Belokurikha

The city is located in the southeastern part of the Altai Territory in the valley of the Belokurikha River at an altitude of 240-250 meters above sea level at the foot of Mount Tserkovka.

Population: 15,160 (2019)

Nearest major cities: Biysk - 65 km, Barnaul - 236 km.

The city is also connected by bus to Kemerovo, Novokuznetsk and Novosibirsk.

Hot springs Belokurikha were known to the local population in the XVIII century. The name is associated with the formation (“smoking”) of steam clubs in the cold season over the places where hot waters come to the surface. Originated in the XIX century as a village.

As a resort developed from the second half of the XIX century, when hot therapeutic keys were opened.

In the 20s of the last century, a resort village was founded on the site of the village of Novobelokurikha. An office, a dining room, an outpatient clinic and a solarium were built at the resort, in 1928 a water hospital for 24 baths and a polyclinic was built, in 1931-34 wooden sleeping buildings were built. Here rested well-known commissars, lived the Russian writer K. G. Paustovsky. In 1942, the All-Union pioneer camp Artek was evacuated to Belokurikha.

The formation of the largest resort in the east of the country became possible thanks to long-term studies of the natural and therapeutic effects of thermal waters in Belokurikha. In 1982, the village received the status of a city.

Light air ions are the main therapeutic component of mountain air. In Belokurich, the content of light aeroions is from 1014 to 2400, which is twice their content in the world-famous Swiss resort of Davos. Increased ionization of air, especially on adjacent elevations - terraces - has a positive effect on the general condition of the patient, creates a cheerful state of health. Belokurikha springs are called thermal nitrogen-silicon-containing waters, or nitrogen baths.

Thermal waters come to the surface with a temperature of 30 ° C and 42 ° C. They contain a small amount of radon, a lot of nitrogen, fluoride and silicic acid, as well as various trace elements. The water is alkaline, mineralized. Also used therapeutic mud from the salt lakes of the Altai Territory. Currently, the resort area of Belokurikhi is able to take at a time more than 5 thousand tourists.

In the city there are 19 sanatorium-resort and sanatorium-wellness institutions for 5000 places, balneotherapy includes 27 types of procedures on mineral and fresh water. And the number of sanatoriums, health resorts, hotels, small boarding houses in this specially protected natural area is steadily growing. In 2006, several public buildings with a total area of 22,952.4 m2 with a total value of 239.6 million rubles were commissioned on a turnkey basis. Construction is carried out at the expense of private investors.