Places of Interest in Novocherkassk

Novocherkassk is one of the biggest towns in Southern Russia. It is renowned for its glorious history as well for its particular character: planning, architecture, unique monuments. Novocherkassk was founded in 1805 with the intention of becoming the new capital of the Don Host Region. For more than one century it had been the town of the Don elite: hosting atamans and army administration, officers and officials, cultural and educational centre. After 1917 Novocherkassk became a stronghold of the Cossacks’ fierce fight for independence, and ended in the mass emigration of the Cossacks. In Soviet times, Novocherkassk developed into an important industrial centre of Rostov region and a town of education and science. Its population grew three-fold up to 200 thousand people.

Spreading on the Azov Hills, the town managed to keep its face even today. With the beginning of perestroika, Novocherkassk gained the status of the historical centre of the Cossacks’ revival and later was declared the world Cossacks capital. The town attracts Russian as well as foreign tourists.

The first thing that catches your eye when you come to Novocherkassk are huge triumphal arches erected to commemorate Don Cossacks’ participation in the 1812 Patriotic War. Two identical arches were built in the entries to the town – one in the west, another in the north-east – on the design by St. Petersburg architect A. I. Ruska in 1817 while the town founder count Matvey Ivanovitch Platov, famous Don ataman, hero of the 1812 Patriotic war, was still alive.

Going uphill along Platov prospect from the west, we find ourselves on Azov square, that keeps in its name historical memory. Being guardians of the Russian southern border, Cossacks had been fighting for several centuries to defend Azov fortress. One of the heroic pages in the history of Don Cossacks – the famous Azov sitting – took place here in 1641 when a small Cossack garrison of the fortress held out against a Turkish army of many thousands.

Laying the foundation of the new capital of the Don Cossacks, M.I. Platov invited the famous military engineer F. P. De Volant to design a general planning scheme and managed to harmonize it with the natural landscape. The strictly classical planning of Novocherkassk is based on its three main prospects: Platov, Ermak and Baklanov, connected with large squares where streets start in a radial pattern. The common plan of the town development made it possible to avoid a chaotic character and to gain an expressive architectural ensemble.

Architectural originality of Novocherkassk consists of a combination of buildings in the classical style with typical Cossack “kurens” (traditional Cossack house).

In the middle of the square there is the Church of Archangel Michael built in 1870. Its architectural design is dominated by “Russian style” features: onion-shaped cupolas, hip-roofed belfry, barrel-shaped half-columns. A wooden church of the same name was transported from Starocherkassk and was placed not on that square but on the neighbouring Staromichailovsk square, behind the market (now Kirov square). From that place, after public prayer, the Cossack Host went to war with Napoleon.

Before the Russian Revolution, Novocherkassk had 14 churches, not counting house chapels.

Besides orthodox places of worship, there were Lutheran and Polish Catholic churches in Novocherkassk. Along with their religious function, they played the role of cultural centres as well. For instance, in 1914 actors from Moscow Bolshoi theatre performed with concerts in the Lutheran church, a well as the choir directed by A. M. Listopadov, the well-known Don folklore collector. Nowadays only 8 churches remain intact and still fulfil their initial missions.

As the most active development of the town took place in the middle of the 19th century at the time of the prevalence of eclecticism, buildings in that style are rather common. Their architectural features include an abundance of forms and freedom of decorative motives in the facade.

Here are two imposing buildings of the Sokolov winery standing side by side on 67, Platov prospect (winery and military hospital now) whose rich remarkable stucco moulding gives an impression of true palace architecture of a not in the least provincial sense.

Massive atlantes figures, supporting the cornice, stucco masks of “Sarmat tsarina” can be also seen in the design of the Military assembly building on Moskovskaya Street.

The administrative centre of Novocherkassk is situated at the crossing of Platov prospect and Moskovskaya Street. In 1853 the monument to ataman M. I. Platov, the founder of the town, was erected in the centre of the square. It was created by well-known Russian sculptors-academicians A.A. Ivanov, N. A. Tokarev and P.K. Klodt on demand of the Host government. In 1923 the monument was lost and reconstructed in 1993 by the Moscow sculptor A.V. Tarasenko. A rash wave of the mace of the brave ataman points to the West where he took his Cossack host to Paris. On the other side of the Platov public garden one can see a two-storey building in the classical style – the Ataman Palace (nowadays one of the buildings of the Museum of the History of the Don Cossacks). It was used as a mansion-house of the appointed Host ataman or a residence for emperors Alexander II, Alexander III and Nicholas II when they were visiting the town. Here, in the Ataman Palace, on January 29, 1918, the life of A.M. Kaledin, the first elected ataman in post-revolution history, tragically ended.

