For readers who have already visited Krasnaya Polyana, this article is nothing new. But if you have just started to take an interest in Russian Courchevel, then, most likely, your head is spinning. Diving into all these names, with a running start you will not immediately figure out what's what. Krasnaya Polyana, Estosadok, Rosa Khutor, Gorki Gorod, Gazprom, Alpika-Service - what the hell is this? Are these resorts or villages? Are these districts of one village or independent settlements? Why is it written everywhere that they belong to the mountain cluster? And what the hell is this mountain cluster anyway? And what about the Olympic Village and the Mountain Carousel??
The content of the article
- one A bit of history
- 2 Krasnaya Polyana
- 3 Estosadok
- 4 Investigation results
- five Map of Krasnaya Polyana and Resorts
A bit of history
Krasnaya Polyana is a settlement that everyone considers the largest Russian ski resort. In fact, Krasnaya Polyana is an ordinary urban-type settlement, next to which there is a smaller village - Estosadok. And now all the ski resorts whose names you might have come across belong to Estosadok: Rosa Khutor, Gorki Gorod, Gazprom, Alpika-Service and Gornaya Karusel.
It's not that difficult if you know a little about the history of this location. The first to appear here was Krasnaya Polyana, or rather the aul of one mountain Abkhaz tribe, the first mention of which is found in 1835. In 1864, the end of the Caucasian War was celebrated here, and the village was named Romanovsky. In 1878 Greeks moved here and called the place Krasnaya Polyana. In 1950 Krasnaya Polyana received the status of an urban-type settlement - an urban-type settlement. Remember? Krasnaya Polyana is a village, and it is also the administrative center of the Krasnaya Polyana settlement district. What else is included in this settlement district? The villages of Estosadok, Medoveevka, Kepsha and Chvizhepse.
Estosadok was founded by 36 Estonian families in 1886, who came to Krasnaya Polyana, agreed with the Greek elders to live together in neighboring lands and moved to a terrace upstream of the Mzymta River. Before the Estonians, the Ubykhs and Sadzes used to live here, representatives of the ancient mountain peoples who were forcibly evicted to the Ottoman Empire. Estonians brought with them a culture of agriculture and apple seedlings, thanks to which the village turned into an orchard every spring, and it was the apple orchards that gave the occasion to solemnly name the village Esto Sadkom in 1912. Remember? The village of Estosadok is a settlement that is part of the Krasnopolyansky settlement district.
In total, on the territory of the Krasnopolyansky settlement district, we have: the urban-type settlement Krasnaya Polyana, the village of Estosadok and three more small villages that are not relevant. Okay, you say - but what is Rosa Khutor, Gorki Gorod, Gazprom, Alpika-Service? After all, it is there that the main ski and snowboarding party of the Russian Federation is located, it is there that people tend to get in in winter. Where is all this? You guys will be surprised now, but all this is Estosadok. Rosa, Gorki, Gazprom (aka Laura) and Alpika are the infrastructure facilities of Estosadka. Don't believe me - Yandex Maps will help you. Write «Estosadok» in the search and enjoy the outline of the village on the map, and for now I will paint these locations in a little more detail.
Krasnaya Polyana
Krasnaya Polyana is a large village on a terrace under Mount Achishkho. In the southeast, the village rests on the Mzymta river, behind which a railway is built, and further on - the Aibga ridge. Krasnaya Polyana looks like an uneven triangle, the base of which is the Zapovednikov Kavkaza Street, and the height is Zapovednaya Street. Krasnaya Polyana is not a resort area and not a hangout center, but an ordinary village with the infrastructure of an ordinary village, which there are thousands in the vastness of the Russian Federation. A church, a cemetery, a couple of large supermarkets, a conventional center, where the density of shops and cafes is especially increased, but otherwise it is just an array of residential buildings. Somewhere richer, somewhere poorer, and in some places multi-storey hotels were built.
