Wingsch Real Estate Investments   

Theme Week Russia – Sochi on the Russian Riviera

Saturday, 6 April 2013 - 01:06 pm (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination: Russia / Russland
Category/Kategorie: General Reading Time:  3 minutes

🔊 Listen to this Post Sochi is a city in Krasnodar Krai, situated on the Black Sea coast near the border between Georgia and Russia. Greater Sochi sprawls for 145 kilometers (90 mi) along the shores of the Black Sea near the Caucasus Mountains. The city has a permanent population of 343,000; up from 329,000 recorded in the 2002, making it Russia’s largest resort city.

Sochi will host the XXII Olympic Winter Games and XI Paralympic Winter Games in 2014, as well as the Russian Formula 1 Grand Prix from 2014 until at least 2020. It is also one of the host cities for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Sochi was established as a fashionable resort area under Joseph Stalin, who had his favorite dacha built in the city; Stalin’s study, complete with a wax statue of the leader, is now open to the public. During Stalin’s reign the coast became dotted with imposing Neoclassical buildings, exemplified by the opulent Rodina and Ordzhonikidze sanatoriums. The centerpiece of this early period is Shchusev‘s Constructivist Institute of Rheumatology (1927–31). The area was continuously developed until the demise of the Soviet Union.

Following Russia’s loss of the traditionally popular resorts of the Crimean peninsula (transferred away from the Russian SFSR to the Ukrainian SSR in 1954 by Nikita Khrushchev), Sochi emerged as the unofficial summer capital of the country. During Vladimir Putin‘s term in office, the city witnessed a significant increase in investment, although many Russian holidaymakers still flock to the cheaper resorts of neighbouring Abkhazia (Georgia), Ukraine, or to the Mediterranean coast of Turkey.

Here you can find the complete Overview of all Theme Weeks.

Read more on City of Sochi, Resort City Sochi, Sochi2014.com/, Wikitravel Sochi and Wikipedia Sochi. Photos by Wikipedia Commons.