Notable places to visit

Would you like a piece of advice? Make your first tour around the city with a guide! It's the only way to see the best of Sochi and to learn in detail about its highlights because the city is full of interesting sites. You will be offered dozens of tours around the city. Take your time and we will give you some hints.

The area's attractiveness for travelers 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 ancient remains of human beings, caves that prove theories that this area was populated already 400 - 350 thousand years ago.

Apart from ancient attractions, Sochi has many more places of interest. Below is a list of the most popular ones.

There are many parks in Sochi: forest-park at Mamaika and Matsesta, ornithological park in Adler, botanical garden near Holiday Hotel " Belye Nochi" in Loo.

Dendrarium (Arboretum, Botanical Gardens). Sochi Dendrarium is the largest Russian subtropical park. It was founded in 1892 and features over 2,000 species of plants brought from different climatic zones of the world, from every continent. The Arboretum is really unique. You need more than a day to see it.

Riviera Park. Recreation park where you may can fun. On the Glade of Friendship one can see evergreen magnolia trees planted by statesmen, public leaders and cosmonauts.

The Tree of Friendship is a wonder-tree in a wonder-garden. There are about 40 types of citrus fruits on one tree. Graftings were made by celebrities and honored guests. A small museum displays souvenirs sent from all over the world. The place is a paradise of flowers. For years the Tree and its Garden has been impressing those whose fingers are green, people of goodwill, school children, sentimental ladies, very tough men, politicians. This is the place where national and international festivals are celebrated.
The Russian Tea Plantations and Russian Tea Party. For most Russian tea drinkers Sochi is well-known as the only place where the Russian tea is cultivated and produced. The Sochi tea plantations are the northernmost in the world too. A trip to the tea farm includes a lecture on the History of Tea, a visit to the Museum of Samovars and Russian crafts, a tea-party in a Russian wooden Izba. The trip is a source for Russian impressions.
Fine Arts Exhibition Hall (with a souvenir shop selling amber and Russian Crafts). A small shop of Russian Amber, icons, paintings and crafts. A big display of recent paintings. One can trace the history of Russian painting in 20th century. For reasonable shoppers. For those who can't live a day without exhibitions. For everyone on a rainy day.
Modern Art Gallery and Art Museum, Stalin's Dacha, Nickolai Ostrovsky Literary-Memorial Museum, V. Barsova Memorial-Museum of History, Museum of Sochi Resort are also remarkable places to visit.
Theatres, circus, concert halls. The best performances are in August, September and October. Best local performers, musicians, singers - all the year round. Those who don't like evenings in hotels or restaurants can always find something interesting in Sochi. Sochi circus and Winter Theatre, which both have various programmes during summer months, are located close to each other, in the city centre.
Dolphinarium. Dolphins populate the Black Sea. In Sochi Dolphinarium you can admire their performances and marvel at their creativity: dolphins draw pictures, dance, sing and display their affection to people.
Rafting. A five-kilometers passage down the whitewater river can be quite a challenge for those who like rafting and seek for the excitement of spectacular splashes, adventurous jumps.
Yew and Boxwood Grove. The Yew and Boxwood Grove in Sochi is as old as the mountains. It is a unique and lucky remainder of wild prehistoric vegetation that was screened by mountains from extensive glaciation at the Ice Age.
Outing to the mountains. There are 58 rivers running into the sea in Sochi, they are famous for trout and the Black Sea salmon. Some of the waterfalls, Orekhoviy, Agurskiy, Akhshtyrskaya and Vorontsovskaya caves and lakes can be easily reached. The Agoura Canyon is one of the oldest attractions in Sochi.

The city's closeness to the Black Sea moderates the climate, so Sochi is the only area in Russia, where tea, persimmons, pomegranates and citrus fruits are cultivated.

Mountains in Sochi area belong to the Greater Caucasian Range, which in its Western part (near Novorossiisk) has height of 500m above the sea level, in its Central part reaches 4,000 m, and in its South-Eastern part is about 1,000m high. From the top of Akhun mountain (663m), which is a half-hour drive from Sochi's city centre, tourists observe the panorama of Sochi. The Southern slopes of the Caucasian Mountains are covered with forests, rich in over 2,000 species of plants, 54 species of animals, 200 species of birds. In Sochi area forests cover 215 th. ha. The climate is most favourable for walnut, chestnut, fig tree, pomegranate, persimmon and grapes. There are palms, rhododendrons, pines, relict trees of the tertiary period. There are evergreens like tea plant, laurel, cork-oak, tangerine and many other subtropical plants. Most Sochi parks are nearly a century old.

