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Ukraine postal stamp with fortress
The fortress was based on the remains of Tyras, an ancient Greek city on the northern coast of the Black Sea which existed until the 4th century. But frequent attacks of invaders - first the Goths, then the Huns - destroyed the city. Antes, Slavs and Bulgarians lived at the site of Tyras after the Greeks. According to historians in the 10th century Belhorod was part of Kievan Rus’, later it was owned by the Kingdom of Hungary, and then the Principality of Galicia–Volhynia where it stayed up to the invasion of the Mongols.[citation needed]

It is not known when Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi fortress was founded. Now most historians believe that it was Republic of Genoa trading enclave on Black Sea first established in the 13th century. The territory surrendered to the Golden Horde at that time. But the Genoese shrewdly allied with the Mongols. Belgorod was officially the Tatars’ city, but it was ruled by the Genoese. The fortress controlled the Dniester estuary.

In the second half of the 14th century the Genoese lost their influence in the Black Sea. They lost safe passage across the Aegean Sea, because of increasing of Turkish military pressure. According to most historians, Lithuania came to replace Genoa. In the 14th century the Principality of Moldavia gained control over the Lithuanians.

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