The old Cossack town of Stavropol has got its fair collection of dommicks. Not anywhere near Astrakhan's diversity or the extent of dereliction, some of Stavropol's edifices fully deserve at least a day of a vigorous exploration. Don't miss it -- and it will be on your toplist. And never ever enter upon any track in Stavropol without a stock of your
Praskoveya, a champion brandy of Cossaks.
Cossacks are a friendly folk with traits obviously suggesting extensive mix marriages between their far anscestors and Russians. The Cossack language, Balachka, is equally difficult to discriminate from Russian, though it does retain some words and idioms which are never heard outside the region.
The train station is noteworthy in that Stavropol may be the only provincial capital in European Russia to be a railway deadlock. To get there from a neighboring regional center, Krasnodar, for example, is a travelogue in itself. One should first take one of a few night trains passing Kavkazskaya station, then sleep three hours in the old guest rooms famous for their 6 meters height ceiling, and change for a Moscow train to reach Stavropol around 6 a.m. You will find a more detailed account posted in these topics:
viewtopic.php?t=9825&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=60viewtopic.php?t=10308The severed railway station sees just three arrivals and as much departures daily. No surprise it looks as if it is abandoned. It's more surprising that it belongs to one of the most important centers in the Russian Caucasus.
At the equally desert square in front of the station you can take any trolley-bus or a coach, or just walk along the Karla Marksa street to the downtown, just a kilometer or two away.
The city's and the eparchy's major cathedral, Svyato-Andreevsky, is a perfect representation of so-called pseudo-Russian style. However, its belfry is definitely reminiscent of 18-th Century barocco. I filmed it both at early morning and late evening already in the dusk.
It 's always rewarding to get off a main thoroughfare, Karla Marksa, to plunge into sidestreets.
A beautiful art-noveau building... though you can feel how profoundly dommick-like it is as you look at the side wall.
Armenians lived in Stavropol since 1808, arriving from Persia when the Russian Emperor permitted them to settle down in North Caucasus in a hope they would develop local trade. While whether they lived up to the tsar's expectations may be disputed, one thing is for sure: Armenians
do control all local trade. The Armenian church of St Gregory Enlightener was rebuilt at the same spot where the former church was destroyed.
One of the best degustatsionnyi zal ("tasting room") in the downtown:
While
Praskoveya is a long-standing favourite, you may question the hierarchy as you sample some
Novy Temryuk from a wooden cask.
An artnouveau species again!
Karla Marksa's perspective:
This idiosyncratic shape of balcony is seldom seen outside small provincial capitals.
More dommicks:
Babushkas, old ladies who rent out their appartments or just a bedroom in an appartment, seem to stick to Karla Marxa 44 as their marketplace.
The famous Elbrus Hotel used to be a brothel popular with officers and civilians. And there is a whispering that the venture may just live up to the excitement promised by its past.
Soviet-era
stolovaya is essentially a vintage which has been triumphant in the Russian
obshchepit (restaurant and caffee scene) over last three years or so. The trick is a sheer provocation of course, though you may find prices very reasonable indeed, while meals are anywhere between fine and excellent for their money value.
In Stavropol you are destined to sample dozens of bizarre art-noveau builings.
That one is an especially valuable specimen:
Just a nice dommick:
All new-Russians mansions are built in red brick, and their Stavropol poppulace is no exception.
Church of the Repose of the Holy Virgin at the Uspenskoe cemetery.
The final, and central, part of Karla Marksa, is a boulevard with a central lane dotted all along its boths sides with busts proudly topping high pedestals.
A philarmonic hall houses an amazingly diverse classical performances as you can conclude from this schedule.
The first stonework in the town according to the sign on its wall:
Alexander Pushkin has been seated to decorate the entrance to the main hill in the city, Krepostnaya Gora (Fortress Mountain).
There are two routes to the top, one by a pompous stairway and another along the clusters of delapidated domicks with poetic vista at the background.
On the top, huge statue of a
krasnoarmeets, Red Army soldier, donned in the uniform of the civil war (1918-1922), shares the square with generalissimo Alexander Suvorov venerated as a founder of the city.
Nearby is a nightclub billboard promising "the most beautiful and uninhibited girls of the southern Russia."
Completing this line of cultural milestones is the currently renovated Kazansky Cathedral.
Stepping back to Karla Marksa, just enjoy yourself in this milieu of beautiful provincialism of all shapes and descriptions...