A trip to Krasnaya Polyana - a settlement 30 km away from the seaside into the mountains, turned into a sports and tourism complex. While it is yet warm in Sochi, there is snow up in the mountains. Skiers are taken to over 1,500m above sea level in flying chairs or by helicopter. There are accommodation facilities of different types and some very nice bars and restaurants. Skiing is a growing sport in the Russian Federation and Sochi is in a prime position to become the Number One Spot for skiers.

The average temperature in winter is +8-10 C and it rarely rises above +30 C in summer. There are about 200 days of sunshine a year.

Bee-Keeper's farm. Honey is yet another reason for holidays in Sochi. Of all places in Russia this is the only area where you can buy chestnut honey, which never gets sugared, and whose curative properties are described in legends. The rich Caucasian honey comes in a variety of tastes and types, of which honey of alpine meadows is most popular.

Sochi has dozens of hotels, tourist centres, and campsites and more than 50 sanatoria. Its streets and gardens are filled with exotic subtropical trees and shrubs. Sochi architectural ensemble was designed and constructed in the 30-s and the 50-s by the best Soviet architects.

The Cathedral. At the beginning of the XXth century there were 9 Russian Orthodox churches and one monastery in Sochi. Of them only one - the Michaelo-Archangel Cathedral - survived the revolution and war events. During the 1990-s 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.

National features: there are a number of national cultural centres in Sochi: the Armenian cultural centre "Sevan", the Geogian cultural centre "Iveria", the Adyge-Hase cultural centre, the Jewish cultural centre, the Greek community centre "Enssa", the Russian cultural centre "Sobor", the Ukrainian cultural centre, the Abkhaz cultural centre "Apsny", the Cross-Cultural League "Sochi", the Slavonic Union, the Kuban kosaks center, the Belarus community centre "Belaya Rus".

Dendrarium

Do you think it's possible to make a trip round the world while having a rest in Sochi... in two hours? Of course, it is! And you won't need ocean liner, high-speed airplane or passport. To make it you just need a camera. Your trip round the world will take place in the park “Dendrarium” which is situated on both sides of Kurortny prospect. Even those people, who have already travelled inside out and seen such places as park Tuilries in Paris, Hyde Park in London and Central Park in New York, are charmed by “Dendrarium”. And all the named above parks can’t be compared with “Dendrarium” in Sochi which is a particle of paradise, the best place on Earth!

In “Dendrarium” more than 1,700 species of plants and bushes from all the continents of the world are collected on the territory of a bit more than 20 hectares. Annually this park is visited by more than 700,000 people.

“Dendrarium” is a wonderful monument to landscape art. It was founded at the end of 19th century by a famous Russian journalist Sergei Khudekov. His parents were petty-landed gentry from Razan province. The editor bought 50 tithes on the slope of mount Vereshchaginskaya not far from the centre of Sochi and founded a new park. Dacha which was decided to be build in the centre of the park was called in honour of his wife.

Generally in 1892 forming of the park was finished and now this year is considered to be the year of “Dendrarium's” foundation.

The name “Dendrarium”origins from a Greek word “Dendron - Tree”, and means “Collection of Trees”. The collection of the park in Sochi is not only huge but also unique. At the end of the 19th century a famous gardener Frantz Lampau was engaged into the park foundation on Sergei Khudekov’s initiative.

The founders, while thinking about the core idea of the park formation, tried to bring into concord the elements of Italian terraced garden and English landscape park. The entire plant zones were created – Mediterranean, Chinese, Australian, Caucasian departments, Himalayan, Japanese, Mexican nooks.

“Dendrarium” is a park of continuous blossoming. One can be dazzled seeing so many exotic plants: Lebanese cedar and Algerian oak with uneven cork rind (bark), Japanese beresklet and Mexican agave, Californian palm аnd Australian eucalyptus feel like growing at home.

From January till the beginning of a real spring flower-beds of the park are decorated by local flowers, Japanese quince-tree, acacia, honeysuckle, guelder rose and many others. Guests’ astonishment knows no limits when in the middle of winter at New Years Eve’s night one can see scarlet fires of picarantus and tender rose petals of asmantus peeping out through snow.

In spring and at the beginning of summer the park is covered by flowers and fresh verdure. Hydrangeas and trees of pomegranate strike by their splendour almost everyone. Here one can find a unique collection of pines - 80 of 120 that grow worldwide, more than 60 species of oaks including cork-oak, more than 20 species of cypresses.

“Dendrarium” is not only a collection of exotic trees and bushes but also variety architectural ensemble where plants play first fiddle. Of course not a single park can exist without architectural compositions. Being aware of it the creator of the park Sergei Khudekov has started thinking of not only delivering here rare trees and bushes but also decorating park with decorative pavilions, fountains and sculptures since the very beginning. And everything was done thoroughly.

