same time, it also received a large influx of German-speaking settlers in the process of the Josephine colonization (heneceforth known as Bukovina Germans). This community has since dwindled to a very small number. However, despite their current numbers, the Germans from Suceava are still culturally, socially, and politically active.

In the wake of World War I, after 1918, along with the rest of Bukovina, Suceava became part of the then newly enlarged Kingdom of Romania. After the end of World War II, the city slowly underwent a process of forced Communist urbanization which increased its population about tenfold throughout the decades before the 1989 revolution. It became a municipality in 1968.