Zlatoust is a town in the Chelyabinsk Region. It is located 140 km westward from Chelyabinsk and 1400 km eastward from the capital of Russia - Moscow. The town stands on the border of Europe and Asia, on the banks of River Ai and its tributaries. The town is surrounded with Southern Ural Mountains from all sides.

Zlatoust is one of the most loaded industrial Ural towns, a historically developed center of high-quality metallurgy, the third one in industrial potential and population in the Chelyabinsk Region.

The official date of its foundation is 11 September (31 August) 1754. Since 1954 it has been marked as the Day of Zlatoust. The town’s population is 182 542 people (as of 2006).

The town was named after its ironworks, which was in its turn named in honour of St. John of "the Goldenmouth". The ironworks was founded by Tula industrialists I. P. and V. M. Mosolovys in 1754.

In 1815 there was built a weapon factory that produced various sorts of cold steel, such as sabres, daggers, blades, knifes, and swords. During this period a rare handicraft of steel engraving developed in Zlatoust. Founders of art metal working were Ivan Boyarshinov and Ivan Bushuyev.

Zlatoust is located in an intermountain valley and extends for more than 17 km from the west to the east. All plane sites in the valley are occupied with industrial enterprises. The ensemble of factory buildings of the first half of the 19th century, including buildings of Weapon Factory, the Arsenal, has remained in the town. The Arsenal has been housing the Metal Works Museum since 1988. Former house of the Mining Director P.P. Anosov is now occupied by Zlatoust Museum of Local Lore.

Major Sights

• Zlatoust Museum of Local Lore is the oldest one in the Southern Ural. It was founded by the mining engineer P.P.Anosov in 1825 as the museum of Zlatoust mining area. Today the museum collections have over 44.3 thousand exhibits, among them a rich collection of cold steel and Zlatoust steel engraving, Kusa iron casting, and unique samples of Ural minerals.

• Zlatoust has 54 monuments of history, culture and architecture (including 6 monuments of federal value)

• Drama Theater (modern name Omnibus) has existed in Zlatoust since 1920.

• National Park Taganay is located on the area of Zlatoust and Kusa District and occupies 56.1 thousand hectares. Among its sights there is Mount Dvuglavaya (Two-headed) (with two peaks 1034 and 1041 meters high), with the Spring Bely at its eastern foot; Mount Otkliknoy Greben (Responding crest) (1155м) that reflects an echo 7-8 times; and the Big stone river - a chaotic heap of huge boulder-like fragments of quartzes containing aventurine.

• Bell Tower with Chapel of Prelate John (2006) was constructed for the 1600th anniversary of glorification of the universal Prelate John the Goldenmouth (Zlatoust). On the tower there is a viewing point, and visitors can try their wings in church bell ringing. The total height of the tower is 53.4 meters, which makes it possible to overview the town and admire surrounding hills and mountains.