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Belgorod-Dnestrovsky city and fortress

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From klod5 at virtualtourist.com

From www.angelfire.com/indie/aliona/

1 Belgorod-Dnestrovsky fortress
2 Museum of Regional Studies
3 Medieval Armenian Church
4 Greek Orthodox Church
5 History of the area
6 External links
7 Russian book on the Fortress

Russian: белгород-днестровский

14th century Belgorod-Dnestrovsky fortress is very well preserved and worth a day trip.

How to get to Belgorod-Dnestrovsky:

Buses go daily from the bus station at Panteleimonovskaya 61 (Пантелеймоновская) and
Marshutkas (mini-vans) from the west side of the train station.

Belgorod-Dnestrovsky is located 86 kilometers Southwest of Odessa. It is a town of 50,000 people, located 20 kilometers from the Black Sea, on the right bank of the wide liman formed by the Dniester River.

Belgorod-Dnestrovsky fortress

The fortress covers an area of almost four hectares and the length of the wall is almost 2 kilometers, with thirty four towers.

The fortress is made of shell rock. The walls are 15 meters high and are an incredible 5 meters thick.

The moat circling the fortress is 14 meters wide and 11 meters deep. When an enemy approached, the sluices could be opened and the moat would fill with water.

The fortress has three courtyards separated with thick walls:

The first courtyard was for the civilians.
The second courtyard was the garrison's sleeping structure.
The third courtyard was for the garrison.

In the first courtyard are the remains of a mosque built by the Turks after they destroyed the church that stood on the same site.

At the entrance to the second courtyard is a tower which served as a warehouse for weapons and food.

Belgorod-Dnestrovsky also has:

Museum of Regional Studies

Pushkinskaya 19 (Пушкинская)

(The street name comes from Pushkin's visit to Belgorod-Dnestrovsky to visit the fortress in December 1821.)

Nine halls explain the history of Belgorod-Dnestrovsky.

Medieval Armenian Church

Kuluzova Street (кюлузова)

This church was built in the 14th century.

Greek Orthodox Church

Leona Popova Street (Леона Попова)

Was built at the end of the 15th and beginning of the 16th century.

History of the area

Like Odessa, the town changed its name many times.

In the 6th century BC Greek colonists founded the town of Opheususon which is located on the site of present day Belgorod-Dnestrovsky.

In the 5th century BC it was named Tyras.

In the 4th century BC it became a major trading center, occupying and area of more than twenty hectares.

In the 1st century Tyras became part of the Roman Empire.

In the 3rd century, as the Western Roman Empire declined so did the importance of Tyras.

In the 9th century Black Sea Slavs rebuilt the town and called it Belgorod.

During the 13th century the Mongols pillaged the city. It was later rebuilt.

In the last of the 14th century and the first half of the 15th century Belgorod was part of the Moldavian Empire. At this time the present day fortress was built to protect the town from the Ottoman Empire and marauding tribes. The city was one of the largest in the Moldavian empire.

In 1484 the Ottoman Empire plundered Belgorod. It was renamed Akerman.

In 1812 after the Turko Russian wars the Bucharest peace treaty gave the town to Russia.

From 1918-1940 Romanians occupied the territory.

In 1940 The Soviet Union retook the territory through pressured negotiations with the Romanians.

In August 1944 the Soviets again showed how much they loved to change names and confuse locals and foreigners alike by renaming Akerman to the old name of Belgorod. Since Belgorod was the current name of another Russian city, the Soviets added " Dnestrovsky" to the name.

During World War two, like Odessa, the city fell to the Nazis.

External links

tira2500.org/ Web page of Belgorod-Dnestrovsky, has translation program.
tira2500.org/map/view.phtml?map=view Detailed map of the city
Restoration project www.fondazione-delbianco.org/inglese/InsertNews/Akkerman_Fortress.htm

From tira2500.org

Russian book on the Fortress

Mariana Slapac (2001), "Belgorod-Dnestrovskaia a fortress, Research of medieval defensive architecture", "ARC" publisher, ISBN: 9975-61-180-X, 997561180X