Bolghar (Russian: Болгарское городище) was intermittently the capital of Volga Bulgaria from the 10th to the 13th centuries, along with Bilyar and Nur-Suvar.

After a destruction of Bilyar during the Mongol invasion, the older capital became a centre of a separate province (or duchy) within the Golden Horde.

[2] During the period of Mongol domination Bolgar acquired immense wealth and many imposing buildings and grew tenfold in size.

[citation needed] The taxation of regions such as Bolgar, Khwarizm, Crimea and Azerbaijan filled the Golden Horde's coffers with great wealth, and the Mongols replaced the sitting rulers of Bolgar and Khwarizm with their own, while the Rus' principalities in the west brought them comparatively little revenue, and they left the local princes in Rus', Armenia and Georgia in charge.

[citation needed] The Muscovite–Volga Bulgars war (1376) saw Muscovy and Nizhny Novgorod-Suzdal briefly capture Grand Bolgar and installing their own doroga and tamozhnia (customs collector), which probably were existing offices at the time, before the Tatars retook the city.