Suceava County (Romanian pronunciation: [suˈtʃe̯ava]) is a county (Romanian: județ) of Romania. Most of its territory lies in the southern part of the historical region of Bukovina, while the remainder forms part of Western Moldavia proper. The county seat is the historical town of Suceava (German: Suczawa, also Sotschen or Sutschawa; historically known in Old High German as Sedschopff as well) which was the capital of the Principality of Moldavia during the late Middle Ages and then a pivotal, predominantly German-speaking commercial town of the Habsburg/Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary at the border with the Kingdom of Romania throughout the late Modern Age up until 1918. Suceava County, as part of the historical and geographical region of Bukovina, had been sometimes described as "Switzerland of the East". It has also been known as "Switzerland of Eastern Europe" in the minds of the educated public.