The pioneers of development of the Black Sea Coast of the Caucasus were people of different estates. Fantastic opportunities given by the subtropics inflamed their imagination. They invited fashionable architects to build cottages and German agriculturists to lay out parks, and sent long-distance expeditions for planting material.
Hereditary Honorary Citizen of Moscow Vasily Khludov was the first romantic enthusiasts. In 1872 he bought a huge plot (in the district of New Sochi) where he began to cultivate orchards and vineyards, and in 1883 he bought the estate Razdolnoye from a well-known Moscow editor N.Mamontov where he built a cottage later and laid out a park in 1898. Conifers had been chosen for planting which were expected to improve air (malaria was spread all around Sochi at that time). In 1900 the vineyard withered despite fine agrotechnics.European species failed to acclimatize. Disappointed Khludov decided to sell his land and leave Sochi. In 1902 Khludov's park was bought by the municipal funds and it has become a public park since then.
Vladimir Mayakovsky who was having a rest in «Kavkazskaya Riviera» in July of 1929, used to walk in the alleys of the park and admire glow-worms together with Veronica Polonskaya.
| Previous page | Next page |