Narzan Gallery (Kislovodsk)

The Narzan Gallery is a 19th-century drinking gallery in the centre of Kislovodsk, at the entrance to the Resort Park, at 2 Alekseya Rebrova Street. It is one of the oldest buildings in the town and a cultural heritage site of federal importance. Visitors come here to drink Narzan mineral water from pump-room taps: the general, sulphate and dolomite kinds, served cold or warmed.

The story begins with the spring itself. The first wooden well over the Narzan source was built in 1823 and lasted about thirty years. In the 1840s it was decided to bring the spring, a drinking gallery and bathhouses under one roof. Commissioned by Mikhail Vorontsov, the Viceroy of the Caucasus, the English architect Samuel Upton designed the building, and it went up between 1848 and 1853.

The gallery is in the English Gothic Revival style, its plan shaped like a symbolic key. Pointed arches and small pyramid-topped turrets decorate the facades. The building has survived almost unchanged; only the interior decoration has been altered over time. Marble floors and walls keep the hall cool even on hot summer days, and the taps line its perimeter.

The well over the spring is inside the gallery too. In the 1890s it was rebuilt, deepened and covered with a glass cap, and in 1908 its base was strengthened and the cracked glass replaced. The hall often hosts exhibitions by local artists. The gallery was restored in 2021–2022.

Entry is free, and the gallery opens daily with breaks during the day. The nearest stop is Kolonnada, about 200 metres away across the small Olkhovka river; the railway station is a few minutes' walk.