On 12 August 2020, a staff member of Bolgar Museum-Reserve Vagapov R. Z. held a video tour “In the footsteps of Peter I in Bolgar” and introduced the audience to the history of the visit to ancient Bolgar by Peter I.
The ancient capital of Volga Bulgaria has over a thousand years of history. During this time, princes of Ancient Russia, khans of the Golden Horde and rulers of the Russian Empire also visited this place. The most important for the preservation of the town of Bolgar was the visiting of the Russian Emperor Peter the Great in 1722. What made him go ashore in a remote place and visit ancient Bolgar town? Maybe, a delicate attitude of his predecessor on the throne tsar Feodor Alekseevich towards Bolgar played a role, and that is why Peter wanted to see famous ruins. There is a document of the beginning of XVIII century where it is reported that “a regal Muslim Bolgar town, glorious and beautiful, is beloved and esteemed by tsar and grand prince Feodor Alekseevich who ordered a bishop Right Reverend Joasaph to be written as a metropolitan of Kazan and Bolgar”. Or maybe it was a policy objective, which is at first sight unrelated to the Persian campaign. The audience knew answers to these and other questions in this video tour.
But the fact is that Peter the Great is considered the first public figure of Russia who drew attention to outstanding importance of architectural, archaeological and epigraphic monuments of Bolgar town.

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