Novorossiysk

Novorossiysk (Новоросси́йск, nəvərɐˈsjijsk) is a city in Krasnodar Krai, Russia. It is one of the largest ports on the Black Sea. It is one of the few cities honored with the title of the Hero City. Population: In antiquity, the shores of the Tsemes Bay were the site of Bata (Βατά), an ancient Greek colony that specialized in the grain trade. It is mentioned in the works of Strabo and Ptolemy, among others. Following brief periods of Roman and Khazar control, from the 9th century onwards, the area was part of the Byzantine θέμα Χερσῶνος Thema Khersonos (Province of Cherson). During the 11th century, the area was overrun and controlled by nomads from the Eurasian steppe, led by the Cumans. Later that century, the Byzantine emperor Ἀλέξιος Κομνηνός Alexios I Komnenos (r. 1081–1118) was approached by Anglo-Saxon refugees, who had left England following the Norman conquest. Alexios offered land to these refugees in Thema Khersonos if they could recapture it from the nomads and there is contemporaneous evidence that a Byzantine-English colony was subsequently founded. For example, medieval nautical charts mention place names on the Kuban coast with possible English origins, including a port (located within or near the future site of Novorossiysk) known as Susaco (or Susacho) – a name that may have been derived from Sussex. (The same maps also show, north-west of Susaco, a river Londia, which may derive its name from London.) In the 15th century, Genoese merchants from the Ghisolfi family maintained a trade outpost in the area. A 2007 archaeological investigation of related sites discovered some interesting items. From 1722, the bay was controlled by an Ottoman fortress (qale) named Sujuk (also transliterated Sudzhuk, Sudschuk and Soğucak). This name may be derived from Susaco (see above) and, as late as 1769, the area was sometimes named in European maps as Suzako. The coastline was ceded to Russia in 1829 as a result of the Russo-Turkish War. After this, admirals Mikhail Lazarev and Nikolay Raevsky founded an eastern base for the Black Sea Fleet on the shore in 1838.