Stary Oskol

Stary Oskol is a city in the Russian Federation, the district center of the Belgorod region; located in the southern part of the Central Russian Upland, on the banks of the Oskol River and its right tributary Oskolets, 186 km northeast of Belgorod.

The population is 215.8 thousand people (2001).

In 1571, near the modern city, near the confluence of the Ublya and Oskol rivers, the Ustoublinsky forge was built. In 1593, the fortress Oskol was founded in its place to protect the southern borders of the Moscow state. In 1655, when the city of Tsarev-Alexeyev was renamed Novy Oskol, the city of Oskol was called Old Oskol. In 1897 the city was connected by railway with Yelets and Valuyki.

Stary Oskol is one of the centers of ferrous metallurgy of the Kursk magnetic anomaly. Main enterprises: Oskol Electrometallurgical Combine, Stoilensky Mining and Processing Combine, Staro-Oskol Autotractor Equipment Plant.

In Stary Oskol there were two monasteries - the Troitsky men's and the Uspensky women's, the ensembles of which are partially preserved. Architectural attractions are also preserved in the city center wooden houses of the 19th century, the building of the former theological seminary and the Russian-Asian Bank.