Map of the Imereti lowland with Olympic facilities. Photos, beaches, hotels, entertainment

Imereti resort this is a big landscaped area in the Adler district of Sochi. From the north it is bounded by the foothills of the Caucasus, from the south by the Black Sea. This gently sloping place was once covered with swamps and thickets of okeret. By the 2014 Olympics, the Imereti Lowland was turned into a European resort with a decent level of service: the swamps were drained, a modern embankment was built, and comfortable walking and cycling paths were laid. You can come here at any time of the year. Guests are welcomed by both giant hotels and private establishments with a cozy homely atmosphere.

Main attractions Imereti lowland:

• with objects of the Olympic infrastructure;
• Amusement park "Sochi-Park";
• Beautiful promenade and best beaches Sochi.

How to get to the Imereti resort

• You can get to the Imereti resort by railway on the train "Lastochka"- stop the Olympic Park, to go to the coast you have to go through the entire Olympic Park;
• Taxi or Carsharing. Yandex.Taxi and Carsharing services operate in Greater Sochi;
• Public transport. Trip from the center of Sochi public transport takes 45-50 minutes, from Adler 15-20 minutes:
  • Sochi - Olympic Park buses №124С, №125 ;
  • Adler - Olympic Park bus №124С, buses №57 and №125 (they go through the Rossiya state farm, the travel time is longer).

Resort infrastructure

Since in the past Imeretinka was not an object of residential development, much has been built here from scratch: buildings, shops, roads. The entire infrastructure of the Imereti resort is subordinated to tourism. It is spacious here, there is little transport, clean air, beautiful cottage settlements. The illuminated embankment stretches for 7.5 kilometers - almost to the border with Abkhazia on the Psou River.

Beaches

The coastal zone is different from most beaches in Sochi. There are no breakwaters here. Also, vacationers will not be disturbed by the noise of the train, because railways after Adler they turn into the mountains. Between the embankment and the line of the sea is a rather large strip; there is enough space for everyone. The sea is crystal clear, as in a protected area. The bottom is gently sloping - without steep descents. Many Sochi residents specially come here to swim!

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The beach is almost completely pebbly. In some places, the beach area is literally strewn with cobblestones. This was done on purpose - to strengthen the coastline. If you accidentally went to a pile of stones - it's okay. It is worth going a little to the right or left and find yourself on an ordinary pebble beach.

Olympic Park

The park area occupies a huge part of the Imeretinskaya Bay. Getting around all the sights on foot is tiring, so many people prefer to rent bicycles. The park is open from 8 am to 12 noon. If you come here in the late afternoon, you can see a bewitching show of singing colored fountains. The show runs daily:

• in winter 18:00 to 19:00,
• in autumn and spring from 19:00 to 20:00,
• in summer from 20:30 to 21:30.

The main symbols of the Olympics are concentrated in the park: the Fisht stadium, the Puck children's health center, the Iceberg winter sports palace, and the curling center. In 2017, the Museum Center was opened on the territory of the park. Here 3 different museums were gathered under one roof: Tesla, Leonardo and the USSR. You can also visit the car museum on the territory of the complex.

Amusement park "Sochi-Park"

AT Imeretinskaya bay a real Disneyland! 15 extreme and just fun attractions will not let thrill-seekers get bored. There are 5 interesting thematic zones on the territory of the entertainment complex. It regularly hosts events dedicated to various festive events. The main plus of the park: originality combined with European-scale entertainment. The main “minus” is the long queues for attractions during the season.

Directly near the entrance to the park is the hotel "Bogatyr" 4 *, decorated in the style medieval castles. It is convenient to stay here for those for whom a visit to Sochi-Park is the main goal of a trip to Black Sea coast. Each hotel guest receives one free ticket.

Where to stay in the Imereti lowland

Russians come to Imeretinskaya Bay, accustomed to expensive vacation or vacation on a modest budget. Here you can stay in the so-called private sector, rent a hotel room, or a turnkey house. But the Imereti resort is primarily famous for its large closed hotel complexes. The most famous are Sochi Park, Imeretinsky and Velvet Seasons.

