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Nalchik is the capital of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic in the south of Russia, a city of about 247,000 people on both banks of the Nalchik River. It lies in the foothills of the Caucasus, ringed on three sides by the ridges of the Forested Range, and is a spa and mountain-climate resort of federal importance.
A fortress was founded here by General Yermolov in 1818, a military settlement grew up beside it in 1838, and Nalchik became a town on 1 September 1921. Occupied from October 1942 to January 1943, it was rebuilt after the war and was given the title City of Military Glory in 2010.
Visitors stroll the alleys of the Atazhukin Garden to Kurortnoye Lake and go up to the Sosruko restaurant for views over the city. The Forever with Russia monument, the Central Mosque, the Kabardian theatre and the Marko Vovchok museum show the history and culture of the republic.
The Atazhukin Garden is the main park of Nalchik, laid out in 1847 as a fruit orchard of the Nalchik fortification and handed to Prince Atazhukin in 1865. Covering 173 hectares, it is one of the largest parks of the North Caucasus, with a main alley about one and a half kilometres long.
Kurortnoye Lake, also called the Fourth Lake, is an artificial lake made in 1960 in the city park at the foot of Mount Bolshaya Kizilovka and filled from the Nalchik River. It is the only one of the four park lakes where swimming is allowed, from late May to early October, with boats for hire.
The Sosruko Restaurant on Mount Malaya Kizilovka is built in the shape of the head of Sosruko, a hero of the Nart epic, with his outstretched hand holding a torch. Seen from almost anywhere in Nalchik, it has viewing platforms and is reached by cable car from the park or by road.
The Nalchik Resort Area covers about a quarter of the city, a spa and mountain-climate resort of federal importance known for its mineral waters and healing mud. About 40 sanatoriums, rest homes and guest houses stand in and near it, and patients take baths at the city spa clinic.
The Forever with Russia Monument in central Nalchik was unveiled in 1957 for the 400th anniversary of Kabarda joining Russia. Made of bronze, granite and sandstone by the sculptors M. Listopad and S. Makhtin, it stands on 400th Anniversary Square by the State Musical Theatre.
The Nalchik City of Military Glory Stela stands in the Walnut Grove and marks the honorary title the city received on 25 March 2010 for its part in the Second World War. The battles for Nalchik were part of the Battle of the Caucasus, and it was occupied from October 1942 to January 1943.
The Balkar Repression Victims Memorial in Nalchik opened on 8 March 2002, 58 years after the deportation of the Balkar people began. Its building mixes Central Asian mausoleum forms with Balkar building ways, and inside it shows hundreds of documents and belongings of the deported.
The 115th Cavalry Division Monument stands in a Nalchik square named after the division and honours this Kabardino-Balkarian unit of the Second World War. Formed from late 1941 as one of the national cavalry divisions of the North Caucasus, in 1942 it fought on the approaches to Stalingrad.
The Nalchik Central Mosque is the main Friday mosque of the city, opened on 20 May 2004 on the site of the former Yunost cinema on Shogentsukov Avenue. Designed by the architect Andrey Asanov, it has two minarets about 30 metres high and a dome that rises 21 metres above the ground.
The Kabardian Drama Theatre named after Ali Shogentsukov has worked in Nalchik since 1937, growing out of a Kabardian studio set up at GITIS in Moscow in 1935. Merged with the Balkar troupe in 1958, it became a separate theatre again in 1990 and stands on Shogentsukov Avenue.
The Marko Vovchok House Museum in the Dolinsk district of Nalchik is the house where the Ukrainian writer lived in 1906 and 1907, dying in its garden in the summer of 1907. She was buried there under her favourite pear tree, and it is the only museum devoted to her in Russia.
The Atazhukin Garden War Memorial stands in the city park in memory of those who died in the Second World War, and an eternal flame burns there. Nalchik was occupied from October 1942 to January 1943 and badly damaged, and it now holds the title City of Military Glory.
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