# Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi

Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi (Ukrainian: Білгород-Дністровський, IPA:; Romanian: Cetatea Albă; Russian: Белгород-Днестровский, romanized: Belgorod-Dnestrovskiy), historically known as Aq Kirmān (Turkish: Akkerman) or by other names, is a port city in Odesa Oblast, southwestern Ukraine. It is situated on the right bank of the Dniester Estuary leading to the Black Sea, in the historical region of Budjak. It also serves as the administrative center of Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi Raion and is coterminous with Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. It is the location of a large freight seaport. Population: 47,727 (2022 estimate).

## Name

The city of Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi is also referred to by alternative transliterations from Ukrainian as Bilhorod-Dnistrovsky. Dnistrovskyi was added to differentiate it from Belgorod (in Ukrainian Bilhorod), a city in Russia, when both were a part of the Soviet Union.

### Previous names

* Ophiussa (Οφιούσσα), Phoenician colony (meaning "city of snakes" in Greek)
* Tyras (Τύρας), Ancient Greek colony (also the Greek name for the River Dniester)
* Turis, Antes name
* Asprokastron (Ἀσπρόκαστρον, "White Castle"), Greek name in Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Name attested from 944 to 1484 AD.
* Maurokastron (Μαυρόκαστρον, "Black Castle"), Greek name of a Roman/Byzantine fort in Late Antiquity on a site directly opposite Asprokastron, but usually taken together.
* Album Castrum ("White Castle"), Latin name
* Cetatea Albă ("White Citadel"), Romanian name
* Moncastro, Italian corruption of Maurokastron used by Genoese traders and during Genoese rule (14th–15th centuries)
* Turla, Turkic
* Akkerman, Ottoman Turkish ("White Castle") and Russian name until 1944
* Aqkermen, Crimean Tatar name
* Belgorod-Dnestrovskiy, Russian (Белгород-Днестровский, "White city on the Dniester")
* Weißenburg, ("White Castle"), German name
During the reign of Burebista, the city was known as Tyras and was incorporated into the Dacian kingdom. The town became part of the Principality of Moldavia in 1359. The fortress was enlarged and rebuilt in 1407 under Alexander the Good and in 1440 under Stephen II of Moldavia. It fell to Ottoman conquest on August 5, 1487.
The city became part of Romania from 1918 to 1940, and once again between 1941 and 1944 and is known in Romanian as Cetatea Albă with other languages using the Turkish name, Akkerman, or variations of the Turkish name. Since 1944 the city has been known as "Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi" (Білгород-Дністровський), while on the Soviet geography maps often translated into its Russian equivalent of "Belgorod-Dnestrovskiy" (Белгород-Днестровский), literally "white city on the Dniester".
The city is known by translations of "white city" or "castle" in a number of languages including Белгород Днестровски (Belgorod-Dnestrovski) in Bulgarian, Akerman (Акерман) in Gagauz, Białogród nad Dniestrem in Polish, Walachisch Weißenburg in Transylvanian German, Dnyeszterfehérvár in Hungarian and עיר לבן (Ir Lavan) in Hebrew.
In Western European languages, including English, the city has typically been known by the official name of the time or a transliteration derived from it.
The city's former name Akkerman is still extensively used as a nickname in informal speech and in local media.

