Vladikavkaz

Vladikavkaz (Дзæуджыхъæу in Ossetian, Владикавказ in Russian) is a 306,258 inhabitants city at the foothills of Caucasus Mountains, by Terek River, being the capital the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania (Russia). It is one of the most important cities in the north of the Caucasus.

 https://russiatrek.org/vladikavkaz-city

 

 

How do I arrive to Vladikavkaz?

 Vladikavkaz is good base to explore North Ossetia-Alania, both because of being its largest city and being in the center.

• Plane: there's an airport, Beslan Airport (15 km far from Vladikavkaz, that has flights to some of the most important cities in Russia such as Rostov-on-Don, Moscow or St. Petersburg.
  
• Train: there are trains that link Vladikavkaz Railway Station with Rostov-on-Don (aprox. 13 hours), Sochi (daily; aprox. 17 hours), Moscow (daily; aprox. 1 day 9 hours) or St. Petersburg (daily; aprox. 2 days). Other destinations within Russia are Adler (aprox. 17 hours) or Novorossiysk (aprox. 18 hours) in Krasnodar Krai.
  
• Bus: most of the cities in North Caucasus are connected with Vladikavkaz such as Nazran (Ingushetia), Nalchik (Kabardino-Balkaria), Pyatigorsk and Stavropol (Stavropol Krai), Krasnodar (Krasnodar Krai) or Volgograd (Volgograd Oblast). From here it's also possible to reach Tbilisi (Georgia) or places in Armenia too. Vladikavkaz is the only way to enter into the de facto Republic of South Ossetia, arriving to Tskhinvali.
• Car: if you have a car from Vladikavkaz it can be reached places in North Ossetia-Alania like Beslan (aprox. 35 minutes), Alagir (aprox. 40 minutes), Mozdok (aprox. 1 hour 30 minutes) or Alaniya National Park (aprox. 2 hours 20 minutes). It can also be reached from other places in Russia such as Nazran (aprox. 40 minutes) in Ingushetia; Grozny (aprox. 1 hour 40 minutes) in Chechnya; Nalchik (aprox. 1 hour 50 minutes) in Kabardino-Balkaria; Pyatigorsk (aprox. 2 hours 50 minutes), Mineralnye Vody (aprox. 3 hours) or Stavropol (aprox. 5 hours 10 minutes) in Stavropol Krai; or Krasnodar (aprox. 8 hours 15 minutes) in Krasnodar Krai. Vladikavkaz can also be reached from cities in Georgia like Stepantsminda (aprox. 1 hour), Mtskheta (aprox. 4 hours 10 minutes), Tbilisi (aprox. 4.5 hours) or Gori (aprox. 4 hours 50 minutes).
  

History

By 1784 there was a tower on the site of the Ossetian village Dzaug (right bank of the river Terek) and there Russian troops built the Vladikavkaz fortres (used as a security point for the routes between Russia and Georgia).The Georgian Military Highway was constructed in 1799 to link Vladikavkaz with Georgia in the south, and in 1875 a railway was built to connect it to Rostov-on-Don and Baku (Azerbaijan). When the Caucasian War was finished (1860), Vladikavkaz received the status of a city and soon became the administrative center of the Terek region. Vladikavkaz has become an important industrial centre for the region, with smelting, refining, chemicals and manufacturing industries.
The troops of the Volunteer Army of General A. Denikin entered Vladikavkaz in February 1919 and came under the control of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia. During the Russian Civil War, Vladikavkaz was part of the Mountainous Republic of the North Caucasus (1917-1922) and when it was annexed by the Soviet Union, it became the capital of the Mountain Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (a Soviet Republic that lasted from 1921 to 1924 in the modern-day territories of Chechnya, North Ossetia and Kabardino-Balkaria). In early November 1942, the forces of Nazi Germany tried unsuccessfully to seize the city. Its name was Ordzhonikidze from 1931 to 1944 and from 1954 to 1990 (after Sergo Ordzhonikidze, a Georgian Bolshevik), and from 1944 to 1954 it was officially called Dzaudzhikau. Vladikavkaz became the capital of North Ossetian Autonomous Region in 1934. Vladikavkaz resumed its old Russian name in 1990, shortly before the dissolution of the Soviet Union. In 2008, the mayor Vitaly Karayev and later his succesor were killed by unidentified gunmen. Currently the 63% percent of its population are ethnic Ossetians while the number of ethnic Russians is around 25%.

