Rostov-on-Don is considered the capital of the Southern Federal District, the city of five seas and the gateway to the Caucasus. In 1749, by decree of Elizabeth Petrovna, the largest city in the south of the Russian Federation today, Rostov-on-Don, was founded.

  • The city is located on the Don River, almost near the place of its confluence with Azov. Initially, the Temernitsky customs was founded here, where they built a garrison barracks, a warehouse and a pier. Later, in order to protect the Rich Well (as it was then called), a fortress was built.

Now Rostov-on-Don is the largest administrative, industrial, cultural center of the country, which is considered an important transport interchange. This year the city will host the World Cup, so in addition to the existing attractions, which it is very rich in, new ones have appeared, including a new airport.

Rostov-on-Don is quite a multinational city. People of various nationalities and religions live here. Many temples of various denominations have been built in the city.

Sights of Rostov-on-Don

Old Intercession Church

The Old Intercession Church, founded in the 18th century, can rightfully be called a spiritual pearl and one of the oldest shrines of the Don capital. near the city of Cherkasy. Later, the temple was transferred to the territory of the fortress of Dmitry Rostov.

The current temple after all the destruction began to be restored only in 2005. Today, this snow-white 30-meter church, which is crowned with an ash dome and seven bells, pleases the inhabitants of the city with its beauty. Modernism and the classics of the Orthodox style merged in its architecture.

At the entrance, decorated with mosaics, parishioners are greeted by carved doors. Inside the temple there is a beautiful combination of white marble walls, blue vaults and granite burgundy floors. Another decoration of the church is the white marble iconostasis, the work of the Ural masters. The outer part of the temple, after the approval of the Archbishop of Rostov and Novocherkassk Panteleimon, was painted by Novocherkassk artists.

Church of the Armenian monastery Surb-Khach

The construction of the oldest church of the Armenian monastery Surb-Khach (literally the holy cross) began in 1786 after the Armenian diaspora moved here from the Crimea. The temple was finally completed and consecrated in 1792.

Later, a bell tower and a bishop’s house were added to it, where a school was located. After that, the house housed a seminary, a printing house and a library. The temple was active until 1931, until it was closed, and the premises became a granary. In the 70s. of the last century, the church was restored, and it was given to the museum of Russian-Armenian friendship.

And only in 2007 the temple returned under the jurisdiction of the Armenian Patriarchate.
Surb-Khach today is one of the most beautiful temple buildings in the style of classicism left from the Armenian monastery. The structure of the current small complex, located on a hill, includes a temple, a stone staircase of 86 steps leading to Temernik, springs and a chapel.

There is also a gate and a fence. At the spring there is a chapel «Chorkhakh», which is currently not working. In the temple itself, ancient khachkars (shrines) are kept — a stone with a cross carved on it, preserved from the 4th century. This quiet and peaceful place offers a beautiful panorama of the city’s surroundings.

Transfiguration (Ratnenskaya) Church

In the village of Starocherkasskaya there is the second oldest, built in the middle of the 18th century, the Ratnaya (Preobrazhenskaya) church. It belongs to the cult architectural and historical monuments, highlighting the formation of the Don Cossacks in the 18th century.

The historical necropolis of the 17th century, where the famous Cossack atamans are buried, adjoins the temple complex from the north side. After a big fire in Cherkassk, the church almost completely burned down, but was quickly restored.

During the reign of ataman D. Efremov, the church was especially transformed. With funds allocated by the ataman, the church was decorated with gilding, and icons made by local masters appeared inside. After that, the church suffered from fires twice more, and by the 20th century it was already in a dilapidated state. The temple was built using the Ukrainian baroque style, but almost nothing has been preserved here to this day.

Orthodox Church Parish of the Annunciation Greek Temple

In 1909, an Orthodox Greek Church of the Annunciation was built in Rostov-on-Don. The first temple was built using the neoclassical style. At the main entrance with four columns there was a bell tower, the height of which was 20 m. In the 30s. the church was closed, but with the arrival of the Germans, it was opened to hold a parade and worship in honor of the birthday of the Romanian ruler Mihai.

At the end of the 50s. it was finally closed and handed over to the secondary school, and in the 60s. it was demolished and a puppet theater was built here. In 2007, the laying of a new temple took place, the construction of which was carried out in the neo-Byzantine style.

  • The walls of the new church are decorated with unique mosaic icons, which were hand-created by the nuns of the convent of the Most Holy Theotokos of the All-Tsaritsa in Greece. The domes of the church were crowned with unique crosses brought from Mount Athos.

Now, in addition to worship in the church, parishioners attend children’s and adult church schools, take part in missionary and charity events, the church oversees the Baby House, and pilgrimages to holy places are made from here.

