Theodoro

(also Mangup), a feudal principality in the southwestern Crimea from about the 12th to 15th centuries.

The territory of Theodoro coincided for the most part with the eparchy of the Crimean Goths and extended north and northeast to the Kacha River and south to the Black Sea coast (from present-day Balaklava to Alushta). Theodoro included the region known in the sixth to eighth centuries as Doros. The region’s capital was also called Doros until the tenth century, when it took on the name “Mangup.” The population of the principality was ethnically mixed; it included Alani, Greeks, Karaites and descendants of the Crimean Goths.

In the 14th and 15th centuries, Theodoro maintained its independence in the face of Mongol, Tatar and Genoese encroachments. To strengthen their power, the country’s rulers strove to establish close relations with Rus’ and Moldavia. Kalamita (Inkerman) became Theodoro’s port in the early 15th century. In 1475 the Turks conquered Theodoro and transformed it into a Turkish administrative district. The city of Mangup was abandoned in the late 18th century. Its remains, which date from the 6th to 15th centuries, include grottoes and the ruins of houses, basilicas, a citadel, and a palace.