Moskovskaya Street was the central street in the town where commerce thrived and public wandered around. The building of the Officers’ Assembly (1890, nowadays A.S. Pushkin central library) was here, known for its remarkable interior. A vast two storey high ballroom with a stucco moulded ceiling decorated with ornamental friezes and volutes, military heraldry and warrior figures. There are badges of the Don Regiments, distinguished in battles, between the upper windows. The mezzanine floor for the orchestra is supported by atlantes figures on massive corbels. The bigger hall is connected with a smaller “blue” hall and the confectionary. There were separate recreation rooms, billiard room, chess room and dining room. They were fitted with fireplaces decorated with marble, stucco and decorative metalwork. It is especially worth mentioning the dining-room decor: Ornamental compositions of plafonds abound in the Don flora and fauna images – apples, grapes, quails, fish and crayfish. 

The central square of the town boasts other capital buildings necessarily present in any principal provincial town: Regional office building with spectacular ten-column portico (1844; nowadays Military Communications Institute), Court building (1909, architect: A.N. Beketov; nowadays Town Cultural centre and V. F. Komissarzhevskaya Cossacks theatre), Russian-Asian Bank building (1905; architect: S.N. Boldyrev; the former Pioneers’ House) and the Don Museum building (1899; Museum of the History of the Don Cossacks nowadays) that celebrated a 100th anniversary in 1999.  

It is a unique museum in the world where the rarest materials on the history of the Cossacks are collected, including regimental banners, horse-tails, granted and award cold steel, the Don Parsuna, a collection of the portraits of “august persons”, paintings and china. On the second floor is exhibited the collection of paintings by the prominent Russian landscape painter Nikolai Dubovskoy, who was born in Novocherkassk. The museum has two branches: the house-museum of Mitrofan Grekov, a famous painter of battle-pieces and a memorial house-museum of Ivan Krylov, the Don Steppe landscape painter – present the life and works by those outstanding artists.

Novocherkassk has strong links not only with well-known architects and painters but also with the Don historian Vasiliy Sukhorukov, writers Mikhail Sholokhov, Fyodor Kryukov, Alexander Serafimovitch, Petr Krasnov, Anatoliy Kalinin, philosopher Alexei Losev, composer Ivan Shishov, actress Vera Komissarzhevskaya, musicians Mikhail Erdenko and Konstatin Dumchev, scientists Mushketov, Kashinsky and Skriabin.

Host Cathedral of Ascension occupies the dominant position in the architectural ensemble of Novocherkassk. Construction works lasted 100 years (1805-1905). Its foundations were laid in the year of the town foundation on Ascension Day and collapsed twice during construction works due to bad foundations and hasty work. The third, realised project in neo-Byzantine style was designed by academician of architecture A. A. Yaschenko. The cathedral is the third in Russia in height (it is 74,6 m) after Christ the Saviour Cathedral in Moscow and St Isaac’s Cathedral in St Petersburg. Built on the crossing of Platov and Ermakov prospects, the cathedral can be seen from many kilometers around Novocherkassk. Initially its domes were covered with pure gold and its main cross, made in Bohemia, was decorated with rock crystal incrustations to reflect sunlight. That is why it was called “the second Don Sun”.

The Cathedral of Ascension is the main church of the Don Cossacks. In its basement there is a burial-vault to bury eminent military and clerical figures of the Don land, and on the choir – halls wall paintings depict the most significant episodes of the Don history. The cathedral belfry has a tower clock, the space in front of the cathedral is the main market square where the most important events and festivities take place.

On a vast Cathedral square paved with quarry stone a bronze monument of Ermak, the famous Don ataman, conqueror of Siberia, was established in 1904. In 1911 the historical complex of the Cathedral Square gained its final look when, in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the 1812 Patriotic War, M.I. Platov, V.V. Orlov-Denisov, I.E. Efremov, Ya.P. Baklanov and metropolitan Ioann were buried in Cathedral’s burial vault. On the opposite side of the square stands the monument to general Ya.P. Baklanov, hero of the Caucasian War, brought here from the cemetery of Voskresensk convent in St-Petersburg. On May 15, 1993, a solemn ceremony of reburial of the remains of the Don heroes took place in the Cathedral’s vault, and on June 4, 1995, on the Town Day, the monument to Ya.P. Baklanov was reopened after being recreated by the Moscow sculptor A.V. Tarasenko.

Numerous mansions add architectural value to Novocherkassk’s general look. They seem to compete one against another in abundance and variety of architectural decoration. Elevated culture of town development, brought by architects of 19th – beginning of the 20th century, can be seen in different style houses built taking into consideration the existing buildings and their height, combination of sizes and decoration. Mansion facades, done in different architectural styles, tracery of grilles, parapets, penthouses, carved doors – all those elements provide a unique character to the town.

