Winter Theatre, Sochi Art Museum and Kurortny Prospekt Architecture

Along the central ridge of Kurortny Prospekt between the Primorskaya coastal terrace and the Sochi Arboretum, two federal architectural monuments from the mid-1930s anchor the cultural life of Tsentralny District: Konstantin Chernopyatov's Winter Theatre at 2 Teatralnaya Square and Academician Ivan Zholtovsky's Sochi Art Museum named after Dmitry Zhilinsky at 51 Kurortny Prospekt.

The Winter Theatre (Zimny Teatr)

Constructed between September 1934 and 11 November 1937 to designs by architect Konstantin Nikolayevich Chernopyatov, the Winter Theatre was conceived as a southern classical temple wrapped entirely by an open exterior peristyle of 88 Corinthian columns supporting a continuous horizontal entablature. The main portico is crowned by a triangular pediment bearing three allegorical female figures representing Painting (Zhivopis), Sculpture (Vayaniye), and Architecture (Zodchestvo). Although popular accounts often attribute the trio to Vera Mukhina, archival records confirm that Painting was sculpted by L. I. Yefimova (Shulik), while Sculpture and Architecture were created by N. K. Ventzel.

The theatre officially opened on 15 May 1938 with a production of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's opera The Tsar's Bride staged by the Stanislavsky Opera and Ballet Theatre from Moscow. Inside, the auditorium of more than 900 seats is decorated in white and gold Empire style beneath a large crystal chandelier. The building has also long served as the home of the Sochi State Philharmonic, and for decades its forecourt has hosted Russia's major film and chamber music festivals.

Sochi Art Museum Named After Dmitry Zhilinsky

Five hundred metres northwest along the boulevard at 51 Kurortny Prospekt stands a refined Italianate palace built in 1936 to designs by Academician of Architecture Ivan Vladislavovich Zholtovsky. Originally constructed as the administrative headquarters of the Authorised Representative of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR for the construction of the Sochi-Matsesta resort (and later housing the City Committee of the Communist Party), the building became the Sochi Exhibition Hall in 1972 and the Sochi Art Museum in 1976; on 19 November 2019 it was officially named after the Sochi-born Soviet and Russian painter Dmitry Zhilinsky.

Notice the exterior niche sculptures on the side facades by the same sculptors who worked on the Winter Theatre: The Mason (Kamenshchik) by N. K. Ventzel facing Kurortny Prospekt and The Carpenter (Plotnik) by L. I. Yefimova facing Ordzhonikidze Street. Inside, the museum's permanent collection of roughly 6,000 works spans the 1st century BC to the present, including:

• The Mzymta Treasure (Mzymtinsky Klad): Ancient silver, bronze, and iron artefacts dated to the 1st century BC and discovered in the Mzymta River valley in 1997.
• 19th- and 20th-Century Russian Painting: Canvases by Ivan Aivazovsky, Vasily Polenov, Vladimir Makovsky, Mikhail Clodt, Lev Lagorio, Pyotr Konchalovsky, Ilya Mashkov, Sergei Gerasimov, and Dmitry Zhilinsky.

The Phytofantasia Garden (Ugolok Fitofantaziya)

Immediately adjacent to the Winter Theatre at 4a Teatralnaya Street lies the compact botanical garden Phytofantasia, created by renowned Sochi landscape architect Sergei Ilyich Venchagov, who pioneered the distinctive "Sochi style" of urban gardening using mossy karst boulders, yuccas, agaves, and subtropical perennials. From here you can walk down to the seafront toward the Sochi Sea Port or continue southeast to the Sochi Arboretum.