Gallery Bounty of the Don Region

The mosaic pictures in the underpass on the corner of Moskovskaya Street and Budennovsky Avenue are the largest and focus on the nature’s offerings of the Don region, its history and its natives. This underpass has six galleries, and its design was intended to be perceived as an integral whole made up by several compositions.

We are in the central gallery, Bounty of the Don Region. This gallery leads to the Central Market, or Old Bazaar, as locals call it. Thanks largely to the Old Bazaar, Rostov, a city of merchants, emerged and developed for many years. From of old, the lands along the Quiet Don have boasted high yields of wheat, sunflower seeds, vegetables and fruits. In the gallery Bounty of the Don Region, you can see everything the Don land abounds with: tomatoes, cucumbers, corn, culinary plants, watermelons, onions, cabbages, sugar beets, eggplants, apples, pears, plums, sweet cherries, cherries, grapes. The history of local wine growing is over 2,000 years old. The Rostov region is the northernmost area of Russia’s grape industry. Local grape varieties and wines feature refined wine flavor and a special smooth taste. Tsimlyanskoye sparkling wine has been widely known, the world-renowned poet Alexander Pushkin was its great admirer. Walking along the gallery, you can see a lovely rooster, hens, ducks, geese, a strutting turkey cock, sheep and various fishes. Fishing has always been an important part of life of Don Cossacks. In the 18th-19th century, many Cossack settlements along the lower Don River were engaged exclusively in fishing. Cossacks protected and took great care of fishing areas, like they did for their own homes. 68 species of fish live in local water bodies. The most important commercial fishes are pike perch, common bream, common carp, sheatfish, roach, Don herring, sturgeon, great beluga, starry sturgeon, perch, pike. The mosaic also features a Don crayfish. Rostovites, as well as all residents of the Don region, usually say that he who ate no crayfish has never been to Rostov. Crayfish is a traditional Russian delicacy. And as known, Don crayfish is the daintiest delicacy. There is a good reason why jellied Don crayfish was on the menu for a function to celebrate accession to the throne of Alexander III.