Sochi Park Hotel 3*

A beautiful closed area, reasonable prices, there are all conditions for a comfortable stay with children. From "Sochi Park" it is easy to get to any point of the planned route both inside the Imeretinskaya Bay and outside it. Close to bus stop and railroad station. To the sea 10 minutes. Tickets to Sochi-Park are included in the accommodation.

Imeretinsky Hotel 4*

Safety, cleanliness, comfort; heated outdoor pool, spa, children's room. The food is varied and delicious. The special pride of the hotel is the restaurant "Biblioteka" overlooking the sea. Divided into several quarters:

Velvet Seasons Complex 3*

City-hotel includes two residential quarters: Russian House and Ekaterininsky Quarter. All categories of rooms are presented here: from standard to apartments. The complex is located in the Nizhneimeretinsky Bay on the territory of the Rossiya state farm, an agricultural enterprise that operated in Soviet times. The proximity of the sea coast and affordable prices have made this place very popular with holidaymakers.
Also divided into several quarters:

Since many people get to Sochi by plane or go through this resort to Abkhazia, probably every 3rd Russian had a chance to explore Adler. The Imereti lowland is the southeastern third of the vast Sochi region. Once upon a time, the ancestors of the Abkhazians and the ancient Greeks coexisted peacefully in it, who first accepted the power of Byzantium, and then the Ottoman Empire. They were replaced by Russian Old Believers and Armenians. Aboriginal settlements have disappeared from the map in connection with the construction of venues for the 2014 Olympics. As well as two successful state farms that left us only their names. The private sector and the agrarian plain have been replaced by stadiums, creative expositions, a Formula 1 track, entertainment complexes and sun loungers…

You can easily find here luxury apartments for rent, a cozy hotel (of any size and category) or an elite hotel in Sochi on the seashore. Entire guest cities have grown up around the Olympic and resort and entertainment sectors.

Geographic location, nature and climate

The location that will be discussed is a 7.5-kilometer plain, the interfluve of the mountain rivers Mzymta and Psou. In administrative terms, this is the most southeastern patch of the Sochi urban district, which includes several arrays of the Adler microdistrict (the nature of their infrastructure is described above). This also includes the Sovkhoz Rossiya microdistrict bordering Abkhazia. From the north, the lowland is already limited by hills overgrown with forests (the residential sectors of Blinovo, Zorka, Selsoviet and Veseloe lie on the foothills). The southern borders of the object are two Imeretinsky bays, separated by an "Olympic" cape.

The weather in the Imeretinskaya lowland is the same as in the entire space of the Caucasian humid subtropics (in this zone, in addition to Sochi, there are coastal parts of Abkhazia and Georgia). Talk about 5 degrees above zero in winter and 25 in summer. As well as the ideal ratio of solar and cloudy days and 2,000 millimeters of precipitation per year. Strong winds bypass this place. The water is suitable for swimming from May 16 to September.

The weather in the Imereti lowland also explains the composition of the flora and fauna. Imeretinka is covered with carian figs, winged lapina, pyramidal anakamptis, rare species of reed (in the Colchis swamps), eucalyptus, plane tree, as well as walnut, laurel and hornbeam (in the foothills). 26 species of birds (migratory meadow and marsh) and 17 animal names.

Sights of the Imereti lowland

Imeretinskaya lowland - park. Entertaining, sports, resort, culture and recreation, and even historical in places (there are museums, after all). And the undeveloped pieces of Imeretinka are special natural areas. So how nature Park The Imereti lowland is protected by the relevant articles of the law. 1300 hectares of tracts fall under their action. However, first things first.

Olympic Park

First of all, the Imeretinskaya lowland is known to compatriots as an ideally round cape between the Upper and Lower Imeretinskaya bays. It was made that way on purpose. Indeed, inside now there is a low-lying Olympic cluster, in which six stadiums and the Training Arena are inscribed in an ideal circle. In the center is the Olympic Square (torch and fountain), and on the territory leading to the local railway station, there is a Formula 1 track.