The building of the Rostov Duma and Administration

  • The city house or City Council and Council was built in 1899, the project of which was A.N. Pomerantsev. The four-storey Gordom building was built in the eclectic style. The plan of the rectangular building has a courtyard.

The facade of the building is symmetrical and divided into tiers. The walls of the first floor are rusticated, and decorative teeth adorn the cornice. The whole building is lavishly decorated with stucco, and rounded corners are crowned with high domes. The City Duma is a federal architectural monument and one of the main attractions of the city.

Mansion of Nikolai Elpidiforovich Paramonov

Not far from the Greek temple, on Pushkinskaya Street, is Paramonov’s house — one of the most beautiful buildings in Rostov-on-Don, made in the neoclassical style.

  • The author of the mansion project was A.N. Pomerantsev. The owner of this building, built in 1914, was Nikolai Paramonov, whose father Elpidifor Paramonov was a major gold miner.

He did not have long to be the owner of his own house. With the outbreak of the civil war, it was first occupied by the Red Army, then by the higher ranks of the White Guards. The mansion was twice damaged by fire. In 1947, it was given to the SFU Zonal University Library, where it has been located until recently.

House of merchant Gench-Ogluev

On Bolshaya Sadovaya Street in Rostov-on-Don at the end of the 19th century. a Profitable or Trading House was built, the owner of which was S.F. Gench-Ogluev. Initially, the house was intended for retail space and rental for housing and offices.

The architect for this building was discharged from the capital, since such houses have never been built here. This kind of building was the first in the city, which was designed by A. Pomerantsev. The architecture of the building is based on Baroque styles, which made the facades, classicism approached the windows, and the turret is decorated with Gothic drawings.

Thanks to several styles of decoration, the building has a lush and rich appearance. During the war, the building was significantly damaged, but already in the late 40s. it has been restored. The work was led by the architect G. Kalaijan, who made some changes in the architecture. Now the house is under state protection as an object of cultural heritage, which is one of the main city-forming buildings.

Profitable house of I. P. Baev

If you walk along Temernitskaya Street, you can see an old two-story building — the former Profitable House of the merchant IP Baev. The house was built in the 19th century in an eclectic style. Since 1913, the house belonged to the largest philanthropist and shoe dealer I. Baev.

Despite the fact that the building belongs to the cultural heritage and architectural monuments, today its condition leaves much to be desired. The building is decorated with loggias, under which there are arched entrances leading to the courtyard of the house, on which there is a sign saying that the Rostov noble assembly was once located here. Now the building houses the city technical inventory.

Pustovoitov Trading House

Pustovoitov’s trading house was built in 1910 according to the design of the Nakhichevan architect E. Gulin. The house was built according to the type of industrial and commercial style, one of the currents of modernism. At the beginning of the 20th century The house was considered the tallest building in the city.

Its areas were rented out to various companies, shops, for hotel rooms. After the revolution, the building was nationalized and given to the central department store. During the war years, the house was badly damaged, but soon it was restored and even an additional building was completed. Now the building has the status of an architectural monument and is the main element that forms the appearance of the city center.

Memorial complex in honor of the liberation of the city of Rostov-on-Don

The Memorial of Glory, opened in 1983 on Theater Square in honor of the defenders and liberators of Rostov from the Nazis, was dedicated to the 40th anniversary of the Great Victory. The townspeople accepted this complex as the main attraction of the city and its symbol.

  • The memorial complex was made by sculptors Yu. Rukavishnikov and A. Filippova and architect N. Milovidov. In the center of the monument is a 72-meter stele with the ancient Greek goddess Nike.

On the side of the drama theater, a city award is engraved on the stele — the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree. At the foot of the monument there are thematic reliefs — Peace, Front, Rear, Victory. The central relief is decorated with an excerpt from the reports of the Soviet Information Bureau on the liberation of the city on February 14, 1943.

Between the reliefs there is a belfry with copper bells. In the water parterre, framed by three wide stairs, there is a victorious wreath with the Eternal Flame. On the tablets, at the entrance from the square, the units, armies and formations that liberated this city are immortalized.

Memorial complex in memory of the victims of fascism in Zmievskaya gully

After the German troops entered Rostov-on-Don for the second time in 1942, in August of this year they destroyed about 30 thousand of the local population in the Zmievskaya gully, most of which were the Jewish population, the elderly and children.

This burial place for the victims of the German Holocaust is the largest in the Russian Federation, and the second in the USSR after Babi Yar. In 1959, a memorial sign was erected in memory of these atrocities, and in the 70s. erected a memorial complex «Victims of fascism». The memorial for the townspeople immediately became a kind of symbol, where on every date related to that war, they went to honor the memory.

