History of Pyatigorsk

The city’s name appeared long before the city itself. In the notes of the Arab traveller Ibn Battuta, dating back to 1334, there is a mention of a locality called Bish-dag — “five mountains” in Turkic dialects. That was the name given to the five-peaked laccolith mountain of Beshtau, the dominant feature of the surrounding steppes, visible for dozens of kilometres. More than four centuries later, this name formed the basis of the Russian toponym “Pyatigorsk.”

A fortress on the empire’s southern frontier

Russia began to develop these lands in the second half of the 18th century. After the annexation of the Caucasus, the empire’s commercial and military interests required a chain of fortifications along the rivers. Thus, in 1777, the Azov–Mozdok defensive line was established, stretching from Azov to Mozdok and closing off the southern borders of the steppe. On this line, near Mount Mashuk, an earthen fortification arose in 1780, named in honour of Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich — the Konstantinogorsk fortress. It is from this fortress that the history of Pyatigorsk begins.

The garrison carried out routine service: patrolling the surrounding area, guarding the postal roads, standing watch. However, next to the fortification, on the slopes of Mashuk, hot sulphur springs bubbled up — springs known to the local inhabitants since ancient times. Soldiers and officers made use of them on occasion: they lined pits with stones and immersed themselves in the scalding water. Rumours about the healing properties of the springs spread through the garrisons, and later through neighbouring provinces.

The rescript of Alexander I: the birth of the resort

In April 1803, Emperor Alexander I signed a rescript that officially recognized the state importance of the Caucasian Mineral Waters. This document launched the development of the region for the treatment of the sick. 24 April 1803 is considered the birthday of the Caucasian Mineral Waters as a resort centre of Russia. Konstantinogorsk found itself at the epicentre of events at that time: it was here, at the foot of Mount Mashuk, that the healing springs were concentrated.

In its first years the resort developed spontaneously. Doctors received patients in tents, baths were dug straight into the ground, and water was delivered in wooden kegs. There were no proper hotels — families arriving to take the waters rented huts from the Cossacks of the neighbouring stanitsa of Goryachevodskaya or stayed in the fortress itself with the commandant’s permission. Gradually, the nobility of Saint Petersburg and Moscow began to make their way to the springs, and here a distinctive “water society” began to form — a circle of people for whom summer holidays at the southern waters became a fine tradition.

The city according to the Bernardazzi plan

By the 1820s it had become clear that a full-fledged resort town was needed. In Saint Petersburg, the project was commissioned from invited Swiss architects — the brothers Johann and Giuseppe Bernardazzi. By 1828 Giuseppe Bernardazzi had presented a development plan: broad streets radiating from the foot of Mashuk, a square by the springs, and stone galleries above the baths. That same year, at the foot of the mountain, the “Tsvetnik” (Flower Garden) park was laid out — the main public venue and the axis of the future pedestrian area. On a cliff of the Mikhailovsky spur, Giuseppe Bernardazzi built a pavilion with eight Doric columns in 1831 — the Aeolian Harp. It still serves as a calling card of the resort today.

On 18 February 1830 the Committee of Ministers approved the city’s plan and its new name — Pyatigorsk, derived from the Turkic name Beshtau. On 14 May of that same year, the Governing Senate issued an order for the implementation of the project. Thus, out of a fortress settlement by the hot springs, a settlement with the status of a district town emerged. By that moment, several stone bathhouses and healing galleries were operating, and the first boulevard was being developed. In 1842 Pyatigorsk received its own coat of arms — an official emblem of the city within the system of the Russian Empire.

Lermontov and Pyatigorsk

Pyatigorsk’s literary fame was born together with the city itself. Mikhail Lermontov first found himself here as a child: in the 1820s his grandmother, Yelizaveta Alekseyevna Arsenyeva, brought her sickly grandson here for treatment. The Caucasian landscapes captivated the poet forever. Having become an officer, he returned to these lands, where resort life intertwined with frontline service and creative work. Pyatigorsk literally “migrated” onto the pages of A Hero of Our Time: the avenues, the healing springs, the “water society,” and the Grotto in the cliff of Mashuk became the settings of his novel.

On 15 (27) July 1841, at the foot of Mashuk, the poet’s life came to an end: his duel with Nikolai Martynov ended tragically. The exact site of the duel was only established decades later — in 1878, thanks to the testimony of old-timers, it was located by the photographers Engel and Rayev. A memorial obelisk was erected here in 1915. Even earlier, however, in 1889, a monument by Alexander Opekushin was unveiled in Pyatigorsk itself — the first monument to Lermontov in the Russian Empire. Since then the poet’s name has become an inseparable part of the city’s identity, alongside its healing waters.

