First day

The Rostov Embankment is the first must-visit place. It runs nearly 2 kilometers along the right bank of the Don River and can be conveniently divided into 2 parts near Voroshilovsky Bridge. One part has plenty of different cafes and restaurants, children’s playgrounds and other amusements. There are also moorings of river boats.  Boat trips along the Don River are available fr om April through November. The long navigation period and warm weather makes the tourist season in Rostov-on-Don longer. The second part of the embankment is quieter and looks more like a boulevard lush with vegetation. Many trees growing there are exotic for our country, but they grow well in our climate. Along the embankment, there are many benches, various monuments and patinate fishermen with fishing tackles.  So, walking there is fun. 

You can get to Voroshilovsky Bridge using a lift or a staircase and, going along the pedestrian way, you can get to the left bank of the Don River, or fr om Europe to Asia. It is thought that the southern border between the two parts of the world  is the Don River in its lower reaches. The city is completely on the steep right bank. So, the left bank is known for its beaches, backwaters, gulls. Now there is a new park in front of the football stadium Rostov Arena. Our Left Bank Area, locally called Levberdon, is more famous for its restaurants. They stand there side by side stretching nearly 10 kilometers long.

If you stay on the right bank in Rostov, you can go from the embankment to the central part of the city along Soborny Lane right up to the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Theotokos. The church was built in 1860 upon the project of Konstantin Ton and resembles the most famous project of this Academician of Architecture - the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow.  

The Central Market is the city’s genuine heart. A visit to it is included in some sightseeing tours. You can gain a full understanding of Rostov there. The market is located around the Russian Orthodox cathedral, but it has kept the vibes of a true Oriental bazaar. You are welcome to haggle over the price, you can get extra products as a bonus and you can taste absolutely everything! You can have quite a good brunch – young cheeses, kaymak (similar to clotted cream), syuzma (bland curd made of baked milk), cottage cheese, ryazhenka (fermented baked milk). Or at deli meat stalls, you can have not only various types of salo (cured slabs of fatback) or baked ham, but also farmers’ dry-cured sausages made of meat, poultry or wild fowl. Then you can taste   seasonal fruit and vegetables and have a snack of sunflower seeds. 

After you leave the market, you are in Sobornaya Square. In the center of it, there is a monument to Saint Dimitry of Rostov installed to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Rostov-on-Don. The monument portrays the patron saint of the city getting out of the church and giving his blessing to city residents. The square offers a view of Soborny Lane. It is a pedestrian street with ornately decorated buildings, numerous cafes with summer terraces, sometimes you can listen to live music there. Going up Soborny Lane, you get to the main street – Bolshaya Sadovaya Street. It is less than 4 kilometers long. The street is formally festive, expressly smart, looking like European capitals. The most beautiful buildings were built in the late 19th – early 20th centuries. The buildings belong to various architectural styles – Classicism, Neoclassicism, Art Nouveau, and there are many specimens of Eclecticism. 

If you go along Bolshaya Sadovaya Street up to its intersection with Voroshilovsky Avenue, you have to go down to the underground pedestrian underpass. Mosaic pictures on the walls of Rostov underpasses have long become legendary and are recognized as regional cultural heritage sites.

You can go up from the underpass right to Sovetov Square – the main administrative square of the Rostov region and the Southern Federal District. It has existed for less than 150 years, however, over that period, not only did its look drastically change three times, but also its purpose did. It used to be the city’s outskirts with most primitive constructions. By the early 20th century, it had got a status of the city’s main square. The New Market was busy there, the Office of the State Bank was its gem, and the Saint Alexander Nevsky Cathedral rose high in its center. In the 1950s, Soviet administrative buildings were constructed, and in 1972, a monument to the First Cavalry Army was installed in the center of the square, on the same spot wh ere there used to be the cathedral. Out of the constructions of the New Market square, only the building of the Office of the State Bank has survived to our days.

If you go up Voroshilovsky Avenue, you can reach Pushkinskaya Street. In 1959, a monument to A. S. Pushkin was installed there. The central part of the street is a boulevard with various green spaces, flower beds and benches for rest. Commercial buildings and mansions of the early 20th century are gems of Pushkinskaya Street. One of the most ornately decorated buildings currently houses the Rostov Regional Museum of Fine Arts, specifically, its Department of Russian Art. When you come inside, pay attention to the museum’s interiors. Original stucco work on the ceiling, remarkable with its beauty, has survived to this day.

From Pushkinskaya Street, you can enter Gorky Park. The oldest park of the city has an interesting layout. It is two-tiered and cross-shaped. The overpass of the park’s central alley offers a splendid view of flowerbeds of the lower alley. On Sunday mornings, a curious flee market is open in its part neighboring Pushkinskaya Street. And you can leave the park from the other side and get to Bolshaya Sadovaya Street. There is a bronze sign the Center of the City and the Tourist Information Center of the city near it, its employees are always happy to help the city’s visitors.

The first city plan of Rostov-on-Don made in the early 19th century had 11 longitudinal and seven cross-sectional streets with a place for a square in the center. The above route is around this part of the city. Rostov got its name from the fortress of Saint Dimitry of Rostov. You can see the place wh ere there used to be a large and threatful fortress in the 18th century, if you continue your walk around Rostov-on-Don.