Chertovo

Elabuga (Chertovo) Gorodishche 

the remains of a fortified settlement on the shore of the Toima River, near the city of Elabuga. Originally, it was the refuge of one of the local tribes inhabiting the region in the second half of the first millennium A.D. In the eastern part of the site are the remains of a square stone citadel (400 sq m) with four towers erected in the tenth century by a Bulgar prince who had captured the refuge. In the tenth to the 11th century, feudal castles arose on the territory of Bulgaria on the Volga, which are widely known through the excavations of Soviet archaeologists. The appearance of these castles was a characteristic phenomenon of the period of the consolidation of feudal states.

REFERENCES

Spitsyn, A. A. “Priural’skii krai.” In Materialy po arkheologii vostochnykh gubernii Rossii, fasc. 1. Moscow, 1893. Pages 85–90.
Smirnov, A. P. Volzhskie bulgary. Moscow, 1951.