Sochi park

The Imeretinskaya lowland in Sochi is also considered the point of location of the unique complex of children's and extreme rides, as well as the Ferris wheel ("Wheel of Time"), from which the entire valley between the mountains, the sea and 2 reservoirs is viewed. Inside the fenced fairy-tale town: the Zmey Gorynych roller coaster, as well as the Firebird, which is amazing in its height. 15 harmless fun. They also managed to cram a landscape theme park, three bistros, a pond and even a dolphinarium here. Outside - a bright hotel-castle "Bogatyr" and a test for the very daring "Quantum Leap".

Natural ornithological park

In its center (already across the road from the Olympic circuit), the Imeretinskaya Lowland has a protected swampy meadow (Colchis swamps), where such rare birds as the whooper swan, the mute swan, one of the varieties of the Red Book bustard, as well as many other endangered (in including migratory) fauna. The territory is fenced, has warning stands and signs.

Park "Nekrasovskie Lakes"

To the south, if you pass the Sochi Park Hotel quarter, the Imeretinskaya lowland will show its other reserved tract. Two lakes were named after the village of the Old Believers (Nekrasovo). By the way, the elite sector of residential apartments, located to the south, has the same name. Reservoirs are surrounded by lawn, streets, benches.

Imereti yacht port

A yacht marina, a universal sea terminal and elegantly equipped beaches of the Imeretinskaya lowland make up its immediate coastal edge. The sea station is universal - both for cargo and for passenger transport. And the yacht marina is considered the largest in Russia. A nautical club has also been built here. Several leisure facilities for yachtsmen, surfers and other water extremes.

Parks "Southern Cultures" and "Imeretinsky"

It should be noted that the weather in the Imereti Lowland favors the preservation of unique relic plants and the planting of subtropical and tropical trees, shrubs, and flowering flora. Ancient landscape gardens include well-groomed thickets and plantings of firs, pines, cypresses, rhododendrons, hundreds of flowers. There is a pond with swans and fish. Finding "Southern cultures" and "Imeretinsky" is easy. You will find a double "paradise" between the residential areas of the Mzymta embankment and the Olympic Park. These are the bus stops "Park Southern Cultures" and "Imeretinsky Quarter".

Imereti resort

As mentioned, the bathing recreation areas on Imeretinka are well equipped. There are 10 of them. Almost each has towers of the Ministry of Emergencies (rescuers with equipment and a paramedic on duty), a rental office for sun loungers and sun umbrellas, and showers. But toilets, locker rooms and rubbish bins are located in all sections of the Imeretinskaya Riviera.

Mzymta beach

The beaches of the Imeretinskaya lowland, like this one, are distinguished by the fact that they are both sea and river at the same time. So, the westernmost bath lies along the mouth of the Mzymta, at the relay tower. The water is colder here. But what scenic views! Its length is only 100 m, however, the width of the strip is the most record-breaking - over 70 m.

Beach "Imeretinsky"

The next 150 meters belong to the Imereti Club. For 400 rubles. spend all day here! Capacity 90 people Sun loungers, umbrellas, cafes, sports and playgrounds, sanitary cabins and water activities. There are also animators.

Radisson Blu beach

Admission is free, but all services are paid. The size is 200 by 30 m. Considering all the beaches of the Imeretinskaya lowland, this one will be chosen by those vacationers who need not only a toilet, lifeguards and sun loungers, but also water attractions, decking and paddling pools.

Rosa Khutor Beach

Observing this piece of water area of ​​the bay, it should be noted: you can get to it directly from the main stadium of the Olympic zone - "Fishta", you just need to cross the roadway. After the specified "zest" we emphasize: at your disposal is what was on the previous beach. We also add that the space is long (400 m.), And the pebbles are small.

Olympiyskiy Beach - Gorki Gorod

as an Olympic and amusement park The Imeretinskaya lowland will give odds to such complexes Western Europe and USA. This is recognized by the foreigners themselves. The double beach area covers the rest of the coast of the round Olympic Cape. Vacationers get here from a stop named after the specified stadium.

Sirius Beach

Equipped indoor beach and entertainment complex. Designed for pupils of the educational center of the same name (his name is in the title, and the passage from the final bus is 125C and 135). It stretches for 175 meters - to the harbor of Sochi-Park.