## History

In the 6th century BC, Milesian colonists founded a settlement named Tyras on the future location of Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi, which later came under Roman and Byzantine rule. In Late Antiquity, the Byzantines built a fortress and named it Asprokastron ("White Castle" - a meaning kept in several languages), but it passed out of their control in the 7th-15th centuries under control of Bulgaria, the cities called Belgorod (white city), as it was the border of the Bulgarian empire.
In the 13th century the site was controlled by the Cumans, and became a center of Genoese commercial activity from c. 1290 on. Briefly held by the Second Bulgarian Empire in the early 14th century, by the middle of the century it was a Genoese colony. Sfântul Ioan cel Nou (Saint John the New), the patron saint of Moldavia, was martyred in the city in 1330 during a Tatar incursion. In 1391, Cetatea Albă was the last city on the right bank of the Dnister to be incorporated into the newly established Principality of Moldova, and for the next century was its second major city, the major port and an important fortress.
In 1420, the citadel was attacked for the first time by the Ottomans, but defended successfully by Moldavian Prince Alexander the Kind.
In the 15th century, the port saw much commercial traffic as well as being frequently used for passenger traffic between central Europe and Constantinople. Among the travellers who passed through the town was John VIII Palaiologos. Following the Fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453, Sultan Mehmed II brought in colonists from Asprokastron to repopulate the city.
In 1484, along with Kiliia, it was the last of the Black Sea ports to be conquered by the Ottomans. The Moldavian prince Stephen the Great was unable to aid in its defence, being under threat of a Polish invasion. The citadel surrendered when the Ottomans claimed to have reached an agreement with Prince Stephen, and promised safe passage to the inhabitants and their belongings; however, most of the city-dwellers were slaughtered. Later, attempts by Stephen the Great to restore his rule over the area were unsuccessful. Cetatea Albă was subsequently a base from which the Ottomans were able to attack Moldavia proper. In 1485, Tatars setting out from this city founded Pazardzhik in Bulgaria. In 1570 (Hijri 977) the town of Akkerman was inhabited by Muslims, Christians and Jews. It had 55 Muslim households in 25 neighbourhoods and 113 Non-Muslim households in 9 neighbourhoods and it was a "has" of the Sultan, a land property that was directly owned by the Sultan. The castle of Akkerman also had a Jewish congregation and a Roma congregation.
It was established as the fortress of Akkerman, part of the Ottoman defensive system against Poland-Lithuania and, later, the Russian Empire. Major battles between the Ottomans and the Russians were fought near Akkerman in 1770 and 1789. Russia conquered the town in 1770, 1774, and 1806, but returned it after the conclusion of hostilities. It was not incorporated into Russia until 1812, when it was annexed, along with the rest of Bessarabia.
On 25 September 1826, Russia and the Ottomans signed here the Akkerman Convention which imposed that the hospodars of Moldavia and Wallachia be elected by their respective Divans for seven-year terms, with the approval of both Powers.
The city and the surrounding district became part of the Moldovan Democratic Republic after it proclaimed its independence following the Russian Revolution. The Romanian Army, entered the city on 9 March 1918, fighting with local troops led by the Bolsheviks. Formal integration followed later that month, when the 'Sfatul Țării' of the Moldovan Democratic Republic proclaimed the whole of Bessarabia united with Romania.
During the interwar period, the Romanian administration transformed Cetatea-Albă into an important administrative and cultural center of Greater Romania. The city was modernized through the restoration of historic buildings and the construction of new ones in modern styles, such as Neoromanian and Neoclassical. Infrastructure works were carried out, including street paving, the construction of bridges and roads, as well as the development of parks and recreational areas.
Urban development plans included the creation of new neighborhoods and improvements to infrastructure, making the city more functional and pleasant for its inhabitants.
Romania ceded the city to the Soviet Union on 28 June 1940 following the 1940 Soviet occupation of Bessarabia, that year the name was officially changed to 'Belgorod-Dniestrovski'. A part of the population (mostly Romanians) was deported into Kazakhstan, into Soviet Gulags. The Romanian state regained it on 28 July 1941 during the invasion of the USSR by the Axis forces in the course of the Second World War and had it within its boundaries until 22 August 1944 when the Red Army reoccupied the city. The Soviets partitioned Bessarabia, creating the Moldovian SSR, taking away its southern flanks and sea access, including Belgorod, which became part of the Ukrainian SSR, and after 1991, nowadays Ukraine.
Until 18 July 2020, Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi was incorporated as a city of oblast significance and the center of Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi Municipality. The municipality was abolished in July 2020 as part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, which reduced the number of raions of Odesa Oblast to seven. The area of Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi Municipality was merged into Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi Raion.

