Russia · 10th century
Bolghar or Bolgar (Russian: Болгарское городище; Tatar: Болгар, بلغار, Bolğar; Chuvash: Аслă Пăлхар, Aslă Pălhar) was intermittently the capital of Volga Bulgaria from the 10th to the 13th centuries, along with Bilyar and Nur-Suvar. It was situated on the bank of the Volga River, about 30 km downstream from its confluence with the Kama River and some 130 km from modern Kazan in what is now Spassky District. To the west of it lies a small modern town known as Bolgar since 1991. The UNESCO World Heritage Committee inscribed Bolgar Historical and Archaeological Complex (ancient Bolghar hill fort) to the World Heritage List in 2014.
Text adapted from “Bolghar” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Bolghar Gord ranks #562 of 9,079 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #26 of the 146 mapped in Russia. Founded c. 950, it is older than 92% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 193 atlas entries founded in the 10th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 5,098 times in the last 60 days, more than 87% of the atlas. See how Russia compares in the castle statistics.
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