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Sights - Climate - The Russian Coast - VIP- Statistics News - Investments Concept and Projects
Heritage
Sochi shares ancient tourism traditions with other
Black Sea destinations
The area's appeal for travellers was described by the Greeks in
their
world-known myths about Argonauts, Prometheus, Medea, that were
very similar to the legends of the local ethnic groups.
Today 150 archeological monuments in Sochi have the status of federal importance. They
include the ancient stays of human beings, caves, where the
findings testify to theories that this area was populated already
400-350 thousand years ago; also the dolmens of the XIV-XIII
centuries B.C. - the evidence of early civilization.
For centuries the routes connecting
Northern and Eastern Europe with Asia Minor and the Greek colonies
passed across the Black Sea and through its northern fruitful
coasts. The heritage of the Russian Black Sea Riviera reflects a
peculiar blend of the world history: the Greek trade centres and
colonies in the 7th-6th centuries B.C., the Roman fortresses in
the 1st century A.D., Christianity adopted by the Georgian state in 337, the
Byzantine settlements in the 4th century, the influence of Kiev Rus - the
ancient union of Slavonic cultures through the 4th -9th centuries, the Tamerlane's invasion
and the vast Tatar Khanate in the Middle Ages, also the contention between Venice and Genoa about their
Black Sea colonies, the Ottoman
Turkish Empire domination since the
15th century, the Russian state claims of its rights to the
posession of the northern coastline through the 16th-18th
centuries, a system of Russian fortification and Cossacks settlements that appeared in the 18th century,
Russia-Georgian diplomatic and military ties that lead to joining
three southern regions of Georgia to Russia in the beginning of
the 19th century, the 19th century marked in Sochi area by the construction of
roads, industrial development, cultivation of new agricultural
crops and the establishment of the first commercially run resorts
and travel agencies.
Since the turn of the last century, when Russian nobles and
entrepreneurs discovered in this remote, underpopulated region
the unique resources for developing Sochi into the Russian Riviera Sochi has only been important for tourism.
Construction of a highway along the coast and investigations of
the curative properties of the local springs in 1880-es determined
key aspects of Sochi's development. Sochi's tourism vocation
dates officially from 1909, when its first spa opened - with its 4 hotels,
theatre, a restaurant, a casino and an electric power supply. By
that time Sochi has grown into a city. The city obtained the
specific style, which is typical only of the Black Sea resorts.
Most of the public and private houses of the turn of the
centuries were designed in the then fashionable Modern style -
with elements of Medieval fortresses and castles. The landcape
architecture and exotic gardens of the city were the fruits of
local rivalry with other Black Sea resorts.
There were 9 Russian Orthodox churches and one monastery, of
which only one - the Michaelo-Archangel Cathedral - survived the
revolution and war events.
During the 1990-es a number of new churches have been built in
Sochi by the national
communities of the local
population, who have always belonged to different religions:
Russian Orthodox, Armenian Gregorian, Catholic, Islamic. Though
mixed marriages are also quite common, those communities have
preserved their traditions and cultural links with their original
nationalities - Greece, Armenia, Georgia, Estonia, Ukraine, etc.
There are a number of national cultural
centers in Sochi:
Armenian cultural center "Sevan";
Geogian cultural center "Iveria";
Adyge-Hase (community parliament of shapsug culture)
Jewish cultural center;
Greek community "Enssa";
Russian community "Sobor";
Ukrainian cultural center;
Abkhaz cultural center "Apsny";
National concord league "Sochi";
Slavonic Union;
Kuban kosaks center;
Belarus community "Belaya Rus";
In Sochi demographic statistics there are 101 nations mentioned.
After the Communist Revolution, it was in Sochi, that the Russian
Civil war between the Reds and the Whites ended- the formal
document was signed at one of Sochi dachas in 1920.
In the 1930-es there was a conscious government effort to create
a "Russian Riviera", and some of the best examples of
Soviet architecture are represented in Sochi. Sochi became known
as the only Stalin's traditional vacation spot. In the 30-es the
first General Plan for reconstructing Sochi as the best Soviet
resort was financed by the state - as lavishly as the major
industrial constructions in the USSR. The carpeted halls, solid
wooden furniture, silverwear in the dining rooms, tall ceilings,
marble collumns, fascinating views to the sea, birds singing in
the park - this was the atmosphere inside the Roman style
structures of spas. Principles of healthy leisure, fitness
exercises and recreation by curative water (baths and other
methods of treatment thoroughly developed by the Sochi Research
Institute of Balneology and Physiotherapy) were the know-how of
Sochi spas, and other Soviet resorts learnt from them.
During the second World War Sochi was turned into a big rehabilitation area
for the wounded. The spas operated as hospitals, called
"plants of health". Local population donated blood,
adopted children, volunteered to serve as nurses. For their hard
work and enthusiasm the city was awarded the order of Great
Patriotic War, IInd grade.
The after-war mass tourism development in the 50-es justified
intensive construction of the airport, of the passenger sea port,
of tunnels and wider roads. To meet the growing demand in sun
travel, accommodation facilities were constructed further and
further along the coast in the 60-es. Thousands of beds at Sochi hotels and spas were
booked out practically all the year round, so it was quite
typical on a holiday in Sochi to rent rooms from the local
residents. In the 70-es -80-es Sochi rated the third after Moscow and St.
Petersburg in arrivals and in inbound tourism routes from all
over the USSR.
Shifting to a market economy in tourism in the 90-es involved a
deep conceptual shift, a sharp change in legislation regarding
land ownership, new divisions between public and private
responsibilities, enormous investment in infrastructure, and a
rigorous planning process to manage the destination. Reinventing
Sochi will require wise decisions on what should be preserved
from the past and on a clear vision of what Sochi is to
become.
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