Vladikavkaz's top 3

If you have little or you just don't want to visit all Vladikavkaz, here's a list of the 3 places you can't miss in Vladikavkaz.

1. Batumi Boulevard.
2. Batumi Old Town.
3. Skyscrapers of Batumi.
4. State Museum of Adjara.
5. Beaches of Batumi.

What can I visit in Vladikavkaz?

  There are not very many interesting sites and attractions in Sukhumi and most of them aren't very well preserved (in fact, there are many ruined buildings and sightseeing points). The promenade of Sukhumi is probably the nicest in the whole of Abkhazia with clean waterfront, entertainment and shops. It also has the inscription Ye Sukhum, piers, sculptures... 

These are Sukhumi's main attractions:

• 

  Central Park of Culture and
  Leisure of Vladikavkaz
  

  Central Park of Culture and Leisure of Vladikavkaz: park located by river Terek, also know as Kosta Khetagurov Park, that is widely considered to be the oldest park in the North Caucasus. Its origin dates back to the 1830s, when a garden was laid out near the commandant's office of Vladikavkaz Fortress. It was donated to the city in 1890 and a system of ponds with islands, a boat station, and baths were created in the park. It's the best place in the city to have some rest.
• National Museum of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania (10-18 Tue-Sun; 100₽/ 30₽/ 30₽  adults/ retiree and students/ people under 18): museum that is the leading research and

  

  National Museum of
  North Ossetia-Alania

  exhibition and research center in North Ossetia-Alania (founded in 1893). The museum has several branches that speak about different aspects of Ossetia and Ossetians. Its main building, located in the former 20th century mansion of a merchant, has the highlight of the exhibitions: the objects found in Koban Burial Ground (unique bronze objects). Despite having other exhibitions on archeology and nature, it's mostly focused on ethnography of Ossetians. The museum was reopened in 2020, after a renovation that began in the late 1980s.
  
• Makharbeka Tuganova Art Museum: Neo-Byzantine style cathedral built between 1909 and 1915 for the vibrant Greek community that lived in Sukhumi. It was then consecrated in the name of St. Nicholas and was, therefore, popularly referred to as Greek Nicholas Church. In the 1940s (when most of the Greeks were expellled by the Soviet government), the church passed to the Georgian Orthodox Church, remaining as one of the few functioning churches in autonomous Abkhazia throughout the Soviet period. As a result of the War in Abkhazia the church was left to the unrecognised Abkhazian Orthodox Church.
  
• E. B. Vakhtangov Academic Russian Theatre: church built in 1915 for the German community that lived in Sukhumi and Abkhazia during the Russian Empire.
  
• Vladikavkaz History Museum (8-18; 250₽/ 50₽/ free  adults/ kids under 12/ kids under 8): botanical garden founded in 1838, one of the oldest in the Caucasus, used for military purposes (to provide the soldiers with fresh vegetables and occupy their free time) as well as the introduction of new plants in the region (particularly tea and citrus fruits). It was ravaged by Turkish forces in the course of the Russo-Turkish wars and continued to develop during the Soviet rule, transformed into the research institute of botany of the Academy of Sciences (suffering greatly during the Georgian-Abkhazian War). Today it has more than 4,500 species were collected in the garden, including 1,200 tropical ones.
• St. Grigoriya Prosvetitelya Armenian Apostolic Church: reserve from 1927 that acts both as a zoo and part of scientific research as part of the Academy of Sciences of Abkhazia. In the past it reached 2000 individuals but after the war it was reduced to 27. Today the Institute and the nursery is again restored,although reaching its normal state is still very far away (old cells, unkempt grounds, dirt...).
  
