Goygol

Goy Gol (Khanlar) was founded in the XIXth century on the site of the ancient village of Khanyglar by German immigrants who, with their inherent accuracy, clearly planned the city and in 1819 called it Eleniendorf. Even streets, wooden houses with carved facades, a church (Lutheran Church) still remind of their presence.

Khanlar (11,4 thousand people) is known as a large center for the production of high-quality cognacs and champagne wines, although there are also a local industrial complex, brick, lime, cheese and dairy plants. Khanlar is a clean and comfortable city with beautiful one- and two-story brick buildings, paved streets.

It has its own history museum, music school, cinema, many cafes and restaurants. This is a quiet, green city, from where tourists go hiking on various tourist routes. The archaeological finds of Gillikdag dating from the Bronze and Iron Age speak of the ancient history of the city. Historical and architectural monuments preserved in Khanlar itself: LUTHERAN CHURCH of 1854, two bridges on the Ganja-chai river - "IKI GESLU KERPYU" (XVIth century) and "UCH GYUZLU KERPYU" (1896). Monuments in the vicinity of Khanlar - this is the FORTRESS of the XIIth century in the village of ZURNABAD, Mausoleum of the XVIth century in the village of SARY GAYA, the XIIth-century "AG KERPYU" bridge in the village of TOPALGASANLY, as well as a number of monuments in the village of CHAYKYAND.

 

Gillikdag

Gillikdag is a site of primitive people of the Neolithic era, located in the south of Goy Gol in Azerbaijan. In 1930, German-born archaeologist Jacob Hummel began archaeological excavations in the Gandja River basin. Here he identified interesting monuments dating back to the Neolithic and Bronze Ages. These materials were posted at the Hanlar Museum of Local Lore. In 1955, during the creation of its scientific exposition, the Museum of the History of Azerbaijan accepted materials for the Neolithic, Late Bronze-Early Iron Age, as well as material from the early Middle Ages for storage and display. This archaeological material included 18 stone tools, 45 stone fragments and 9 stone tiles from Gillikdag.

 

Elendorf Colony in Goy Gol

Helenendorf (German: Helenendorf) is a German settlement founded in 1819 by immigrants from Swabia to Transcaucasia, annexed to the Russian Empire (now - the territory of Azerbaijan)  named in honor of Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna, daughter of the Russian Emperor Paul I. In 1938 it was renamed Khanlar, in 2008 – Goy Gol. On May 10, 1817, Russian Emperor

Alexander I signed a petition from 700 Swabian families for resettlement in Transcaucasia. The city of Ulm was designated as the assembly point, from where the settlers were sent on ships down the Danube to Izmail. After quarantine, they were settled for the winter in the Black Sea German colonies of Peterstal, Josefstal, Karlstal and other Swabian villages that already existed at that time. In Transcaucasia, accompanied by Cossacks, immigrants arrived only in August 1818. Of the seven hundred families that left Ulm, only about four hundred reached the goal; Some of the migrants died on the way from illnesses, others remained in the Black Sea region. At the same time, about a hundred families from the Black Sea colonies joined the immigrants. In Transcaucasia, 6 settlements were founded in Georgia and 2 (Annenfeld and Elenendorf) in Azerbaijan.

The colony received the name Helenendorf in honor of Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna, the daughter of Paul I and Maria Fedorovna (before marriage, Sophia Dorothea was Princess Württemberg). Khanlar

The cultural and economic sunset of Helenendorf (since 1938 Khanlar) began with collectivization in the 1930s. The repression did not pass over the colony either; in the years 1933-41, about 190 people from Helenendorf were repressed. With the outbreak of World War II, on the orders of the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR (No. 001487 dated October 11, 1941) “On the Relocation of Persons of German Nationality from Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia,” the Khanlar Germans were expelled to Central Asia, Kazakhstan and Siberia.

 

Lutheran Church

Lutheran Church (Goy Gol) is a church built in the German colony Helenendorf in 1857. Currently used as a museum of local lore. Along with the Goygol Nature Reserve, one of the most significant tourist sites in the region. The church was closed in 1941 after deportation from the German region. At different times, a military hospital and a sports school were located here. Since 2005, a museum of history and ethnography of the region has been operating here. In 2008, with the help of the German Society for Technical Cooperation, the building was restored (the cost of work was about 250,000 euros)

 

Goy Gol Lake is located south of Gandja, on the northern slopes of Murovdag, at an altitude of 1566 meters and is considered the pearl of the lakes of Azerbaijan. “GOY-GOL” State Reserve is the first reserve of Azerbaijan, created in 1925 to protect and study ecosystems of the mid-mountain forest and partial subalpine zones of the Lesser Caucasus, as well as mountain lakes Goy Gol and Maral Gol, Zali Gol and etc. The area of ​​the reserve is occupied by forests and mountain meadows. The reserve consists of two territories - the main and the branch, which is called "Eldar Pine Grove" - ​​this is the first reserve in the Caucasus. The distance between them is 80-85 km.

 

Wine Empire (Khanlar Wine and Vodka Factory)

Winemaking is based on traditions, each sort of wine or brandy requires a personal story, legend, myth. The history of the creation of excellent bouquets of famous wines - this starts with all the wine tours in Italy, Spain, as well as the most popular wine tours in France in Champagne.

Young players in the wine market - Chile, Argentina, Australia - have been creating interesting bouquets in recent years, but without history, legends and myths it is not tasty, gourmet eyes are not lit. As a result, the price of wines from Chile is much lower. And here in a small town in the center of the Lesser Caucasus, cognac production was created, which is 155 years old this year.

But there were victories, and even what! The "Gold" of Paris and Berlin made the Forer Brothers Cognac Factory famous, the winning factory opened stores in all the largest cities of the empire. The tiny Helenendorf created his own wine empire.

To rediscover their champagne, local winemakers need to conquer Paris again. How this is done is known: you need an original bouquet. It will have to be reinvented. Champagne has been produced naturally at a local factory for three years. After you learn that champagne is produced here in the same way as it was during Cardinal Richelieu, it is drunk somehow differently. In each sip, you begin to look for the very bouquet that admired Madame Pompadour - she, incidentally, is a great expert in this matter, they say a bottle of champagne a day - at least. And at the balls, the bill went to bottles, not to glasses...