### Jewish history

In Jewish sources, the city is referred as Weissenburg and Ir Lavan (meaning "white castle" in German and "white city" in Hebrew) as well as Akerman (אַקערמאַן). Karaite Jews lived there since the 16th century, some even claim the existence of Khazar Jews in the town as early as the 10th century. In 1897, 5,613 Jews lived in the city (19.9% of the total population). The town Jewish community was influenced mainly from the Jewish community of nearby Odesa. During a pogrom in 1905, eight Jews living in the city were killed. During World War II, most of the Jews living in the city fled to nearby Odesa, where they were later killed. About 800 Jews who were left in the city were shot to death in the nearby Leman River. The remaining Jews were deported to Transnistria by the Romanian authorities later in 1941, where most of them died. Around 500 of the prewar town Jews survived the war, and around half of them returned to the city.

## Demographics

As of 1920, the population was estimated at 35,000. 8,000 were Romanian, 8,000 were Jewish, and 5,000 were German. Additional populations included Turks, Greeks, Bulgarians and Russians.
According to the 2001 Ukrainian census, the majority of the city's population are Ukrainians (62.88%). Other communities include Russians (28.25%), Bulgarians (3.72%), Moldovans (1.89%), Gagauz (0.41%) and Romanians (0.02%). The language situation is notably different, with self-identified Russian-speakers representing a majority (54.52%), followed by speakers of Ukrainian (42.08%), Bulgarian (1.66%), Moldovan (0.67%) and Gagauz (0.19%).

## Geography
### Climate

Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi has a humid continental climate (Köppen: Dfb bordering on Dfa.).
Climate data for Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi :
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 1.5 (34.7) | 2.1 (35.8) | 5.9 (42.6) | 12.9 (55.2) | 19.1 (66.4) | 23.5 (74.3) | 25.9 (78.6) | 25.5 (77.9) | 21.2 (70.2) | 15.1 (59.2) | 8.9 (48.0) | 4.4 (39.9) | 13.8 (56.9) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | −1.1 (30.0) | −0.4 (31.3) | 3.1 (37.6) | 9.6 (49.3) | 15.6 (60.1) | 19.7 (67.5) | 21.9 (71.4) | 21.5 (70.7) | 17.3 (63.1) | 11.6 (52.9) | 6.1 (43.0) | 1.8 (35.2) | 10.6 (51.1) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | −3.7 (25.3) | −2.9 (26.8) | 0.4 (32.7) | 6.4 (43.5) | 12.1 (53.8) | 16.0 (60.8) | 17.9 (64.2) | 17.5 (63.5) | 13.5 (56.3) | 8.2 (46.8) | 3.4 (38.1) | −0.7 (30.7) | 7.3 (45.2) |
| Average precipitation mm (inches) | 35 (1.4) | 36 (1.4) | 27 (1.1) | 31 (1.2) | 39 (1.5) | 48 (1.9) | 49 (1.9) | 36 (1.4) | 38 (1.5) | 25 (1.0) | 38 (1.5) | 42 (1.7) | 444 (17.5) |
| Source: Climate-Data.org ||||||||||||||

## Notable people

* Nicolas Astrinidis (1921–2010), Romanian composer
* Elena Cernei (1924–2000), Romanian opera singer
* Mihail Crama (1923–1994), Romanian poet and prose writer
* Veronika Habelok (born 2001), Ukrainian gymnast and hand-balancer.
* Oleksiy Kikireshko (born 1977), Ukrainian rally driver
* Boris Levenson (1884–1947), Russian composer and conductor
* Vasyl Lomachenko (born 1988), Ukrainian professional boxer
* Vladyslav Lupashko (born 1986), Ukrainian football player, coach and manager
* Jacques Roitfeld (1889–1999), French film producer
* Porfiriy Stamatov (1840–1925), Minister of Justice of Bulgaria (1881)
* Tamara Tchinarova (1919–2017), ballet dancer
* Nicolae Văcăroiu (born 1943), former Prime Minister of Romania
* Osip Yermansky (1867–1941), Menshevik economist

## Sister cities

* TUR Fethiye, Turkey
* ARM Vagharshapat, Armenia

## Gallery

* The citadel of Akkerman fortress
* The excavations of Tyras
* View of the fortress from the sea
* The walls of the fortress
* Aerial photo of the fortress
* High school building
* Synagogue
* Local museum
* Jaroszewicz Manor
* Ascension Cathedral
* St. John Church
* St. Nicholas Church
* Armenian Dormition Church (14th century)
* Temple of Salvation and a shopping center