Anapa (, , ) is a

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

Krasnodar Krai Krasnodar Krai (, ) is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (a krai), located in the North Caucasus region in Southern Russia and is administratively a part of the Southern Federal District. Its administrative center is the t ...

, Russia, located on the northern coast of the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal sea, marginal Mediterranean sea (oceanography), mediterranean sea lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bound ...

near the

Sea of Azov The Sea of Azov is an inland Continental shelf#Shelf seas, shelf sea in Eastern Europe connected to the Black Sea by the narrow (about ) Strait of Kerch, and sometimes regarded as a northern extension of the Black Sea. The sea is bounded by Ru ...

. As of the

2021 Russian census The 2021 Russian census () was the first census of the Russia, Russian Federation population since 2010 Russian census, 2010 and the third after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, dissolution of the Soviet Union. It took place between October 1 ...

, it had a population of 81,863. It is one of the largest children's resorts in Russia. In ancient times, Anapa was the site of a major seaport and a capital of the

Sindi people The Sindi (; Adyghe language, Adyghe: Щынджыхэр; Ubykh language, Ubykh: Шинджишвё; ) were an ancient Scythians, Scythian people who primarily lived in western North Caucasus, Ciscaucasia. A portion of the Sindi also lived in Cent ...

. In the 6th century BCE, it was settled by Greeks, who called it Gorgippia. In later centuries, the settlement came under the control of

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

and then the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

. In 1781, a fortress was constructed there, which became the site of multiple sieges during the

Russo-Turkish wars The Russo-Turkish wars ( ), or the Russo-Ottoman wars (), began in 1568 and continued intermittently until 1918. They consisted of twelve conflicts in total, making them one of the longest series of wars in the history of Europe. All but four of ...

. It was finally annexed by the Russian Empire in 1829, after several occupations.

History

The area around Anapa was settled in antiquity. It was originally a major seaport (Sinda) and then the capital of Sindica. The colony of Gorgippia () was built on the site of Sinda in the 6th century BCE by

Pontic Greeks The Pontic Greeks (; or ; , , ), also Pontian Greeks or simply Pontians, are an ethnically Greek group indigenous to the region of Pontus, in northeastern Anatolia (modern-day Turkey). They share a common Pontic Greek culture that is di ...

, who named it after a king of the Cimmerian Bosporus. In the 2nd and 3rd centuries BCE, Gorgippia flourished as part of the

Bosporan Kingdom The Bosporan Kingdom, also known as the Kingdom of the Cimmerian Bosporus (; ), was an ancient Greco-Scythians, Scythian state located in eastern Crimea and the Taman Peninsula on the shores of the Cimmerian Bosporus, centered in the present-day ...

, as did its guild of shipowners, which controlled maritime trade in the eastern part of the Black Sea. A fine statue of Neokles (a local potentate, son of Herodoros) was unearthed by Russian archaeologists and is now on exhibit at the

Russian Museum The State Russian Museum (), formerly known as the Russian Museum of His Imperial Majesty Alexander III (), on Arts Square in Saint Petersburg, is the world's largest depository of Russian fine art. It is also one of the largest art museums in ...

. Gorgippia was inhabited until the 3rd century CE, when it was overrun by neighbouring native tribes. These tribes, of Circassian or Adyghe origin (specifically of the Natkhuay tribe), gave Anapa its modern name. Later the Black Sea littoral was overrun by successive waves of Asiatic nomads, including the

Sarmatians The Sarmatians (; ; Latin: ) were a large confederation of Ancient Iranian peoples, ancient Iranian Eurasian nomads, equestrian nomadic peoples who dominated the Pontic–Caspian steppe, Pontic steppe from about the 5th century BCE to the 4t ...

Ostrogoths The Ostrogoths () were a Roman-era Germanic peoples, Germanic people. In the 5th century, they followed the Visigoths in creating one of the two great Goths, Gothic kingdoms within the Western Roman Empire, drawing upon the large Gothic populatio ...

Huns The Huns were a nomadic people who lived in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe between the 4th and 6th centuries AD. According to European tradition, they were first reported living east of the Volga River, in an area that was par ...

, Avars, Gokturks,

Khazars The Khazars ; 突厥可薩 ''Tūjué Kěsà'', () were a nomadic Turkic people who, in the late 6th century CE, established a major commercial empire covering the southeastern section of modern European Russia, southern Ukraine, Crimea, a ...

Tatars Tatars ( )Tatar
in the Collins English Dictionary are a group of Turkic peoples across Eas ...

and

Circassians The Circassians or Circassian people, also called Cherkess or Adyghe (Adyghe language, Adyghe and ), are a Northwest Caucasian languages, Northwest Caucasian ethnic group and nation who originated in Circassia, a region and former country in t ...

who are native to the Northwestern Caucasus. The settlement was renamed Mapa by the Genoese at the turn of the 14th century. Genoese domination lasted until the arrival of an Ottoman fleet in 1475. In 1781, during the reign of Abdul Hamid I, French engineers built a fortress at Anapa for the Ottomans. The fortress was repeatedly attacked by the Russian Empire and was all but destroyed during its last siege in 1829. The town was passed to Russia after the Treaty of Adrianople (1829). See . It was included in Black Sea Okrug of Kuban Oblast and was granted town status in 1846. It was occupied by Ottomans between 1853 and 1856 during the

Crimean War The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861), Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont fro ...

