Yessentuki is a well-known resort town that forms the city district of Yessentuki Resort of Stavropol Krai. The population of Yessentuki was 102 269 people (as of 2013).

The city is located in the south of Stavropol Plateau, at the height of 650 m, in the valley of River Podkumok, to the north of the foothills of Rocky Ridge of Greater Caucasus, 213 km to the southeast of Stavropol. It is a railway station on the railway line Mineralnye Vody - Kislovodsk 43 km to the southwest of Mineralnye Vody and 17 km to the west of Pyatigorsk.

The balneal and mud resort of the All-Russian value in group of resorts of the Caucasus Mineralnye Vody Region.

The territory of Yessentuki makes 50 sq.km.

History of Yessentuki

The Russian military and boundary redoubt Yessentuki was founded 1798 on the right bank of river Bolshie Yessentuchyok, next to its confluence into River Podkumok. The name was explained as a local toponym of Yessentuki – “a dwelling place of Yesan”.

For the first time Bugunt mineral waters (the initial name after the river Bugunta) were investigated in 1810 by the Moscow doctor F.P.Gaaz. In the valley of Kislush stream, approximately 4 km to the northeast of the Yessentuki post, Gaaz found 2 small wells with sour and salty water (nowadays the Gaazo-Ponomaryovsky Spring).

In 1823 the Russian doctor-pharmacologist A.P. Nelubin discovered 20 more mineral sources (numbering of Mineralnye Vody by Nelyubin in Yessentuki remained until now) on the slopes of the Shelochnaya mountain.

In 1825 Yessentuki Village was founded at the initiative of General A.P.Yermolov on the river Bugunta, in 3.5 km to the northeast from the former Yessentuki redoubt. From 1840 sources N4 and N17 came to be used and gained special popularity.

The village became one of the best resorts for treatment of digestive diseases.

In 1846 by order of the deputy of the Caucasus Prince M. S. Vorontsov the territory of Yessentuki Village was expanded to the northeast and closely came nearer to sources.

At the end of the 1840s Yessentuki waters started to be bottled and transported to other cities of the country.

The resort was visited by about 5 thousand persons in 1883, over 13 thousand in 1900, and 38.6 thousand in 1913.

In the late 19th – early 20th centuries intensive construction of medical institutions, hotels and dachas was conducted. In 1905 as a result of well drilling new water sources were discovered (the main, or so-called radical, stream of source N17, new exits of water similar to water source N4).

In 1917 the resort zone was allocated from the Yessentuki Village and received the city status.

During the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45 the resort suffered a lot during fascist occupation. It was restored in the late 1940s.

In 1995 the Beliy Ugol’ and Kirpichny settlements were included into Yessentuki.

Architecture and Sights

The oldest architectural monument of Yessentuki is the wooden Nikolsky Church (mid 1820s).

The extensive Kurortny Park was founded in 1849 with sources of mineral waters and numerous constructions: buildings of drinking water gallery (1847-56), Nikolaevsky bathtubs (1899), Trade Gallery (1912), Oreanda wooden survey arbor colonnade (1912), 4 pavilions over drinking pump rooms (1912-13), etc.

To the north of the park private sanatoria and country houses, resort constructions, and buildings for mud baths started to be constructed here from the late 19th century.