Puerta de Plastunka, Natural monument and protected area in Krasnodar Krai, Russia.
Puerta de Plastunka is a mountain gorge on the Sochi River, forming the boundary between the Truda microdistrict of the Central district and the village of Plastunka in the Khostinsky district. The road through it is Krasnodonskaya Street to the south and Dzhaparidze Street to the north. On the southern side stands a building materials plant, formerly the Kombinat stroitelnykh materialov.
The gorge is named after the village of Plastunka, whose first settlers were families of plastuns, a Cossack scout unit. In late March 1864, the last council of highlanders led by Hadji Kerantukh-Bey Berzek met under a sacred silver poplar here and decided to leave the Black Sea coast for Turkey. In April 1919, partisan detachments defeated a Denikin unit at the gorge. In 1936, a hydroelectric station was begun here but was halted in 1938; quarrying for city construction later destroyed the natural rock gate.
The gorge is named after the village of Plastunka, whose first settlers were several families of plastuny, a type of Cossack scout. The village name comes from that word. On the river's north side stood a sacred white-leaf poplar, kept until the 1920s; beneath it, in late March 1864, the last council of highlanders led by Hadji Kerantukh-Bey Berzek decided to leave the Black Sea coast for Turkey.
The gorge lies on the road from Sochi to Plastunka: Krasnodonskaya Street on the southern side, Dzhaparidze Street on the northern side. The road runs through the gorge itself, so the site is reached on foot or by car rather than by hiking trail. The southern mouth holds the building materials plant (ZSM).
The natural rock gate that gave the gorge its name no longer exists: it was quarried away for stone used in building Sochi. The two cliffs that once stood almost touching on opposite banks of the Sochi River were destroyed by the extraction. The road through the gorge still runs between the Truda microdistrict and the village of Plastunka.
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