Beach "Sochi-Park" (the beach of the hotel "Bogatyr")

Further, we are met not by attractions, but by the Sochi-Park beach, whose brand is far from the size. Resort advantages - very small pebbles (at the very edge of the water), a smooth entry into the sea, its own lifeguard tower and bathrooms. The entrance is free. If you wish, pay only for extreme fun - a banana, a jumping pillow, a jet ski.

South Star Beach

This is the coast, which is looked after by the workers of the eponymous hotel complex. Therefore, it is always clean here, and for customers it is still free. The length of such a pleasure is 450, the width is 35 meters. The bottom without holes, grows gradually. And the pebbles are comfortable here.

Velvet Seasons Beach

Named after an elite residential complex, which occupies a decent-sized block. For tenants of "velvet" apartments all inclusive. The size is the same.

The beaches of the Sovkhoz Rossiya microdistrict (former Psou)

Now it is 3 beach areas. And yet, the natives stubbornly continue to call this farm (some service here is common with " Velvet seasons”) - “Psou”. The main attraction of the intricately curving 2-kilometer coastline is the fence through which the neighboring state, Abkhazia, is viewed.

The Imereti lowland is a unique opportunity to relax without any uphill climbs, to enjoy an analogue of the humid, bright and fragrant Colchis lowland (Abkhazia and Georgia), which is no different in terms of characteristics, to recall the 2014 Olympics ...

When you look from a distance at the domes of stadiums enclosed by a triple ring of fences Olympic Park in Sochi, you quickly forget that this is a space for sports and a symbol of success new Russia. Broken eggshells come to mind. Now the omelet seems to have been eaten to the last crumb, and the correspondent of Radio Liberty, having visited Sochi, fully felt the aftertaste.

I came to Sochi double-decker train, this train, plying along the Moscow-Adler route, was specially allowed in for the Olympic Games. It is still possible to get south on it now, and for exactly the same money as from Moscow to St. Petersburg, despite twice the distance. Coming out of a comfortable car, in which I could use on the way, albeit slowly, but still working wireless internet I didn't believe that I was in Russia. On one side is the sea promenade behind a chain of palm trees. On the other is a huge, shiny station building in the shape of a wing. And in the distance behind it are snowy mountain peaks.

In a special machine, I bought a ticket for the train "Swallow" to the station "Olympic Village" for 17 rubles. A few minutes later, a silent Siemens car was taking me towards post-Olympic Sochi.

MIRNY VILLAGE - STATE FARM "RUSSIA"

I stopped in the village of Mirny, one of the suburbs of Adler on the territory of the Imereti lowland, surrounding the Olympic Park. Mirny is separated from the sea by brand new Olympic facilities, which means a dozen three-meter-high fences. Neat fences - from boards, metal mesh, barbed wire - that's the first thing that catches your eye. “The fenced land,” the locals joke. It's still early, around 9 a.m., and there's hardly any on the streets

Passers-by. Occasionally there are people who are more like visiting workers than local residents or tourists. A couple of times I see women with strollers. In the shade of pretty wooden fences, the same throughout the village, dogs rest - it is not clear whether they are domestic or homeless. All the buildings have been recently renovated, every third building was built just a year or two ago. The roofs of most houses are of the same brown-red color. On many gates there is a sign: “For sale”.

We meet with Viktor Kobylin, an enterprising local resident, a public representative of one of the quarters of the Mirny settlement. Viktor is a large, fair-haired man who looks more like a Siberian than a Sochi. Turns out he was born on Far East, studied in Omsk, and has been living here only for the last ten years.

I share with Kobylin the first quite favorable impressions.

- I agree, at least the roads were built excellent. Gas, probably, will eventually be given. They built a thermal power plant in Adler - the problems with electricity almost stopped. The village has become much cleaner, although it was greener before the construction began. It remains to remove the various black strokes. The administration should end up euphoric that they have not been dispersed, and they should deal with our problems.

A watering machine drives past, washing off the dust from the asphalt path. It was impossible to imagine such a thing in the village a few years ago, and there was nothing special to wash.