  • Wedding corteges are sure to come here to take photos. A sculptural concrete group is installed in the beam. From the observation deck at the entrance you can see the entire memorial. In the hall of sorrow, where a black marble staircase leads, you can see an exposition covering those events.

On the way from the hall of sorrow to the sculptural group, reinforced concrete pylons are installed, on which calls for the defense of the Motherland are carved. Next to the sculpture on the site is a grave, in the form of a metronome with beating hearts. And on the stove with a metal wreath, the Eternal Flame is lit.

Drama Theater named after M. Gorky

The Academic Drama Theater named after Gorky can rightly be considered the largest theater in Rostov-on-Don. The theater itself was created in the middle of the 19th century, and the building for it was built only in 1935. On the site of a wasteland between Rostov and Nakhichevan (now it is Theater Square), a building has grown that looks like a caterpillar tractor.

The authors of this project, which won world fame along with the Moscow Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed, were V. Shchuko and V. Gelfreikh. During the war, the theater building was badly damaged and restored only in 1963. Architects Anikin and Razumovsky significantly reduced the original plan.

Now the theater has three stages: in the large hall there are almost 1200 seats, a small hall with a capacity of 300 spectators and a 70-seat experimental stage. There is also a Green Theatre, an ART gallery and an ART cafe. Famous actors worked in this theater — V. Maretskaya, R. Plyatt and many others.

Rostov State Circus

In 1957, a circus building was built in Rostov-on-Don, which became a competitor to the most beautiful Berlin hospital in the world. Rostov Circus is distinguished from other buildings of this kind by its shape. At first glance, you might think that this is a theater or a sports palace.

And only the Quadriga, flaunting on the pediment, and the figures at the entrance make it clear that there is a circus here. For the authors of the project G. Petrov, A. Barulin and engineer N. Shchepetov, it was important to recreate not only the practical, but also the aesthetic component of the building.

Therefore, its interior has a very rich decoration with gilding, ornaments, artistic stucco and crystal chandeliers. During the existence of the circus, many famous dynasties, beloved by all clowns, performed here. Now no less talented artists of various genres perform at the arena. The circus building has the status of an architectural monument and is one of the best stationary circuses in Europe.

Art Museum

The existence of the Rostov Regional Museum of Fine Arts began its countdown in 1938, after the creation of the Rostov-Nakhichevan Society of Fine Arts here. The museum has a wide collection that highlights the life of the Don land. Also in the museum there are paintings by masters known throughout the world.

Initially, a collection of items from the storerooms of the country’s largest museums was assembled here. In addition to painting by Don, great Russian and foreign artists, graphics, sculpture and arts and crafts are presented here. During the war, the entire collection was evacuated to Pyatigorsk, but on the way it was almost completely plundered by German troops.

Many copies were returned after the war, but it was not possible to completely restore what was collected before the war. In 1946, the museum was reopened in the Grekov Art School, and already in 1959 it finally found its home in the mansion of A.P. Petrov, known in the 19th century. lawyer.

Fountain on Theater Square

After the completion of the construction of the Gorky Drama Theater in the 30s. Here they arranged the Theater Square, the center of which was a fountain, the work of the then young Yevgeny Vuchetich. On the pedestal stands a group of Atlanteans holding a bowl, which the townspeople call peasants with a bowl. They are surrounded by frogs and turtles, which the sculptor (it is not known for what faults) depicted with the faces of some city officials.

In wartime, the fountain was very badly damaged, but in the 50s. was restored, only without turtles and frogs. In the late 90s. For the 250th anniversary of the city, the fountain was restored and took on its original form. In the evenings, multi-colored lights are turned on here, which makes it even more attractive.

Monument to Empress Elizabeth Petrovna

In 2007, a bronze sculpture of the founder of the city, Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, was installed near the Old Intercession Church. The place was not chosen by chance. After all, in the 18th century. it was here that the fortress of Dmitry Rostov was erected.

The monument represents the figure of the empress, who proudly surveys the surroundings of the Don capital, with a decree on the construction of a fortress in one hand, and with the other hand she points to the construction site.

The monument is decorated with high reliefs depicting people who directly took part in the laying of the fortress. The author of this project was Sergei Oleshnya, but a large number of people participated in the creation of this masterpiece. From this monument began a large project to perpetuate the historical past of the Temernitsky customs and the fortress of Dmitry Rostov.

Paramonovskie warehouses

In the city center next to the embankment you can see the unique ruins of the 19th century. — Paramonovskie warehouses. Until the end of 2015, there was an unspoken «wild» place of rest for the townspeople.

Warehouses were built by the famous merchant Elpidifor Paramonov to store grain and send it along the Don for export. There was a unique cooling system, derived from springs, thanks to which the temperature was maintained within the required limits throughout the year.

