Riviera Park in Sochi

Riviera Park is a popular recreation area located in the central part of Sochi. The park territory occupies 14.7 hectares and is spread out on the right bank of the Sochi River, not far from the place where it flows into the Black Sea. In the resort, you can often hear: “Going to Sochi and not visiting the Riviera is like not going to Sochi!”. The picturesque Riviera Park is considered the best place for walks, family vacations, sports and entertainment. Especially since you can get here completely free of charge.

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Video: Riviera Park

Contents

Highlights

The history of Riviera Park began in the late 19th century, and it received its name in 1937. Translated from Spanish, “Riviera” means “beautiful area”. Today the park is a large green oasis with many flowerbeds and ornamental plants. Part of the territory of the Sochi Riviera is occupied by a magnificent rose garden. In it stands an unusual bench of a hundred forged hearts, on which all lovers try to visit. Along the paths among exotic trees and shrubs with pleasure stroll moms with strollers and the elderly.

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Sports lovers spend a lot of time in the large sports town of Riviera Park, where there is an opportunity to play volleyball, basketball, chess and towns. And tennis fans visit the state-of-the-art courts.

Children will find plenty of entertainment in different corners of the Riviera. Free playgrounds are open for kids in the park. In five places there are rides – roller coaster, GoodWin complex for children, go-karting, “Racing”, soft room, as well as mini-machines and rocking chairs. All rides are paid, and some of them have height and weight restrictions.

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Sochi Riviera Park welcomes guests all year round, without weekends. Many people come here to visit the dolphinarium, oceanarium, wax museum-exhibition, funny laughing room or 7D planetarium. On a hot day, visitors can relax in small cozy cafes, enjoy ice cream and cold drinks.

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If desired, guests of the Riviera can drop in on performances of the Green Theater, which was built in 1959 in the center of the park grounds. This is the place where performances of famous singers and musical ensembles take place. The Green Theater hosts rock concerts, jazz festivals, and Indian arts festivals.

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History of Riviera Park

The founder of Sochi’s Riviera Park is considered to be the wealthy Russian industrialist Vasily Alekseevich Khludov. He came to the Black Sea coast in 1872 and bought land on the right bank of the Sochi River. After 11 years Khludov expanded his holdings at the expense of the estate “Razdolnoye”, which belonged to the merchant of the 1st guild N. N. Mamontov. And deforestation and planning of his own dacha and the adjacent park Khludov engaged in 1885.

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At the turn of the XIX and XX centuries, the landowner sold his own dacha and a green area of 17 hectares to the city treasury, and since 1902 Khludov’s park was opened to all comers. Unfortunately, during World War I and the Civil War, the green spaces suffered a lot, as many trees were cut down and sold for firewood.

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In the 1930s, the first tennis courts and sports fields were built in the park, and the reconstructed sports base began to train Olympians in track and field sports. At the same time the first amusement rides appeared here. They were very simple and had simple names: “Hammer Boy” and “Twist the Bull’s Horns”. In the 50s and 60s of the last century, the Riviera Park was reconstructed, and it acquired modern features.

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Green Alleys

The park, which looks like a large trapezoid, is planted with about 250 species of exotic trees and shrubs representing the flora of different continents. Most of them are evergreen. In the warm subtropics of Sochi they feel themselves perfectly, blossom and bear fruit. Shady alleys are planted with eucalyptus, date and fan palms, bamboo, tulip trees, thuys, cypresses, oleanders, noble laurels, Himalayan cedars, magnolias and plane trees. And squirrels and birds are often glimpsed among the branches.

A special place is occupied by the rose garden, the delicate smell of which spreads to all corners of the seaside Riviera Park. Here grow roses of all sizes and shades – more than 3000 bushes, and between them are cozy pergola pergolas. Every year gardeners arrange rose plantings in a new way, and they never cease to amaze visitors. In 2010, five small Japanese sakura trees were planted next to the rose garden, blooming lushly with white and pink flowers.

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Friendship Glade is considered to be a favorite place of the city residents and its guests. The first to appear on it was a magnolia tree, which was planted by Yuri Alexeyevich Gagarin in 1961, after his flight into space. Today in this corner of Riviera Park there are about 70 trees planted by famous Soviet and Russian cosmonauts, as well as astronauts from the United States.

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Sculptures and monuments

Green plantings in different places on the Riviera are decorated with sculptures made by Sochi artists. The oldest of them – “A doe with a cub” – stands in the park since 1939 (author P. V. Dzyubanov).

