Records first mention the settlement in 1237, when the Mongol-led army of Batu Khan ravaged it. It is unclear whether this Belgorod was located at the same place where the current city stands. In 1596 Tsar Feodor Ioannovich ordered its re-establishment as one of numerous forts set up to defend Southern borders from the Crimean Tatars.[ 11] In the 17th century it suffered repeatedly from Tatar incursions, against which there was built (from 1633 to 1740) an earthen wall, with twelve forts, extending upwards of 200 miles from the Vorskla to the Don, and called the Byelgorod line (ru) . In 1666 the Moscow Patriarchate established an archiepiscopal see in the town.[ 15]
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