During the war, the warehouses were partially destroyed by a bomb hit. But their destruction began with mismanagement of them.
The architectural monument of federal importance in the bottom line turned out to be useless to anyone and began to turn into a dump. Since the beginning of 2016, reconstruction is planned here, the pools have been merged and fences have been installed. It is assumed that in their place there will be a cultural and entertainment center with a hotel and spas.

Bolshaya Sadovaya Street

Bolshaya Sadovaya Street can be compared to St. Petersburg’s Nevsky Prospekt, but it is much longer than it. On the general plan of the city, it appeared in 1811 under the name Zagorodnyaya, but building on it has been carried out since the 80s. 18th century. Bolshaya Sadovaya Street is the heart of Rostov-on-Don.

There are mainly old houses here, and the townspeople call part of the street Rostov Broadway. Here you can see such architectural masterpieces as the house of M. Chernova, the Moskovskaya Hotel, the State Bank, the City Hall and other buildings. It starts from the railway station and ends at the Don embankment on Theater Square.

Budyonnovsky prospect

Budenovsky Prospect (formerly Taganrogsky) is located perpendicular to Bolshaya Sadovaya Street and is also one of the central avenues of the city. At the intersection with Pushkinskaya street, a bust of S.M. Budyonny, after whom it was named in 1923, and where it borders on Bolshaya Sadovaya, a bas-relief of a cart, the Central Department Store and McDonald’s was installed. The State Circus, the House of Officers, the Rostovskaya Hotel, shops, restaurants, educational institutions and office centers are also located here.

Embankment of the Don River

Rostovites consider the city embankment named after F. Ushakov to be their main attraction. The history of the embankment is intertwined with the history of the city. After all, all the buildings started from the river.

  • Now both citizens and guests of the capital of the south of Russia like to relax here. Here you can see the figures of Sholokhov’s heroes grandfather Shchukar and Nakhalenok, a monument to the writer himself, a statue of the beautiful Rostov woman and castle trees. In the Petrovsky fountain, on the corner of Semashko Street, children love to splash around. There are also playgrounds and attractions for them.

Motor ships constantly run along the Don, from which you can see the surroundings. On the embankment, you can take a picture with the «Artist», see Aksinya and Grigory, chat with live fishermen who catch wonderful scavengers. On holidays, festivities are held here, where treats are presented by representatives of different nationalities.

Rostov Zoo

Rostov Zoo is the largest zoological park in Russia. The zoo was founded in 1927 in a living corner of the secondary school named after Budyonny. Later, it was moved outside the city, where 5 summer cottages were allocated for it. The collection of this largest zoo is about 5 thousand individuals, which belong to more than 400 species.

About 100 of them are in the IUCN Red Book, more than 30 — in the Red Book of the Russian Federation. Rare white-tailed eagles are bred in the Rostov Zoo, and here it is the first in Europe. The zoo also has an aquarium where you can see a variety of representatives of the underwater world and a terrarium with crocodiles, turtles and other exotic reptiles.

Central Park. A. M. Gorky

On the site of the gardens of the mayor A. Yashchenko in 1813, a city garden was laid out, which later became a favorite place for Rostovites — Gorky Park.

  • You can enter the park from the main entrance from Bolshaya Sadovaya, in front of which there is a monument to Lenin, a bronze girl with flowers and a pointer to all cardinal points.

At the entrance from the side of Pushkinskaya there is a sculpture «Meeting», and the territory of the park itself is decorated with beautiful flower beds, trees and shrubs. Here you can sit in a cafe, play chess, visit the observatory, visit the town of attractions. The park is a meeting place for artists and numismatists.

October Revolution Park

The Revolution Park in the southern capital was laid out in 1926, where the border between Nakhichevan and Rostov passed. After connecting the two settlements into one, the park began to be ennobled. In the 70s. it was recognized by the residents of the city and became a traditional place of rest for the majority of residents and guests of the city.

The territory of the park, in addition to the green zone, is equipped with playgrounds for those who want to go in for sports, various attractions, playgrounds for children. Here you can sit in cozy cafes and buy souvenirs. Here you can also ride on the Ledograd skating rink, play paintball or mini-football. The park has a rope town track, and after the restoration of the park, the opening of the Noise-Gum-Land amusement town took place.

Murom wonderworkers Peter and Fevronia

  • In addition to entertainment, there are sculptures here, among them is the monument to Peter and Fevronia, whose names are honored in the Orthodox world as patrons of family and love.

The monument was opened in 2011, the author of which was the sculptor A. Sknarin. The figures are cast in bronze, the author captured the couple at the moment of their betrothal. Since the monument opened, it has been visited by all the newlyweds.