Kobylin is clearly an optimist, and an active optimist. Black strokes, as it turns out, abound, just some of them are hiding behind brand new fences, while others are literally buried in the ground. Even at the beginning of the Olympic construction, the village, which was preparing to receive hordes of guests of the Games, was promised sewerage and gas. Gas pipes are connected, they stick out of the ground at almost every house. But they don't have gas. “The gas workers were rushed, and as a result, the pipe was simply laid incorrectly,” explains Kobylin. - When they gave the test pressure, the pipe began to level out and float up from vibration. In some places, it is located at a depth of 20-30 centimeters from the road surface, and according to the standard it should be almost two meters deep. That's why they don't give us gas - they don't understand how it will work. Gas comes to our distribution station in the village, but does not go further, because it is simply dangerous.”

Now Kobylin expects that “smart people will figure out how to fix this,” and, hopefully, local residents will be able to heat their homes with more than wood, diesel fuel and electric heaters. By the way, it was forbidden to heat with firewood directly during the Olympic Games, so that the smoke coming from the pipes would not spoil the decent picture. But the lack of sewerage could only spoil the atmosphere: in Mirny even now there is a specific smell in places. Unlike gas pipes, sewer pipes were not laid at all.

- The initial project was prepared by an organization from Rostov, which is engaged in some kind of nanotechnology, - says Kobylin. “We wanted to make some kind of special vacuum sewerage, because we are on a lowland, below sea level. We thought for a long time, then realized that there was not enough money in the budget for this. As a result, a year ago, the project was finally closed. I don’t know what now, maybe there is a sewage system on paper, maybe it was reported somewhere that it was built. I don't even doubt that it is.

From Kobylin's point of view, the problem is not even that the promised sewage system does not exist. Much more angers him that the inhabitants of Mirny were fed with promises until the very last moment. People built big houses, hotels on 3-4 floors. It is simply impossible to serve such without a central sewer: the only reasonable alternative - a septic tank - requires careful control of the drain, which should not get detergents and toilet paper. How to achieve such accuracy from the tenants of the hotel? As a result, most owners drain dirty water directly into the drainage system; So,

Apparently, they do it in my hotel, judging by the ambergris that spreads from an open hatch right there on the corner for some reason. From the drainage runoff enters nearby lakes - wintering grounds for migratory birds - and from there to the Black Sea. In itself, such a system is not something unprecedented for Russian seaside resorts, but Kobylin explains that in the Imeretinskaya lowland, four meters below sea level, it is especially dangerous: “Drainage pipes become clogged and stop letting in groundwater. In three or four years, after a good downpour, the village of Mirny will simply sink. Of course, the management will say: they shit in the drainage, which means they themselves are to blame. And where else to shit? The alarm must be beaten now. And who will do this if everything is already over, everyone has reported and the picture from the helicopter is beautiful?”

To sound the alarm - this would be too little for the energetic Kobylin. Looking out of his own window at the street at the end of 2012, he noticed that the gas pipes had already been laid, nothing was being dug under the sewers, and at the same time they were going to lay asphalt. He realized that the Rostov vacuum nanocanalization was preparing to share the fate of many other innovative projects and remain at best a beautiful blueprint, and sent a request to the local administration. The answer came extremely cynical: there will be no sewerage for such and such reasons, but if you want, build it yourself.

To my grunting, Kobylin replies: “Why are you laughing? That's exactly what we did."

Having agreed with the owners of houses in his part of Mirny, Viktor, with the help of a former classmate at the Omsk Road Institute, made a project for a sewer network, and for several months, “opening the horn”, in his own words, the doors of offices, received numerous approvals. As a result, during the summer and part of the fall of 2013, residents laid their own private sewer network. Planned Olympic asphalt had already been laid on top of it, and now in the right, if you look from the sea, half of Mirny, the air is much fresher than in the left.

I look at the photographs, which detail the chronicle of the construction. This photo album by Kobylin, which stands on some of the pictures himself at the bottom of the ditch with a shovel in his hands, apparently, constantly carries in the car. There really is something to be proud of. I ask how fair it is that part of the village is now in a better position. “If we had been warned earlier that there would be no sewerage, we would have agreed with the entire village, we would have built a network for everyone ourselves. Now we are ready to sell our sewerage to the administration so that they can complete it further for everyone, at the price at which it cost us - this is definitely cheaper than if they had built it themselves. But so far, no one is having such conversations with us.”

