(Source: http://images.esosedi.ru)

The name of this place alone already dooms it to popularity: a castle, love, treachery - sounds like a dramatic passion. You expect something medieval and fatal, some sort of “Game of Thrones” and a long story. However, the reality proves that there is nothing historical here, you’ll have to believe in love and treachery on bare words, for the Castle of Treachery and Love is a popular restaurant and a hotel complex.

“The Castle” was a traditional name of a small rock in the gorge of the Alikonovka River resembling a castle with spires and turrets by its contours. This work of nature was formed as the result of weathering of soft rock - the local rocks are made of dolomitic limestone. The name spread also to the valley next to the rock, where there are two popular restaurants, a hotel and a couple of other natural attractions. It seems that the rock of an unusual shape and a couple of restaurants are not enough to include these objects into all sightseeing tours of Kislovodsk.

However, the castle is located in a very beautiful place: the Alikonovskoe Gorge spreads towards Karachay-Cherkessia and already gives an impression of the special flavor of the Caucasus Mountains.

This gorge belongs to Kislovodsk, although it is located at a distance of about 10 minutes drive from the city. Kislovodsk itself is located at a fairly high altitude, it has its own “local” mountains, but a real full-flex Caucasus can be seen and felt in the Alikonovskoe Gorge.

A real restaurant “The Castle” located in wooden houses opened there already at the end of XIX century. Fortunately, the Soviet government did not consider meals of national cuisine eaten among the beautiful surroundings to be a bourgeois fancy. On the contrary: in 1939 they built a stylized castle restaurant with a silhouette repeating that of the rock instead of wooden houses. As a result, the new building had the romantic chivalrous spirit, although Caucasian combat towers would probably look more natural - there were many of them around at that time.

The castle was made of brick and tiled with local stone (Kislovodsk dolomite), and the construction fit into the surrounding area very naturally. The restaurant in “The Castle” was the most elite institution in the city, as legendary as the restaurant in Swallow’s Nest (which is, however, a monument of both architecture and history). The Soviet “elite” celebrated here, and having a meal in “The Castle” was an extraordinary event for an ordinary tourist or a city resident.