Black town and White town

Nicholas Zharkikh

Shortened text of the section.
Full text in ukrainian version.

Chorny Gorod (Black town), as we saw from the grant of 1442, was located at the confluence of the Dniester into the sea. The only notable medieval settlement known here was the Golden Horde – Moldavian – Turkish city, modern Bilgorod-Dnistrovsky. The Slavic name "Chorny Gorod" is the equivalent of the Latin / Italian name Mauro castro, known from portolans since the 14th century. The direction of translation here is unclear, perhaps both names are independent translations from some third language.

The only thing that stands against the identity of the Black town and modern Belgorod-Dniester is that white – then not black (and black – then not white).

It should be noted that historical sources know either the Black town or the White town, and do not know both of them (at the same time and next to each other).

But there is a source that records the names Black town and White town as synonyms for the same object. These are travel notes of a Flemish knight-diplomat. (1386 – 1462), who in 1421 made a trip to Poland, Moldavia, Crimea and Constantinople. He is an infrequent guest in our history who personally visited Belgorod and wrote down its name: Mancastre or Bellegard [: voyageur, diplomate et moraliste. – Louvain: 1878, p. 59].

But how could one city be both Black and White at the same time? I think it’s the names individual parts of one city, contrasted according to the principle of upper / lower, northern / southern, coastal / plain, or by the predominance of the population of a certain nationality.