Belgorod is a city on the Donets River in southwestern Russia. A city in this area was mentioned in 1237 when Mongol armies under Batu Khan ravaged it, but several centuries passed before the foundation stone of modern Belgorod was laid. It happened under Tsar Fyodor I, who in 1596 re-established the settlement as one of several forts to defend southern Russia against the then threat from the Crimean Tatars. The name Belgorod means the White City, and the original fort was then also located as the city’s kremlin by the city’s characteristic white mountain, which has since been demolished due to mining.

The fort in Belgorod withstood several attacks by Crimean Tatars and invading Lithuanian armies, who, however, captured and burned the fort in 1612. As early as 1613, a new fort was built, and this time it was on the other side of the Donets. The attacks from the Tatars continued throughout the 17th century, and this led Russia to strengthen its southern defense line to the south with earthen ramparts and twelve forts over a good 300-kilometer stretch. The new defense was called the Belgorod Line after the centrally located city.

In the latter half of the 17th century, Russia expanded to the south, and thereby Belgorod lost its military importance, and Empress Catherine the Great decreed in 1785 that Belgorod no longer had the status of a fortress city. It provided new opportunities for the city, which was and is well located in Russia’s fertile black soil area. The military was, so to speak, replaced by agriculture, and throughout the 19th century Belgorod developed culturally and industrially. In the 1900s, Belgorod became part of the Soviet Union, and this accelerated the city’s development. The population grew from 21,000 in 1923 to 340,000 at the end of the 20th century.

Today, Belgorod is a large Russian city with several attractions. You can start by seeing the city from the central square, Sobornaya Ploshad, where you can see Belgorod’s regional administration building from 1957 on the north side of the square. Opposite it you can see the city’s drama theater, which was built in elegant neoclassicism. If you walk two streets north from Sobornaya Ploshad, you come to the Annunciation Cathedral, which in its original version dates to 1626. The current church was built 1807-1813 and dedicated in honor of the Russian troops’ victory over Napoleon.

If you go south, you come to the river Vesyelka, and there are some nice promenades and parks along its banks. Walk the street ulitsa Popova and see some of Belgorod’s best-known museums, with the Belgorod Diorama at the forefront. The diorama is the largest in Russia and was inaugurated in 1987 with a huge work depicting the Panzer Battle of Kursk, which in July 1943 was one of the major turning points of World War II. At the museum you can also see equipment such as a T-34 tank, and in the park by the museum there is a memorial to those who died in various wars. Opposite the Belgorod Diorama, you can visit the State Art Museum in the city.

In the western part of Belgorod, you can visit the Marfo-Mariinsky Monastery, which was established in the 1990s around two of the city’s old and see-worthy churches. Nicholas Assumption Cathedral was built in 1701 after a donation from Tsar Peter the Great, while the Church of the Intercession was built in 1791 in early classicism. You can also walk along the city’s main street from the monastery to the east to the Smolensk Cathedral, which is another of the city’s beautiful churches. Its history started in 1703, when an icon of the Mother of God from Smolensk reportedly shone. A church was then built on the site, which after a few years was replaced by the current cathedral in the middle of the 18th century.