The construction cost each of the cooperators approximately 185,000 rubles. Big money, but there are many here, apparently thanks to holiday season and a wonderful climate that allows them to harvest three crops of vegetables a year, they could afford it. “Here people have the opportunity to live a little better than in many other places in Russia,” says Kobylin. “And we have a little more time to think about how we live, and how we can make this life better.” For him, the Olympic Games mean an opportunity for change, which is worth seizing, not paying attention to incompetent government. and said at the meeting: if the Olympics had not happened, Mirny would never have become so beautiful. Outside, beautiful. Inside, this is a different matter. Inside, a lot needs to be changed. And we will change, and we will start doing it from below. It must happen in our heads change, and then we will put pressure on the leadership and get what we need from them.”

Sovkhoz Rossiya is another village in the Imereti Lowland, located behind the Olympic Park, right on the seashore near the border with Abkhazia. Unlike Mirny, “Russia” has its own section of the beach, and with it its own problems.

Here we meet with local ecologist and social activist Natalya Kalinovskaya. I tear Natalya away from the conversation with the man in overalls - this is a representative of the responsible economic service who came at the request of Kalinovskaya to inspect the clogged storm drains. Kalinovskaya makes him lean right towards the drainage holes, showing leaves, candy wrappers and empty plastic bottles crammed under the grate. She has a loud and energetic voice of a person who is confident in his rightness and used to defending his opinion. Clogged drains can lead to flooding - the most frightening and most likely disaster here in the lowlands. Having dealt with the water utility, Kalinovskaya jumps into the house for an impressive bundle of documents and takes me on a tour of the village. Almost everything that catches my eye is criticized: here are the gas pipes that I already know, in which there is no gas (Kalinovskaya claims that the Olympic flame also burned “from a cylinder”, although I tend to think that this is a local myth). Here are wooden poles put in place of the old reinforced concrete ones. Here

Drying cypresses, close to the trunks of which new asphalt is laid. Here are yellowing palm trees, stuck, as the ecologist explains, right into a two-meter layer of rubble and sand, which was used to fill the lowland for the construction of Olympic facilities. Judging by the story, for almost every tree, for every flowerbed and piece of sidewalk, Kalinovskaya, at the head of a group of local residents, fought not for life, but for death, and sometimes this struggle ended in victory. Here, as in Mirny, at first glance it is very clean and comfortable, I can only notice shortcomings after a hint. However, I guess that it was for the sake of this first positive impression that everything was done.

We go out to central square. Around the new, but non-working fountain, teenagers with toy guns run after each other. Elderly women sit on a bench.

- Do you like the fountain? - Kalinovskaya calls them, who seems to know all the local residents without exception.
- Yes, Natasha, we just wanted to talk about him with you. We come here every single day and it doesn't work. Well, just take a look!
- And this is a gift from the governor, a singing and dancing fountain, worth eight million rubles. To turn it on - there is a special booth - lads from Krasnodar must come, we don’t have such smart ones here. Press the button and it will work. This is if a holiday, or someone important will arrive. Very nice, by the way!
“Well, we don’t fall for these boys in any way,” the women get upset.

In general, there is a special relationship with Krasnodar residents: according to local ideas, not so much the distant Moscow authorities are to blame for all the troubles, but the middle link, most often at the level of administration Krasnodar Territory. A mythology has developed, according to which somewhere there, in Krasnodar, the full-flowing financial Olympic Amu Darya was dispersed to irrigate the pockets of officials and businessmen, never reaching the Imeretinskaya lowland.

Upon learning that I am a journalist, the grandmothers immediately report that someone has worked on the construction of stadiums and built “two two-story and one four-story” ones at the state farm. This “someone”, of course, from the strays, the locals were left with only debts - people took loans from banks in order to get a hotel license for 200-300 thousand rubles, and there were much fewer guests at the Olympics than expected.

