Urban Planning in the Bolgar Ulus of the Golden Horde

The paper addresses the issues of the operation of urban settlements in the territory of the Volga Bolgaria in the second half of the 13th – early 15th centuries. Attention is drawn to their distribution and arrangement in the Middle Volga region after the Mongol conquest, as well as to the specifics of these settlements of this time period. The author makes a conclusion about the different distribution of settlement monuments in the area, as well as the quantitative ratio during the 10th–15th centuries. Based on a complex of archaeological information obtained in the course of their study, a conclusion is made about the continued development of urban planning in the territory of the Bolgar ulus of the Golden Horde and its long-term continuity. One of the examples was the continuity of pre-Mongol traditions in the construction and use of fortifications in individual settlements located in the region, as well as the preservation of technological methods in the construction of fortifications. In this regard, the paper addresses the differences from the cities of the central part of the Golden Horde state. The development of the city of Bolgar and its planning features are given as an example.