Historical and cultural heritage of the city in tourist and excursion service (the case of Rostov-on-Don)

The city of Rostov-on-Don, the administrative center of the Rostov region and the Southern Federal District, one of the largest cities in the south-west of Russia, has significant tourist potential. This article overviews the city’s historical and cultural heritage and its application in organizing tourist and excursion services. The history of Rostov-on-Don begins in 1749. To consolidate the state and more intensively include the southern lands in the structure of the Russian Empire, the settlement was originally founded as a customs house at the mouth of the Temernik River, and in 1761 it was decided to build a military fortress in the name of St. Dmitry. This name was not chosen by chance - according to available data, during the last years of his life, Saint Dmitry, canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church, was Metropolitan of Rostov and Yaroslavl. Almost simultaneously with the foundation of the fortress, a settlement was formed, which at the end of the century was transformed into a city. With the support of migration processes by Russian emperors, it was initially formed as a multinational one. Immigrants from Malorossia (the part of the territory of modern Ukraine), Jews, Europeans (Germans, Greeks, Poles, Lithuanians, etc.), Armenians settled here. Freedom of religion was guaranteed to such a motley ethnic composition because the city initially became inherent in the presence of various confessions. The overwhelming majority of the population of Rostov-on-Don were peasants and burghers. The latter played an important role in the life and development of the city - in the formation of its architectural style and buildings. The historical heritage that has survived to this day, including cultural monuments, history forms the so-called historical and cultural potential of the city, which in turn makes a significant contribution to the formation of the tourist attractiveness of the direction and the development of tourism in the region as a whole, which was noted during the development of a walking excursion route along one of the main arteries of the city - Bolshaya Sadovaya Street.