Krasnaya Polyana does not have ski lifts to the mountains, but you can easily find here a number of offers for mountain tourism in winter and summer, as well as, along the road, there are ski rental points. By the way, the prices for equipment are much lower here than in the rentals near the ski lifts of the Gorki Gorod or Rosa, though it's a long way to lug around with it. Krasnaya Polyana is chosen as a quiet place to stay on vacation, especially in summer, because, in comparison with Adler and Sochi, there are adequate prices for hotels, houses and apartments. To the sea from Krasnaya Polyana about 38 km, it's about half an hour by car along a drop dead flat highway.
Chapel of Saint Zinaida
Krasnaya Polyana in Sochi
Charalampius Church of the Bishop of Magnesia
Estosadok
It's already more difficult to deal with Estosadok, but I will try to explain everything on my fingers. Estosadok itself is a very green, pretty residential area, which is located between Estonian Street and a steep mountain slope. Low-rise buildings (although, in some places, high-rise buildings have already begun to be erected), narrow streets, private houses with fences, liar dogs, Pyaterochka-Magnets and other attributes of an ordinary village, with a slight emphasis on involvement in the resort area. It's nice to walk here, there is even some semblance of sidewalks, it is very quiet, and the back street under the mountain is often not cleaned. In some places there are wastelands, fenced off for a construction site, and most likely, over time, there will be a continuation of the City Gorki.
New elements have been added to the infrastructure of the historic village of Estosadok over the years:
- Gorki Gorod - an all-season resort town and gambling zone
- Mountain Karusel - ski complex
- Russkiye Gorki - a complex for ski jumping from a springboard
- Gazprom is a mountain tourist center, popularly «Laura»
- Alpika-Service - ski complex
- Rosa Khutor - ski resort
The usual dead end in Estosadok
An ordinary street in Estosadok
Classics of the genre, Estosadok
There are such buildings in Estosadka
Mountain Carousel and Roller Coaster
The Gornaya Karusel ski complex was built in 2008 - long before the Olympic Games came here. The objects of the complex are located on four levels of the northern slope of the Aibga ridge from an altitude of 570 m above sea level to the Black Pyramid at an altitude of 2,375 m.At the very bottom, in Estosadok, the Gornaya Karusel is represented by Gorki Gorod, which was built on its territory, there is also a parking lot and the first lifts. Next, you will find a network of cable cars, food shops, rental points, and a rather large town at an altitude of 960 meters.
The complex of ski jumping from the ski jump Russkiye Gorki is located at the very beginning of the village of Estosadok (if you go from the side of Sochi) near the railway station of the same name «Esto-Sadok». Despite the fact that in fact this complex stands on its own, separate from the main cluster of Gornaya Karusel objects, Russkie Gorki is part of the Gornaya Karusel ski complex. There are two ski jumps and a track for double athletes, whatever that means. I myself did not get to this location, so I have no pictures from there.
Gorki City
Gorki The city is located on the opposite side of Estosadk Street. If you arrive in Estosadok along the Novy Krasnopolyanskoe highway, an interesting picture awaits you at the entrance. The main road leaves a little to the left, and further from it you can only turn to the left, into the residential area. And with your car you can get to the territory of the resort town only through the gates with turnstiles. The movement of pedestrians between the village and the resort town is not limited by anything, except for a small number of pedestrian crossings: only three. With local traffic and the width of the carriageway, I would say that this is very insufficient.
Built in 2010 on the territory of the Gornaya Karusel ski complex, Gorki Gorod has become something of a local Arbat. In fact, this is just one street, stretching parallel to the Mzymta River, around which beautiful multi-storey buildings, huge squares with alleys and fountains, casinos, several large hotels, including «Sochi Marriott Krasnaya Polyana». Lots of cafes and restaurants of different price levels, a local bazaar, a large shopping and entertainment center Gorky Gorod Mall and a lot of parking space, both above ground and underground. Here, as well as at the entrance to every ski resort, there is a large board with the designation of free parking spaces..
