Mangup

Mangup Kale is a historic fortress in the Crimea, located on a plateau about 9 miles due east of Chersones (modern Sevastopol. In medieval times it was known as Doros, later it was given the Kipchak name Mangup or Mangup Kale.

The settlement dates back to the third century CE and was fortified by Justinian I in the mid 500's. It was inhabited and governed primarily by Crimean Goths, and became the center of their autonomous principality. It was conquered by the Khazars in the early 700's and was the center of an unsuccessful Gothic revolt against Khazaria led by Bishop John of Gothia.

The principality of Doros was under Byzantine domination from the mid 800's to approximately 1000, when it fell under the influence of competing powers - the Kievian Rus and the Kipchak tribal confederacy. The town was severely damaged by an earthquake in the 1000's., yet managed to maintain autonomy during the Mongol conquest of the Crimea but was compelled to pay tribute to the Great Khan.

In the 1300's Mangup was the center of the Principality of Feodoro, a state closely allied with the Empire of Trebizond. The ruling dynasty, stemming from the Trebizond royalty, was called Chowra (in Turkish) or Gabras (in Greek). In the late 14th century, one branch of the dynasty emigrated to Moscow, where they established the Simonov Monastery. The Khovrins, as they came to be known, were hereditary treasurers of Muscovy. In the 16th century, they changed their name to Golovin.

In 1475 Feodoro fell to assault by the Ottoman Turks. While much of the rest of Crimea remained part of the Girai Khanate, now an Ottoman vassal, Feodoro and southern Crimea was administered directly by the Sublime Porte.

The town's inexorable decline continued. In 1774 the fortress was abandoned by the Turkish garrison. The last inhabitants, a small community of Karaim, abandoned the site in the 1790's.

Sources

• Doros on Regnal Chronologies
• Mangup on Xenophongi.com