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Vladikavkaz is the capital of North Ossetia-Alania in the North Caucasus of Russia, on the Terek River at the foot of the mountains, and it is famous for the Mukhtarov Mosque, the leafy Prospekt Mira, Ossetian pies and as the start of the Georgian Military Road. About 311,000 people live in the city.
Its name means ruler of the Caucasus. The city was founded in 1784 as a Russian fortress at the entrance to the Darial Gorge, guarding the route to Georgia, and in 1799 the Georgian Military Road was built across the mountains. A railway to Rostov-on-Don followed in 1875, and from 1931 to 1990 the city was mostly called Ordzhonikidze. In November 1942 German forces tried to take it but were driven back.
Today Vladikavkaz is a lively base for trips into the mountains. Visitors walk Prospekt Mira and the Kosta Khetagurov park, see the mosque against the peaks, eat Ossetian pies and drive out to the old crypts of the City of the Dead at Dargavs and to the Karmadon Gorge.
The Mukhtarov Mosque stands on the left bank of the Terek in Vladikavkaz and is one of the symbols of the city. Paid for mainly by the Azerbaijani oil magnate Murtuza Mukhtarov and opened on 14 October 1908, it is built of white limestone from near Baku in a style recalling the mosques of Cairo.
Prospekt Mira is the central avenue of Vladikavkaz and the historic and cultural heart of the city, running north from Freedom Square to Kirov Street. It was laid out in the first half of the 19th century as the Nesterov Boulevard, and its protected tree-lined boulevard looks towards Table Mountain.
The Ossetian Church, or Church of the Nativity of the Theotokos, is the oldest Orthodox church in Vladikavkaz, set on Ossetian Hill. A wooden church stood here by the 1810s or 1820s, and the present stone building in the classical style dates from 1861, with a bell tower at its western end.
The Church of St. Gregory the Illuminator is the Armenian church of Vladikavkaz, standing on the right bank of the Terek near the Cast-Iron Bridge. It is counted among the main sights of the city, and from its door Armenian Street climbs the terraces of the river bank into the old Armenian quarter.
Kosta Khetagurov Central Park in Vladikavkaz is the oldest park in the North Caucasus, on the right bank of the Terek beside Prospekt Mira. It grew from the commandant's garden of the 1830s and the Monplaisir park of the 1840s, and its lower part with ponds and shady alleys dates from the 1890s.
The National Museum of North Ossetia in Vladikavkaz was founded in 1893, when finds from the Koban burial ground with its famous bronzes formed its first collection. Its main building is the early 20th-century mansion of the merchant Khodyakov on Prospekt Mira, reopened in 2020 after long repairs.
The Kosta Khetagurov House Museum in Vladikavkaz is a brick house of 1864 where the poet Kosta Khetagurov, founder of Ossetian literature, rented a flat in 1901 and 1902 after returning from exile. Known as the Mikhailov estate, it is now a branch of the National Museum of North Ossetia.
Ossetian pies are round, flat pies 30 to 40 centimetres across, the best-known dish of Ossetian cuisine. Fillings include young Ossetian cheese, potato with cheese, beet greens or chopped beef or lamb, and at feasts three pies on the table are said to stand for God, the sun and the earth.
The Georgian Military Road begins in Vladikavkaz and runs 212 kilometres south over the Caucasus to Tbilisi. It climbs through the Darial Gorge, passes Mount Kazbek and crosses the Jvari Pass at 2,379 metres, and a guidebook of 1914 called it one of the most beautiful mountain roads in the world.
The City of the Dead is a necropolis of stone crypts from the 14th to 18th centuries near the village of Dargavs, 37 kilometres southwest of Vladikavkaz. With 95 buildings, many of them tower-like crypts with pitched roofs, it is the largest complex of its kind in the North Caucasus.
The Karmadon Gorge is the valley of the Genaldon River in the mountains of North Ossetia, a favourite place of rest for people from Vladikavkaz, with hot springs and mineral waters. On 20 September 2002 the Kolka glacier collapsed down it, killing more than 100 people, among them Sergei Bodrov Jr.
Stolovaya Mountain, or Table Mountain, is a flat-topped peak 3,003 metres high on the border of North Ossetia and Ingushetia, seen from Prospekt Mira in Vladikavkaz. It appears on the coat of arms of Vladikavkaz, and the Ingush long held it sacred, with ancient shrines on its top and slopes.
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