Editing Tartu (section)

===Medieval bishopric===
[[File:Tartu 1553.jpg|thumb|left|The city of Tartu in 1533]]
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During the period of [[Northern Crusades]] in the beginning of the 13th century the fort of ''Tarbatu'' (or ''Tharbata'') was captured by the crusading [[Livonian Knights|Teutonic knights]] — also known as the [[Brothers of the Sword]] <!-- (German: ''Schwertbrüder'')--> — and recaptured by Estonians on several occasions. In 1224, after <!-- Ugaunia had recognized the supremacy of--> the princes of [[Novgorod Republic|Novgorod]] and [[Pskov Republic|Pskov]] had sent additional troops led by prince [[Vyachko]] of [[Koknese|Kukenois]] to aid the Estonian defenders of the fort, it was [[Siege of Tartu (1224)|besieged and conquered]] for one last time by the Teutonic crusaders.<ref>[[Anti Selart]], [[Ivar Leimus]], Linda Kaljundi, [[Heiki Valk]]. ''Ristiretked ja vallutussõjad 13. sajandi Liivimaal'', in "Eesti ajalugu II. Eesti keskaeg." Editor Anti Selart. Tartu 2012. Pp. 52—53</ref> Subsequently, known as Dorpat (Latin: ''Tarbatum''), Tartu became a commercial centre of considerable importance during the later [[Middle Ages]] and the capital of the semi-independent [[Bishopric of Dorpat]].

In 1262 the army of prince [[Dmitri of Pereslavl]] launched an assault on Dorpat, capturing and destroying the town. His troops did not manage to capture the bishop's fortress on Toome Hill. The event was recorded both in subsequent German and [[Old East Slavic]] chronicles, which also provided the first record of a settlement of [[Germanic peoples|German]] merchants and artisans which had arisen alongside the bishop's fortress.

In medieval times, after the Livonian Order was subsumed into the [[Teutonic Knights]] in 1236, the town became an important trading city. In the 1280s Dorpat joined the [[Hanseatic League]]. <!-- As in all of Estonia and Latvia, the largely [[Baltic Germans|German-speaking]] nobility, but in Tartu/Dorpat (as in Tallinn) even more so, the Baltic German bourgeoisie, the ''literati'', dominated culture, religion, architecture, education, and politics until the late 19th century. For example, the town hall of Dorpat was designed by an architect from [[Rostock]] in [[Mecklenburg]], while the university buildings were designed by Johann Wilhelm Krause, another German. Many, if not most, of the students, and more than 90 percent of the faculty members were of German descent, and numerous statues of notable scholars with German names can still be found in Tartu today. Most Germans left during the first half of the 20th century, in particular as part of the ''[[Heim ins Reich]]'' program of the Nazis, following the [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact]] in 1939. -->