Separate gates to the entrance to Gorki Gorod
Pointers of objects and prices for parking in Gorki Gorod
Shopping and entertainment center Gorky Gorod Mall
Slides City from the window Swallows
Alpika-Service
Alpika-Service was the very first large-scale construction project since the times of the Soviet Union aimed at the development of a ski resort. They took a long time to build: they laid an antediluvian two-seat cable car from 1993 to 2001, and in 2005 they opened a modern four-seat cable car. Then, as it happens in the Russian Federation, a debate suddenly began between the private owners of Alpika and the state, represented by the governor of the Krasnodar Territory. From 2006 to 2007, the complex was opened and closed, and the war ended with the fact that in 2008 it was bought by Gazprom for a ridiculous $ 15 million.
Gazprom
Mountain Tourist Center OJSC «Gazprom» begins at the foot of the Psekhako ridge. From 2000 to 2013, lifts, parking lots, bus stops, a walking area, outdoor pools, a cinema and a huge Galaktika shopping and entertainment center with a water park inside appeared here. The ski lifts lead to the Laura Biathlon and Ski Complex (1,430 m) and the hotels of the former Olympic Village. It was built specifically for the Olympics, for the accommodation of athletes, in addition to the same Olympic village on the neighboring slope, but this is already a story about Rosa Khutor. That is why Gazprom is often called Laura - these are two objects at the same location.
Rosa Khutor
The Rosa Khutor ski complex is considered the largest ski resort in the Russian Federation. The objects of Rosa are located on the slopes of the Aibga ridge from the very bottom (570 m above sea level) to Rosa Peak at an altitude of 2,320 m and Kamenny Stolba at an altitude of 2,509 m. The complex began to operate in 2010. The lower part of Rosa Khutor is a puppet town with neat, beautiful buildings, which at the same time resembles both Amsterdam and the old center of Moscow. According to the developer, when creating the town, many nuances were taken into account and «green», an ecological approach to construction: they planted trees instead of the felled ones, resettled some rare lizards and butterflies, and even revived the population of some special cheetahs.
I don't know which of this is true, but as far as I understand, after the Olympics, all this infrastructure was not transferred to the jurisdiction of the Caucasian Nature Reserve (and the place of construction belongs precisely to its area of responsibility). Loot wins everything. But let's not talk about sad things - the town turned out to be extremely nice and atmospheric. Mzymta was chained in concrete and tiles, four bridges were thrown across the river, one of which leaves exactly near the Krasnaya Polyana railway station. The name of the station, I believe, also contributed to the general confusion with the names and disorientated many of the newcomers to the resort. The buildings along the waterfront house hotels, restaurants and boutiques. The walk on both sides of the river is short, but full of impressions and pictures.
The cultural and ethnographic center also belongs to Rosa Khutor. «My Russia», which was built just upstream of the Mzymta, right after the huge mourning massif Rosa Hall - a concert hall, which is extremely dumb. At an altitude of 960 meters, the Rosa Khutor ski complex has its own Olympic Village - a large hotel complex located in several tiers. Hotels, shops, entertainment facilities, rentals and lifts, as well as large parking areas. Yes, you can call in here by your own car, although the road has grown a lot in places, and you also need to take into account that the Alpine Highway is a specific serpentine.
Rosa Khutor Valley
Rosa Khutor in the evening
Rosa Khutor Town Hall
Car rental and storage in Rosa Khutor
View of the central part of Rosa Khutor
Rosa Khutor top view
Olympic Village Rosa Khutor
Olympic Village Rosa Khutor
Investigation results
The village of Krasnaya Polyana, which often appears on the Internet as the main settlement where you supposedly find a cool ski resort, has a very mediocre relationship to skiing. Apparently, this place name was used for simplification by journalists and travel agencies. Still, Krasnaya Polyana is the center, whatever one may say. Administrative, it is true, but - the center. And Estosadok is a huge territory of several ski resorts, which are administratively attached to an old Estonian village. All other toponyms are either the names of complexes or the names of objects in the complexes. And all together they make up the mountain cluster of Olympic venues (there is also a coastal cluster, it is located in Adler). If you have any comments on the conclusions or any questions, I am waiting for them in the comments..
Map of Krasnaya Polyana and Resorts
Summer and winter activities in Krasnaya Polyana
Summer and winter activities of Krasnaya Polyana:
Hotel complexes for skiers and snowboarders