- And the season was last years? I ask.
- It's been four years now.
- Will it be this year?
Did you turn on the TV at all? recent times? They send everyone to the Crimea, but here in Sochi everything is allegedly very expensive, everything is for the rich.

Vladimir Putin said exactly the same thing during a recent direct line: “After all, you yourself said that world-class hotels were built in Sochi. This means that there will be different categories of tourists in Crimea and Sochi. In Crimea, the infrastructure is designed for people with low incomes, they will not be able to afford luxury hotels in Sochi.” The president's words fit into a stereotype, because of which many Russians did not even seriously consider going to the home Olympics. At the same time, residents of Mirny and the Rossiya state farm convinced me that during the Olympic Games it was possible to stay here without any problems for a rather modest amount of 500 to 1,500 rubles per person per day. In the usual summer season, you can spend the night for 250.

After briefly discussing the problem of gas (grandmothers heard on TV that they would give it in the summer, but Kalinovskaya refuses to believe in it), we say goodbye and go to the embankment.

In my opinion, the word “embankment” is more in line with the city bank of the Neva or the Moskva River. I can imagine the seaside promenade in Odessa or in Nice. In the seaside state farm "Russia" you expect to see the beach. However, the beach is no longer here.

A narrow strip - five meters wide - of pebbles and stones separates the sea from a gentle concrete slope. Above is a pedestrian road with benches and lanterns, a red bike path is marked along it. There is not a single tree on all this hot stone structure even in April 22 degrees.

“And here we had a hundred-meter beach,” Kalinovskaya ironically points to the concrete hill.
- Why was this built? For beauty?
- This beauty is washed away by the sea every time. When there is a storm, everything here is covered with stones, these benches hang on those trees, and then the Ministry of Emergency Situations pumps out water in the village.
Where are people going to rest now?
- Walk along the waterfront
- And where to put umbrellas, sunbeds?
- And that's all. Walk or lie on concrete at 37 degrees in the shade.

Clean pebble beach was a competitive advantage of "Russia", which distinguished the village from most resorts on the coast. If in Sochi almost the entire coastline is divided between hotels and sanatoriums, then the Imereti coast, from the mouth of the Mzymta to the border river Psou, was famous for its public wide beach, for which many tourists stopped here, thirty kilometers from the temptations big city. The embankment on a concrete bulge, however, was erected not only for decorative purposes: the cargo port built at the mouth of the Mzymta, which served the construction of the Olympic Park facilities, stopped

Alluvium on coastline river pebbles. Without this natural process, the entire Imeretinskaya lowland, and with it the stadiums, risked being washed into the sea. The multi-kilometer embankment should serve as protection from storm waves, but it does not cope with this function, according to Kalinovskaya. Alternative projects using world experience in the construction of such structures, the ecologist is sure, could save the beach and provide reliable protection to the lowlands. “We are not against beauty, we are normal adequate people. We're just saying that it could have been done differently. Leave the beach to its width and then make a two-tier terracing. It would be cheaper, and no one would be washed away - neither people nor the embankment. You see, a natural monument of world importance, protected by UNESCO - here it is, filled with concrete. But no one listens to us, we are locals, we are fools.”

“We know how to paint lips,” Natalya sums up. - I immediately said - they will catch up with bears and gypsies, they will play the balalaika, they will treat them with caviar and pour vodka. And so it happened. They say it right on TV, go, people, to the Crimea, before they mess up there. They are happy there now, and then, like us, they will live at a construction site for three or four years.

The sun is rapidly sinking into the sea, the cries of young people resting on a narrow rocky strip near the shore are getting louder, the sound of broken glass is heard. Kalinovskaya decisively takes out her phone and dials the number of the district police officer:

– Dear, have you been to the beach for a long time? Stop by, otherwise our beautiful youth has gone naughty.

I ask if she's too strict: Friday night, south, sea, and it seems that no one is fighting yet.

- They don’t fight yet, and they don’t drown anyone yet. And let them at least clean up after themselves, cherish at least the good that is still left.

