Belgorod is a city and the administrative center of Belgorod Oblast, Russia, located on the Seversky Donets River just 40km north of the border with Ukraine. Population:HistoryThe name Belgorod in Russian literally means "white city", compounding the sememes "белый" and "город" . The city thus acquired its name because the region was rich in limestone. Etymologically, the name corresponds to other Slavic city-names of identical meaning: Belgrade, Belogradchik, Białogard, Biograd, Bilhorod, Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi etc.Records first mention the settlement in 1237, when the Mongol-led army of Batu Khan ravaged it. It is unclear whether this Belgorod stood on the same site as the current city. In 1596 Tsar Feodor Ioannovich of Russia ordered its re-establishment as one of numerous forts set up to defend Muscovy's Southern borders from the Crimean Tatars. In the 17th century Belgorod suffered repeatedly from Tatar incursions, against which Russia built an earthen wall, with twelve forts, extending upwards of 200mi from the Vorskla in the west to the Don in the east, and called the. In 1666 the Moscow Patriarchate established an archiepiscopal see in the town.