Pyatigorsk: local history museum and other attractions

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:40

The resort city of Pyatigorsk is part of the Caucasian Mineralnye Vody agglomeration. This is one of the most popular holiday destinations in southern Russia. There is no sea, only mountains. Pyatigorsk can be reached by various types of public transport - bus, plane and train. In the latter case, it is best to get off at the station in the city of Mineralnye Vody, where the trains have a long stop, and get to Pyatigorsk by local train or bus. What to see in Pyatigorsk? Below is a small overview of interesting objects.

The main museums of Pyatigorsk and their features

Museums in Pyatigorsk are enough for a city with a population of 150 thousand people.

If you look at the map of the city, you can see that they are all located between the railway station and Gagarin Boulevard.

From the station to the east of the city, that is, to the grotto of Lermontov and Mount Mashuk, Kirov Street leads. In front of the Andzhievsky square, you need to turn off from it onto Malygina Street, and then onto the street. Dunayevsky. The building of the Pyatigorsk electrical networks is located on it. Inside it is a museum "First Stepselectric power industry". Its exposition was created in 1983 and tells about the development of energy in the city, from the first devices at hydroelectric power stations and electric meters of the early 20th century.

Further along Kirov Avenue there are monuments to two great poets - Pushkin and Lermontov. They serve as a convenient reference point for finding two more museums - local history and police. The first is open on all days except Monday, from 9:00 to 18:00. The second one has an atypical work schedule for museums, it is closed on weekends, but is open on weekdays from 9:00 to 18:00. The Police Museum is one of the youngest in Pyatigorsk, it was opened in 2001, on a professional holiday.

In the house 18 on Kirov Avenue there is a museum of insects. It has been operating since 1995 and is open daily from 10 am to 7 pm. Tickets cost from 150 to 250 rubles. The collection of insects has over 1000 specimens. They can be both local and brought, for example, from Southeast Asia. It also features snakes and amphibians.

Lermontov Museum-Reserve

Pyatigorsk is one of those cities in Russia that are associated with the name of Lermontov, so tourists should definitely visit the museum-reserve of the poet. It was founded a long time ago, in 1912, and is located on Lermontov Street, 4. It was in this house that the poet spent the last two months of his life. The interiors reflect the life of 1837. The museum is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, but is open on weekends. The ticket costs 250 rubles. The word "reserve" in the official name did not appear by chance. This is a wholemuseum complex, it consists of, in fact, Lermontov's house and 7 more objects. Each of them is one of the departments of the museum. For example, the literary department was located in the former house of Verzilin, where Lermontov was challenged to a duel. The department "Lermontov in Fine Arts" is located in the former house of Umanov. The museum of the composer Alyabyev, rare for Russia, is also one of the departments of the museum-reserve.

The oldest museum in the city - local lore

The local history museum of Pyatigorsk is interesting because it was founded 115 years ago, a rare example of a pre-revolutionary museum in southern Russia. It is located in the resort part of the city, in a historic building that was a hotel and the first sanatorium at the beginning of the 20th century. The address of the local history museum of Pyatigorsk: the intersection of Kirov and Brothers Bernardazzi streets, 2. A visit to it costs 100 rubles, which is very cheap for museums. The exposition occupies 4 floors. How to get to the local history museum of Pyatigorsk? From the station you can walk a couple of kilometers, and also take bus number 1 or trams number 1, 3-6, 8. You need to get off at the stop "Tsvetnik".

The museum's funds contain more than 130 thousand units of storage. They relate to the following topics:

• Archaeology.
• Numismatics.
• Mineralogy.
• Paleontology.
• Zoology.
• Botany.
• Melee weapons.
• Stone monuments from the region's first museum of antiquities (1850).
• Rare books.
• Ceramics.
• HistoryXIX-XX centuries. Especially the Caucasian war, the development of the resort business in pre-revolutionary Russia, the civil war and the Second World War.

Besides this, the local history museum of Pyatigorsk has a scientific library with magazines and books on Caucasian studies.

A peculiar branch of this museum is the exposition "Pyatigorsk Antiquities". It officially opened in March 2016.

What else to see in Pyatigorsk?

The local history museum of Pyatigorsk is a good reference point for walking around the city. To the south of it is the Podkumok River, and there is nothing particularly interesting behind it. But near the museum there are various architectural monuments and sights:

• Diana's Grotto.
• Chinese gazebo.
• Operetta Theatre.
• Cinema "Rodina".

Not far from the museum is the famous Mount Mashuk, a cable car leads to it.

On its territory, the mountain contains several attractions: Lenin's profile, the famous "Failure" with a monument to O. Bender, an observation deck, an arbor "Aeolian Harp".

In addition to the above museums, there are several minor ones:

• People's Museum of Military Glory.
• Museum of the History of the Linguistic University.
• TV Museum.
• Museum "Sevkavgiprovodhoz".
• Museum of tourism and mountaineering.
• Museum of the Scientific Research Institute of Balneology.
• Spa exhibition at the Mikhailovskaya Gallery.