TOGLIATTI - THE CITY ON THE VOLGA

In 1937 on the banks of the great Russian river Volga in the center of the European part of the Russian Empire the erection of fortress was commenced, which later was named Stavropol which in translation from Greek means «the city of the Holy Cross».

In 1957 the Volga hydroelectric   power station was built in the vicinity of the Zhiguli mountains. The water level increased by 30 meters and some houses were moved from Stavropol to a new place several kilometers off the banks of the Reservoir. In 1964 Stavropol-on-the-Volga was renamed Togliatti.

In 1967 the erection of an automotive plant and a new residential area was launched on the banks of the Reservoir.

Nowadays Togliatti is a modern city, one of the largest industrial centers of Russia and a home to 800,000 people.

The city has a well-developed industrial infrastructure with the Volga automobile plant being the leader of the national automotive industry.

Togliatti disposes of wonderful facilities to practice almost 60 sports.  Handball is one of the most dramatically developing sports. Totally about two thousand children, professional handball players and veterans are engaged in this sport. At their disposal there are two magnificent sport facilities - the Olymp Sports Complex with five handball fields, and Akrobat Sports Complex already hosted in 2003, with great success, the Junior European Championship for girls born after 1985.

In the Russian Handball Championship Togliatti is represented by two Superleague women's teams - «Lada» and «Lada-2», and Major League women's team «Lada-3» and men's team SDUSSHOR-«Lada».

Photo:

1 - The Volga automobile plant is leader of Russian automotive industry and backbone of Togliatti city economy.

2 - Monument to Vasily Tatishchev, founder of Stavropol-on-the-Volga (Togliatti).

3 - Preobrazhenskij Cathedral is one of the main sights of seeing of a modern city on the river Volga.