Kalinovskaya walks home with a firm gait, greeting everyone she meets and discussing in whose pockets the settlement gas could settle. I decide to walk straight along the embankment to the Olympic Park in order to finally see the stadiums familiar from sports broadcasts not through the fence. It is quite crowded around: rare off-season tourists, local fishermen rushing to the pier by bicycles for the evening bite, athletes (apparently passing some kind of training camp here) on evening jogging. I pass the pier, gradually there are fewer and fewer passers-by, on the right, the familiar three-meter fence grows disgustingly. Soon after him there are Olympic facilities. I hope that somewhere in this fence there will be a gate or a gate leading to the coveted Olympic Park, I walk a kilometer, another one and run into a dead end: right in front of me, the same fence crosses the embankment and goes into the sea. On the left, the waves of the Black Sea beat against the stones, on the right, behind a high fence, the famous Olympic fountain dances to Tchaikovsky's waltz. I turn around and wander back along the alley of half-dried palm trees stuck into the dusty gravel, until the pier, illuminated by fishing lanterns, like a Christmas tree with a Christmas garland, is again shown in the distance.

They cut the forest - the chips fly. This Russian proverb becomes relevant every time important government construction projects come into contact with the daily life of the country's inhabitants. The global construction projects of the 20th century destroyed many unique topographic objects. Many cities, villages, villages, monasteries, temples, ancient necropolises perished in obscurity.

So, during the creation of the Ivankovsky reservoir, more than 100 settlements, including old City Korcheva. Under the pretext of flooding, many churches were blown up, including a unique Old Believer church in the village of Kuznetsovo (now Konakovo), which you can read more about on our site.

Today, serious changes in the historical landscape have occurred in Imereti lowland located near the city of Sochi, in the area of ​​construction of sports facilities for the 2014 Winter Olympics.

The history of the Imereti lowland is connected with the Old Believers, in particular, the Nekrasovites. They appeared in Russia at the beginning of the 18th century, were persecuted for two centuries and were forced to leave for the possessions of Turkey. After the revolution of 1905-1907. they returned to their homeland. The first place of their settlement was the Sochi district of the Black Sea province - the least developed among other districts. As local historians point out, inviting Nekrasovites, the authorities pursued a specific goal - to oust the Turks from the fishing industry and, most importantly, to stop smuggling from Turkey, disguised as cabotage (coastal shipping). And the Nekrasovites were not only good farmers and hunters, but also excellent fishermen and coasters.

The Old Believers settled in Matrosskaya Shchel (near Golovinka), in Imeretinskaya Bay and Babuk-Aul. Most of the Sochi Old Believers by the mid-20s. 20th century left for the uninhabited Don lands. The reasons were the lack of land suitable for farming, the infertility of the soil, the difficult living conditions in the upland zone, and the increased tax pressure. By the end of 1926, the Old Believers remained only in the Imeretinskaya Bay.

The uniqueness of the Imereti lowland was recognized by the tsarist government, in 1911, assigning it the status of a specially protected natural zone. Here are the only areas of Colchis wetlands in Russia with unique flora and fauna. Many rare species of plants, birds and animals live in Imeretinka.

For the Winter Games 2014, the Olympic Park was built in the Imereti Lowland (the central stadium and five ice palaces, as well as a media center). The construction of the Olympic Park in 2008 caused serious conflicts with the local population - Old Believers and Cossacks - who lived in the area, which even led to violent clashes and arrests.

Fortunately, both sides found the patience and endurance to avoid the tragic development of events. Residents of the area received compensation to build their own housing in a new location. In 2010, three sites for new construction were allocated in the Adler district, the rest will be built up in the Khostinsky and Central districts.

It is interesting that a part of the Old Believer cemetery remained from the ancient village, which was preserved by the builders. However, this cemetery is practically invisible from the ground. A passer-by who does not know about its existence can walk a few meters from the ancient necropolis and not notice it. Access to the cemetery is open, and former residents of the Imereti Valley can visit it.

Chairman of the Old Believer community Dmitry Drofichov now says: “As a result, the village of the Old Believers Morlinsky was moved a kilometer higher from the sea. But it was not possible to raze the cemetery to the ground: the people blocked the way for bulldozers with their breasts.”

Today we publish unique pictures of the Old Believer necropolis of the Imereti Valley, taken by blogger Alexei Nadezhdin and photographer