Many works are made by the sculptor-animalist and member of the Union of Artists of Russia Vladimir Alekseevich Guslev. These are expressive figures of a auroch, leopard, lion cubs, as well as a vase “Friendship of Peoples” and a bench “Yak.”

In the mid-2000s, new sculptural compositions were installed in Riviera Park by Vyacheslav Zvonov and Viktor Glukhov. Now on the green alleys you can see “The Crow and the Fox”, “Thumbelina”, “Dachshund”, “Dachshund”, “Two Dwarfs” with a bag of money, a funny bench with beavers and “Herons”, which decorate the artificial reservoir, called by Sochi residents “Black Sea.”

Riviera Park has its own Writers’ Alley, where there are 21 bronze busts of Russian and Soviet poets and novelists. Not far from it rises the beautiful fountain “Stone Flower”, made by the talented sculptor Iraida Gusleva. This is not the only fountain in Riviera Park. A large-sized fountain adorns the Main Alley, and there is a Fountain of Love in front of the Green Theater.

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Next to the Southern Gate leading into the park area is a memorial dedicated to the feat of Sochi’s medics. During the Great Patriotic War, they worked in seaside hospitals and managed to put on their feet many wounded soldiers.

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On the Main Alley there is a bust of the founder of the Riviera Park – VA Khludov. In the park preserved two-story Khludov’s dacha – one of the oldest buildings of resort Sochi. The unusual building, stylized as an old Russian terem, was built in 1892 by Moscow architect L. N. Kekushev.

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Dolphinarium

One of the most popular places in Riviera Park is the largest dolphinarium on the Black Sea coast, which shows fascinating performances of trained Black Sea dolphins-apalins, sea lions and sea lions. Sochi Dolphinarium is known not only for its colorful performances. It organizes dolphin therapy sessions for children. Communication with marine animals especially helps children with autism and cerebral palsy. In addition, all visitors can swim and snorkel with the dolphins.

Spectacular shows are held three times a day – at 1 p.m., 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. every day except Monday. Children under 5 years old are allowed free admission to the shows.

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Zoo

In the same building with the dolphinarium guests are welcomed by the Rio Zoo, where animals from all over the world have found shelter. Lemurs, monkeys, crocodiles, turtles, pythons, white cockatoos and other exotic animals live in cages and aviaries. In order to please the little visitors of the Riviera Park, a contact zoo was opened in “Rio”, where animals are allowed to feed and pet. In addition to the zoo, there is a penguinarium and a butterfly garden in the building. You can get there from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

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Oceanarium

Underwater inhabitants were brought in in 2007. Today the oceanarium “Ocean Mysteries” allows you to get acquainted with representatives of freshwater fauna, fish living in the waters of the Indian Ocean, as well as colorful inhabitants of coral reefs.

The oceanarium is not just a collection of fish tanks, it replicates the ocean surf and visitors can see the waves and hear the sound of the ocean. Several times during the day, the oceanarium has shows featuring a professional scuba diver and a “mermaid.”

The Riviera Park Oceanarium can be visited in winter from 10.00 to 21.00 and in summer from 10.00 to 24.00. Children under 4 years old go free of charge.

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Beach

In 200 meters from the Riviera Park is a beach of the same name, very popular with tourists. The beach area is open to all, and you can rest on it for free. In summertime, on the approach to the Riviera beach there are stalls with souvenirs, beach goods, food and drinks. Several cafes and a canteen are waiting for guests on the territory, a medical center is open, and lifeguards are working.

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The beach strip is quite wide and covered with sand. Only in some places there are areas of medium and small pebbles.

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How to get there

Riviera Park is located in the Central district of resort Sochi – on Egorova Street, 1. For those who come here by car, there is a convenient parking lot 50 meters from the entrance.

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It is convenient to get to the park area by public transportation – buses and shuttle buses. Buses #11, 13, 14, 19, 19, 24, 26, 34 and 102 run to the stop “Riviera Bridge”. From here you can walk to the park through the underpass. In this case, visitors get to the roller coaster. Another underpass leads to the North Gate of the park. It is located near the stop “Sportivnaya”, where buses No. 6a, 9, 10, 38, 67 and 99 go. The Riviera Park stop near the South Gate is reached by buses No. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 39, 42, 64, 64, 85, 92, 94, 96 and 119.

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