• Rozhdestva Presvyatoy Bogoroditsy Russian Orthodox Church (10-17 Tue-Sun; 100₽): museum that shows the history and life in Abkhazia, considered its only major museum. It has interesting exhibitions, particulary a very good one about archaeology,and other sections about WW2 and the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict or even a collection of stuffed animals. The museum is surprisingly renovated but its signals are only in Russian.
  

• 

  Mukhtarov Mosque
  

  Mukhtarov Mosque: Sunni mosque on the left bank of river Terek built by the Józef Plośko (architect of many of the buildings in Baku), inspired by Al-Azhar and other mosques of Cairo. It was comissioned by the Azerbaijani millionaire Murtuza Mukhtarov between 1900 and 1908. The mosque is known for its picturesque setting, against the Caucasus mountains and by the river). It was used by the Ingush residents of Vladikavkaz (before they were expelled from North Ossetia in the 1990s) and today the mosque serves the Ossetian Muslim minority.
  
• St. Georgiyevskiy Cathedral (8-20): art gallery with more than 3,000 works.Its collection presents beautiful copies of frescoes of Lykhny Cathedral, works of the Soviet era and the paintings of one of the most important Ankhaz artists, A. K. Chachba. Every year the gallery hosts a retrospective and thematic exhibitions.
  
• Ilyinskaya Russian Orthodox Church: threater with a whimsical and beautiful architecturefirst built in 1930 which is today the main drama theater of Abkhazia. The building was burned down in 1943 because of a German bombing and reconstructed in 1952, uniting its original Art Nouveau style with Stalinist Empire style. The auditorium has 700 seats and its plays are on Abkhaz language (available headphones with simultaneous Russian translation). On its square there's a picturesque fountain with mythical griffins.
  
• Alleya Slavy: remnants of the fortress built by the Turks in 1724, although almost nothing has been preserved and archaeological excavations and restoration haven't taken place. It is said that the ruins of the ancient Greek town of Dioskurias are located close to this point.
  
• Aqui_Sukhumi Central Beach: 2 km long pebbly beach with muddy water that divided into sections by concrete breakwaters from the Soviet period. Its area is one of the most developed in the city and here the visitor can practice water sports or enjoy its cafes.
• Sukhumi Lighthouse: 37 m high lighthouse made in France by Ernest Goüin et Cie and brought and installed in Sukhumi in 1861. It stopped working in the year 2000, being restored some time later. In front of it there's Sukhumi Lighthouse Beach, a pebbly beach with a length of 5 km that doesn't have breakwaters and is considered the most pure in Sukhumi. Cotinuing by the sea the visitor can reach Gumista Beach, a wild beach outside Sukhumi with pebbles and some sand that is less crowded than others in the city.
  

Where can I eat in Vladikavkaz?

 Vladikavkaz is one of the best places in North Ossetia-Alania to try typical Ossetian food, specially pasties. Some of the nicest pies and pastries can be bought in places such as Fyddzhynta [Фыдджынта] (Prospekt Kosta 178), Tri Piroga [Три пирога] (Ulitsa Markusa 43) or Vincenzo Bakery (Ulitsa Kotsoyeva 91). The best ideas to eat in Vladikavkaz are: Zefir Fashion Cafe (Ulitsa Mayakovskogo 21), the cafe Magiya [Магия] (Ulitsa Maksima Gorkogo 9), the cafe Vinchentso [Винченцо] (Ulitsa Gappo Bayeva 37), or the Georgian restaurant Grusha [Груша] (Ulitsa Shmulevicha 41). Other possibility may be buying food at supermarkets like, for example, Nash [Наш].

 

Posted in: Europe,North Ossetia-Alania,Russia