The railway, the tram, a new century

The resort continued to settle in and expand its infrastructure throughout the second half of the 19th century. In the Tsvetnik park, the first Lermontov Gallery was built — still in wood. In 1901 it was replaced by the glass-and-metal building that has survived to our day, used for concerts and gatherings.

The railway reached Pyatigorsk as a branch line from Mineralnye Vody in 1894. From that moment on, a trip to the waters ceased to be a weeks-long expedition: from Moscow it became possible to arrive in two or three days. The flow of guests grew rapidly, the hotel stock expanded, and new sanatoriums were built in the environs of Mashuk and in the Goryachevodskaya valley.

In 1903 a tram was launched in Pyatigorsk — a narrow-gauge one, with a track gauge of 1067 mm. It linked the railway station with the resort zone and turned out to be almost the only example of this type in the country. The line is still in operation today. For locals and visitors alike, the tram has long since become an attraction in its own right.

Revolution, the Terek Republic, the Soviet resort

The 20th century began turbulently for Pyatigorsk. After the October Revolution, the resort found itself at the epicentre of Caucasian political events. On 1 March 1918, at the Second Congress of the Peoples of the Terek, the Terek Soviet Republic was proclaimed, and Pyatigorsk temporarily became its capital. This was accompanied by a leapfrog of authorities: in the summer of 1918 Denikin’s detachments came to the city, then the Reds again, then once more the Whites. By 1920 the situation had stabilized — Soviet rule was firmly established.

The resort function did not disappear in the process. As early as the 1920s, the sanatoriums confiscated from their former owners were converted into state health resorts for workers and employees. The mineral springs received the status of a national asset, and Pyatigorsk took its place as one of the key sanatorium centres of the Soviet Union — alongside neighbouring Kislovodsk and Yessentuki. By the end of the 1930s, dozens of medical institutions were operating in the city, receiving hundreds of thousands of visitors a year.

War, occupation, liberation

The Great Patriotic War found Pyatigorsk in the role of a rear-area hospital city. The sanatoriums were repurposed as evacuation hospitals. In the summer of 1942 the Wehrmacht broke through into the North Caucasus, and on 9 August 1942 Pyatigorsk was occupied. For five months an occupation administration operated in the city; several thousand residents perished, predominantly the Jewish population, who were shot at the foot of Mashuk and in its vicinity. The infrastructure suffered heavily: hotels, medical buildings, and the railway facilities were damaged.

On 11 January 1943 Pyatigorsk was liberated by troops of the North Caucasus Front during the general offensive in the Caucasus. Reconstruction proceeded rapidly: already by the late 1940s the key sanatoriums were functioning, the station had been repaired, and the cableway up Mashuk was operating in its first version. The current one, still in service, went up in 1971 and became a visual symbol of the modern resort.

Postwar growth and modern times

In the postwar decades Pyatigorsk developed swiftly as an industrial-and-resort centre. To the traditional sanatorium sector were added new capacities: glass and winemaking factories, as well as a number of machine-building enterprises. The city’s population doubled over the Soviet period — from 65,000 in 1939 to 130,000 by the end of the 1980s. During this time the familiar image of Pyatigorsk took shape: the resort zone at the foot of Mashuk, dense historic development in the centre, and residential districts on the right bank of the Podkumok. The city grew outwards with new neighbourhoods, and the tram network expanded to eight routes with a total length of 48 kilometres.

After the collapse of the USSR, the resort went through a difficult period. State funding of the sanatoriums shrank, the flow of holidaymakers dropped, and many health resorts passed into private hands or closed. Recovery only began by the early 2000s, but already on different principles: sanatorium leisure turned from an accessible social benefit into a commercial service.

A new impetus for the city’s development came with the decision of 19 January 2010, when Pyatigorsk became the capital of the North Caucasian Federal District. This status strengthened the city’s position and drew federal-district agencies here. Today Pyatigorsk is the main centre of the Caucasian Mineral Waters and the second-largest city of the Stavropol region, with a population of about 143,000. Two centuries after the rescript of Alexander I, the city still draws visitors: they come “to the waters,” to follow in Lermontov’s footsteps, and for the legendary views from Mount Mashuk.