Stavropol Krai.

History

Stavropol was founded on 22 October 1777 as one of ten forts on the line between Azov and Mozdok; legend says soldiers found a stone cross while building it, hence the Greek name 'City of the Cross'. In 1780 the Konstantinogorsk fort was built at the foot of Mount Mashuk, and Pyatigorsk grew from it. Peter the Great ordered a search for mineral springs in 1717, and in 1803 Alexander I declared the local springs a matter of national importance. Kislovodsk dates from that same year and Yessentuki from 1825, while the krai took its present name in 1943.

Culture & traditions

The spa towns are woven into Russian literature: Pushkin and Lermontov stayed here, and much of A Hero of Our Time is set in Kislovodsk. Lermontov was killed in a duel at Pyatigorsk on 27 July 1841, and the places linked to him now form a memorial museum. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was born in Kislovodsk, which also has Chaliapin's dacha and the house-museum of painter Nikolai Yaroshenko. More than thirty ethnic groups live in the krai, and Yessentuki is called the cultural capital of Russia's Greeks.

Nature

Most of the krai is Ciscaucasian steppe and the Stavropol Upland; Stavropol itself stands at about 620 m. In the south, around the spa towns, solitary peaks such as Beshtau and Mashuk rise from the plain and gave Pyatigorsk its name, 'five mountains'. The area has some 300 mineral springs of many different types, plus the healing mud of Lake Tambukan. The climate is continental, with hot summers and short cold winters.

Sport

Stavropol is home to the football club Dynamo Stavropol. The krai also has a place in mountaineering history: Diana's Grotto in Pyatigorsk was built in 1830 to mark the first ascent of Mount Elbrus.

Food & drink

Stavropol is a land of irrigated farming, criss-crossed by thousands of kilometres of canals, and one of Russia's leading grain producers. Yet the signature local taste is mineral water. In Kislovodsk people drink narzan straight from the Narzan Gallery, while Yessentuki springs No. 4 and No. 17 are bottled and used to treat digestive complaints.

Practical information

The gateway to the spas is Mineralnye Vody Airport, 4 km from the town of the same name; Stavropol has its own Shpakovskoye Airport. The resort towns are linked by rail. The krai is on Moscow time. Pyatigorsk averages about −4 °C in January and 21 °C in July. The spas work year-round, but the parks are at their best from late spring to mid-autumn.

What to see

• Narzan Gallery, Kislovodsk — drink narzan straight from the spring.
• Aeolian Harp, Pyatigorsk — an 1828 pavilion on the slopes of Mashuk.
• Lermontov sites, Pyatigorsk — the poet's memorial museum.
• Yessentuki mud baths — a 1913–1915 building styled like Roman thermae.
• Cascade Staircase and 'Lady's Whim' bridge, Kislovodsk — classic spa-town strolls.
• Stavropol — Kazan Cathedral and the botanical garden.

Cities on the map

• Stavropol 550,147