“The town plan of Novocherkassk is rather nice and regular; it is divided into 76 blocks, consisting of three thousand places, all of them with large plots of land: first class lots are 20 sazhens long (about 42.60 m) and from 30 to 60 sazhens (64 m and 128 m) wide, second class lots are 15 sazhens long (about 32 m) and from 30 to 50 sazhens (64 m and 106.50 m) wide, the smallest lots are 10 sazhens long (about 21 m) and from 20 to 30 sazhens (42.6 m and 64 m) wide”, historian V.D. Sukhorukov wrote in 1820s. First class plots allotted for administrative buildings and for army aristocracy who intended to build mansions there “like in the capital”. Second class plots were assigned to less wealthy Cossacks, and all the others got what was left. They built small houses with a stone ground floor and wooden first floor. But there was a strict requirement for everybody building a house: facades facing the street should be built according to “supremely” agreed designs.

Vast plots of land enabled them to build the streets up not in continuous rows but to alternate houses with green plantations, which allowed transforming them in time into agreeable palaces-mansions with patios, balconies and orchards.

Not only atamans and generals possess imposing mansions, but also state officials, tradesmen, doctors, lawyers and public notaries. The external appearance of the house represented material wealth and the business reputation of the owner. Especially outstanding houses are those built by architects for their own use and formerly inhabited by them. They are the mansions of G.M. Salnikov (61, Atamanskaya St.), S.I. Boldyrev (18, Krasnoarmeyskaya St.), V.N. Kulikov (139, Prosveshcheniya St.) – the best way of advertising for those architects’ professional skills 

Cossacks were renowned not only for martial boldness and valour, but they also highly appreciated education and culture. Not every provincial capital could boast such diversity of educational establishments as Novocherkassk in the beginning of the 20th century: Platov military classical gymnasia, Mariinskaya girls’ gymnasia, Cossack military school, comprehensive college, theological and teacher seminary, diocesan girls’ college, religious school, Ataman Technological College, military vocational school, military medical secondary school, Jubilee School of Cossack tradesmen, Emperor Alexander III Don military school, Mariinsky Noble Ladies’ institute, Don Teacher’s Institute, Don Veterinary Institute, Don Agricultural Institute, Music School, parish schools, private educational institutions and boarding schools. 

The first higher education institution in Don land – Don Polytechnic Institute – was solemnly opened in Novocherkassk on October 5, 1907 in the building of the former Noble boarding school (Motor transport College nowadays). Later it was called Novocherkassk Polytechnic Institute (NPI). In 1993 it was renamed into NGTU, and in 1999 – into YuRGTU (NPI) which stands for South-Russian State Technical University. A place for a new large-scale architectural ensemble was found on the territory of the former Nikolaevsky Garden, not far from Mariinsky Noble Ladies’ Institute (today the main building of Melioration Engineering Academy) and Emperor Alexander III Don military school (today military unit).

The well-known Polish architect B.S. Roguisky, one of creators of Warsaw Polytechnic Institute complex (1898), was charged with designing the polytechnic institute building where he used all his experience of building educational institutions, gained in Western Europe.

Study buildings of the main, mining, chemistry and energy departments stand around a rectangular courtyard containing a number of sport facilities and an old garden.

Every building taken separately represents a functionally closed space with rationally planned lecture halls, laboratories, and study rooms, all having a finished architectural look. Altogether, the buildings share the same architectural design in neoclassical style. The architect extensively used massive Dorian and Ionic columns as explicit compositional decoration techniques which make the building look majestic and monumental. Decorative incrustations in the form of masks of Zeus and Mars, monumental reliefs, are of some interest as they symbolically show the purpose of the building. The main building of the institute has a special beauty with main stairs, colonnade and a unique four storey covered courtyard with skylight and walking galleries. It can seat up to several thousand people during various public events and celebrations. The construction started in 1912. The architect B.S. Roguisky managed to finish three study buildings – Chemistry, Mechanical and Mining. All other buildings were completed between 1924 and 1930.    

Novocherkassk has mainly succeeded in keeping its historical aspect. Words by the historian V.D. Sukhorukov come to mind unintentionally: “Straight wide streets and large squares are the proper beauty of Novocherkassk”. Novocherkassk is a town-monument. For the last two hundred years it has combined original history, traditionally high culture and scientific and technical potential. With revival of the Cossacks culture in 1990s, Novocherkassk gained back its status of the main Cossack town and became the capital of the Great Don Host as well as of all Cossacks in Russia and abroad.

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