Now 17 units in “Dendrarium” are included into the catalogue of architectural and town-planning monuments significant for the whole Russian Federation and this is a rare case for our country.

The main entrance is adorned with an elegant semicircular building - a symbol of "Dendrarium".

The park is divided into upper and lower parts.One of the main places worth seeing in the park is dacha "Nadezhda", staircases of which are decorated by sculptures and decorative vases. There are lots of pavilions and the most famous is, no doubt, Moresque, made in Arabic style with original columns and a minaret.

If Moresque pavilion makes remember about the traditions of eastern legends from "Thousand and One Nights", V. Bogatyrev's fountain "Fairy-tale" conjures up Russian bylinas - it's the best place to read A. Pushkin's "Tale About Tsar Saltan".

"Dendrarium" is "alive" park. You can seen walking peacocks, in a special open-air cage ostriches live, squirrel jump in the trees, in a special aquarium everyone can see various Black Sea fish, including a famous Black Sea shark - katran and standing by the pools you can marvel for hours at black and white swans.

Sochi "Dendrarium" is one of the most beautiful places on the Earth, a paradise made by people's talent and hard work.

Park Riviera

Sochi parks have no equal! They origin from fairy-tales: luxurious vegetation, shady summer-houses, comfortable benches, fresh air full of southern scents.
Almost in the heart of Sochi one of the famous recreation parks "Riviera" is situated. It's a place where you can have fun. For more than 100 years it's been a favourite place for our citizens and holidaymakers.
In 1883, Vasily Alexeevich Khludov purchased here 930 dessiatinas (land measure equivalent to 2.7 acres of land). At the beginning the forest was rooted out actively and dacha's construction was conducted. In 1898 the park was founded here. Considering Sochi's climate, pine, cedar, juniper, cypress, were mostly preferred plants.

In 1902 Vasily Khludov sold his estate to Municipal treasury which was soon after declared a public holiday park. In 1909 Moscow manufacturer Ternopolskiy built here a resort "Kavkazskaya Riviera". By the reason that Sochi was regarded as a small provincial town, it was quite risky for that period of time. Malaria holds sway over and swampy soils were everywhere. But in 1902 people started assimilation of the medicinal Matsesta springs. All these factors as well as the warm Black Sea and evergreen subtropics have played main role in a health-resort creation. Imagine two four-storeyed hotels with theatre, restaurant and medical centre were built between the beach and the park. Wealthy people have stopped travelling just abroad for spa treatment and relaxation - national health-resort has appeared.

During the First World War the resort suffered a lot. In 1920 after nationalization Sochi City Resort Department became this park's head. The plan of the park renewal activities was worked out. In 1937 the park was renamed and became "Riviera" - cultural and holiday park.

Here one can see more than 240 types of trees and shrubs. "Riviera" also attracts lots of famous people from all over the world. They leave their green autographs in our park. It is our city's good old tradition to plant trees, create avenues and glades in the name of international friendship. One of the attractions is a Glade of Friendship in the park. Famous resort's guests plant here magnolias - beautiful evergreen trees with big white flowers. Magnolias live up to 400 years and are symbols of peace and friendship.

The first tree on the glade was planted by Otto Grotevol, Chairman of Council of Ministers in GDR in April 1960, the second - on 25th June 1960 by our famous commander Kliment Yefremovich Voroshilov. Here you can also find magnolias planted by Moris Terez, General Secretary of French Communist Party and Todor Zhivkov, General Secretary of Bulgarian Communist Party and by many others eminent politicians and public leaders.

On the glade you can also find trees planted by Yuri Gagarin - the first man in space, by Valentina Tereshkova - the first woman in space and by Alexei Leonov - the first person who came into outer space and many others. A special place takes magnolia planted on 1st October 1975 by Soviet cosmonauts and American astronauts in honour of a joint flight of spaceships "Soyuz-Apollo".
"Riviera" is also known for its writers' alley. Bust of Great Russian writers, such as Pushkin, Nekrasov, Dostoyevsky, are on the left and right. In the centre of the alley there's a marble bench of an unusual form which has been recently placed in the park. It's called Bench of Reconciliation and it's a symbolic place for couples' meetings who had a quarrel.
Various attractions have been constructed for children. One of the most popular among grown ups and children is a wheel from which one can observe the sea, the mountains, the centre of the city and geometrical flower-beds and alleys in the park.
On the park's territory you can also spend time at sports camp, tennis courts, chess pavilion, a new modern restaurant and night club "Plush" with a chef from Miami, as well as cinema and Green theatre where famous pop singers and variety performers give concerts. If you wish to have a great time, visit this remarkable park!

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14