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Rostov-on-Don is the capital of Rostov Oblast and of the Southern Federal District of Russia, a port city of more than a million people mostly on the right bank of the Don River, about 46 km from the Sea of Azov. It is often called the gateway to the Caucasus and the capital of the south of Russia.
The city grew from a customs post founded in 1749 and the fortress of Saint Dmitry of Rostov built in 1761, from which it takes its name. In 1779 Armenians resettled from Crimea founded the town of Nakhichevan just to the east, which became part of Rostov in 1928. Through the 19th century the grain trade on the Don made Rostov rich, and merchants filled its center with stone houses, banks and warehouses.
Today the old center is laid out along the long avenue of Bolshaya Sadovaya Street and the green boulevard of Pushkinskaya Street, between the Don embankment and the city parks. Visitors come for the cathedral and the old market, the striking theaters, the ruined grain warehouses by the river, and the Armenian heritage of Nakhichevan.
The Don Embankment is the long riverside promenade below the old center of Rostov-on-Don, running along the right bank of the Don past old merchant buildings and river piers. It is the favorite walk of the city on summer evenings, with cafes, boat trips and views of the bridges over the river.
The Cathedral of the Nativity of the Virgin is the main Orthodox church of Rostov-on-Don, built in 1854 to 1860 on a design by Konstantin Thon, architect of Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. Its golden domes and four-tier bell tower, built in 1887 and restored in 1999, rise over the center.
The Central Market, known locally as the Old Bazaar, is the main market of Rostov-on-Don, in the oldest part of the city beside the cathedral. Its halls and stalls are piled with Don fish, fruit, cheese and smoked meats, and around it stand some of the first stone buildings of the city.
The Paramonov Warehouses are a group of brick grain stores on the bank of the Don in Rostov-on-Don, built from the mid-19th century to the late 1890s now a federal monument. Spring water at a steady 18 degrees once cooled the grain, and it still pours through the ruins in pools and falls.
Bolshaya Sadovaya Street is the main avenue of Rostov-on-Don, one of the oldest and grandest streets of the city, running east to west through the center. It is lined with merchant mansions, banks and shops of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and the grand City Duma building.
The City Duma Building is the grand town hall on Bolshaya Sadovaya Street in Rostov-on-Don, built in 1899 to a design by Alexander Pomerantsev, architect of Moscow's GUM store. Richly decorated and topped with domes, it now houses the mayor's office and is a monument of federal importance.
Pushkinskaya Street is a leafy boulevard in the center of Rostov-on-Don, named after the poet Alexander Pushkin in 1885 and lined with old houses, university buildings and the Don State Public Library. Its tree-shaded central boulevard grows wider in stages until it fills the whole street.
Gorky Park is the central park of Rostov-on-Don, set up in 1813 at what was then the edge of the city and now lying between Bolshaya Sadovaya and Pushkinskaya streets. The oldest park in the city, it has shady paths, fountains, a bandstand and rides, and is busy with families on warm evenings.
Rostov Drama Theatre is the Gorky Academic Drama Theatre on Theatre Square in Rostov-on-Don, whose troupe dates from 1863. Its building, finished in 1935, was designed in the form of a stylized caterpillar tractor and is a famous late work of Soviet constructivism, protected as a monument.
Rostov State Musical Theatre stands on Bolshaya Sadovaya Street in Rostov-on-Don, in a white building shaped like a grand piano with its lid raised, begun in 1977 and opened in 1999. It stages opera, ballet, operetta and musicals on a main stage of about 1,000 seats and a smaller chamber stage.
Surb Khach Church is an Armenian church in a park on the northern edge of Rostov-on-Don, a surviving part of a monastery of the Holy Cross founded by Armenians of Nakhichevan. Designed by Ivan Starov, architect of the Tauride Palace in Saint Petersburg, it was consecrated in 1792.
Rostov Regional Museum of Local Lore stands on Bolshaya Sadovaya Street in Rostov-on-Don, founded in 1937 and one of the largest museums in the south of Russia. Its highlight is the hall of Treasures of the Don Kurgans, with some 2,000 gold and silver pieces of the 4th century BC to 8th century AD.
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