. It became part of Black Sea Governorate in 1896. Elizabeth Pilenko, later named as a saint in the

Eastern Orthodox Church The Eastern Orthodox Church, officially the Orthodox Catholic Church, and also called the Greek Orthodox Church or simply the Orthodox Church, is List of Christian denominations by number of members, one of the three major doctrinal and ...

, was the mayor during the Russian Revolution. It became part of Kuban-Black Sea Oblast in 1920. During World War II, it was occupied and totally demolished by

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

with the help of Romanian troops between August 30, 1942 and September 22, 1943.

Administrative and municipal status

Within the framework of administrative divisions, Anapa serves as the

administrative center An administrative centre is a seat of regional administration or local government, or a county town, or the place where the central administration of a commune, is located. In countries with French as the administrative language, such as Belgiu ...

of Anapsky District, even though it is not a part of it. As an administrative division, it is, together with three rural localities, incorporated separately as the Town of Anapa—an administrative unit with the status equal to that of the

districts A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions ...

. As a municipal division, the territories of the Town of Anapa and of Anapsky District are incorporated as Anapa Urban Okrug.Charter of Anapa Urban OkrugLaw #676-KZ RR5714-0039R

Tourism

The town boasts a number of sanatoria and hotels. Anapa is served by the

Anapa Airport Anapa Airport () , also known as Vityazevo Airport () is an international airport located near Vityazevo, Krasnodar Krai, Vityazevo village in Anapa, Russia. It serves the resort town of Anapa, as well as Novorossiysk and Temryuk with a total p ...

. Anapa seldom attracts tourists from outside Russia due to its modest infrastructure and its inconvenient accessibility from Europe via Moscow or

Krasnodar Krasnodar, formerly Yekaterinodar (until 1920), is the largest city and the administrative centre of Krasnodar Krai, Russia. The city stands on the Kuban River in southern Russia, with a population of 1,154,885 residents, and up to 1.263 millio ...

Transportation

Анапа.Вокзал.JPG, Train station in Anapa Аэропорт_Анапа_1.jpg, Anapa Airport Transportation facilities include an international passenger port for small-tonnage ships, the

, a railway station, a bus station, and a network of highways.

Climate

Anapa has a

humid subtropical climate A humid subtropical climate is a subtropical -temperate climate type, characterized by long and hot summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

''Cfa'') with mediterranean (''Csa'') influences at the lower elevations. Compared to cities further south along the coast like Novorossiysk and

Sochi Sochi ( rus, Сочи, p=ˈsotɕɪ, a=Ru-Сочи.ogg, from – ''seaside'') is the largest Resort town, resort city in Russia. The city is situated on the Sochi (river), Sochi River, along the Black Sea in the North Caucasus of Souther ...

, Anapa receives considerably less rainfall but has somewhat colder winters.

Demographics

The population of Anapa according to recent censuses is as follows:

Culture

The Town Theater of Anapa is located on Krymskaya Street. It was opened after the reconstruction of the Town Cultural Center. There are twenty-nine public libraries, including four for children. In 2010 the libraries of Anapa received more than 8,000 books, and magazines and newspapers were ordered costing more than 1,000,000 rubles; in addition, nine hundred CDs were purchased. There is museum of Local History () on Protapova Street.

Architecture and sights

*The Gorgippia Archeological museum *Gates of Turkish fortress *Church of St. Onuphrius *Lighthouse *Wildlife preserve of Bolshoy Utrish south of Sukko

List of mayors

* Maria Skobtsova *Valentin Mashukov *Germogen Korolyov *Mikhail Boyur *Vitaly Astapenko *Vladimir Tsukanov * Anatoly Pakhomov *Tatyana Yevsikova

Activities carried out in the town

* Kinoshock Film Festival *Blue-eyed Anapa song Festival * Russian coast guard academy

Twin towns and sister cities

Anapa is twinned with: *

Gomel Gomel (, ) or Homyel (, ) is a city in south-eastern Belarus. It serves as the administrative centre of Gomel Region and Gomel District, though it is administratively separated from the district. As of 2025, it is the List of cities and largest ...

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

* Novy Urengoy, Russia *

Larissa Larissa (; , , ) is the capital and largest city of the Thessaly region in Greece. It is the fifth-most populous city in Greece with a population of 148,562 in the city proper, according to the 2021 census. It is also the capital of the Larissa ...

, Greece

Gallery

Anapa. Administration.JPG, Administration building Anapa. Anapka river.JPG, Anapa river Анапа 2011 (0001).jpg, The sea in Anapa Anapa. Lighthouse.JPG, Lighthouse Anapa. Svyato-Onufrievsky hram.jpg, temple of Saint Onuphrius the Great Русские ворота и остатки стен крепости - back view.JPG, The only remaining gates of an Ottoman fort Анапа 2011 (0003).jpg, Equestrian statue in Gemete restaurant of the Colosseum Anapa beach.jpg, Beach in the Little Bay Anapa estrada.jpg, Concert platform "Summer Estrada" Anapa_chapel.jpg, Chapel of the Prophet Hosea

References

Notes

Sources

* * *

External links

Official website of Anapa Urban Okrug

Anapa Information Portal

Directory of organizations in Anapa
{{Authority control Cities and towns in Krasnodar Krai Anapa Urban Okrug Populated places established in the 6th century BC Milesian Pontic colonies Bosporan Kingdom Seaside resorts in Russia Territories of the Republic of Genoa 1846 establishments in the Russian Empire