Almaty Through the Ages

How to Read the History of Almaty / Verny: Fortification and City

Verny: Fortification and City

1. A New Layer: Fortification, Name, City

In the previous lesson, we kept Zhetysu in mind: mountains, water, foothills, and trade connections. Now another layer appears on top of it: a military-administrative one.

In 1854, the Russian Empire established the Zailiyskoe fortification here. In 1855, it was given the name Verny. In 1867, Verny received city status and became the center of Semirechensk Oblast. This does not mean that “there was nothing here before.” It means that the place began to be reshaped for the needs of imperial administration: a garrison, settlers, roads, quarters, markets, churches, and administrative buildings.

At the introductory level, the important thing is not to memorize every detail, but to see the change in scale: strategic place → fortification → city → regional center.

2. How to Read Verny on a Map

Verny was not only a fortress. Around the fortification, Cossack settlements, suburbs, trading areas, and a “new city” with a regular street grid began to form. If you look at an old plan of Verny, the rectangular blocks stand out: it was as if the city was being made understandable, measurable, and manageable.

But this grid did not float in the air. It was tied to water and terrain. Irrigation canals, streets, greenery, the direction “up” toward the mountains and “down” toward the plain all matter. That is why early Verny is better read not as an abstract fortress, but as an urban system: a military point, a settler environment, a market, gardens, water, and roads.

Try mentally dividing Verny into four layers:

• military — fortification, garrison, barracks, security;
• settler — Cossack settlements, houses, farming, gardens;
• commercial — bazaars, shops, shopping arcades, roads;
• administrative-religious — government, cathedrals, schools, public buildings.

When you walk through the center of modern Almaty, these layers have already become mixed together. But the question “what function did this place serve?” helps you avoid looking at old buildings as random beautiful objects.

3. Earthquakes as Part of Urban Form

In the history of Verny, the earthquakes of 1887 and 1911 are not just tragic dates. They were events that changed the city’s attitude toward materials, height, construction, and memory.

The 1887 earthquake destroyed much of Verny’s stone-built environment. After that, wood once again came to be seen not as a “poor” material, but as a practical response to seismic risk: a flexible structure could behave better than heavy masonry. The 1911 earthquake tested the city’s resilience again and reinforced the idea that Almaty cannot be understood separately from seismicity.

The clearest example is the Ascension Cathedral in today’s Park of 28 Panfilov Guardsmen. It belongs to late Verny: built in the early twentieth century, associated with the engineer Andrey Zenkov, and turned into a city symbol not only because of its appearance, but also because of its engineering reputation. Its wooden structure and anti-seismic solutions are usually cited as an example of architecture adapting to local risks.

It is important not to romanticize this: Verny after the earthquakes was not “a city that beautifully withstood disaster,” but a city that was forced to learn how to build differently.

4. What Remains of Verny Today

Little from the nineteenth century has survived in Almaty. Some buildings were lost to earthquakes, some disappeared during Soviet redevelopment, and some were replaced by new functions. That is why the Verny layer is often visible not only in individual buildings, but also in planning, names, trading places, and park areas.

Examples to observe:

• Park of 28 Panfilov Guardsmen and the Ascension Cathedral — late Verny, a religious-urban and engineering layer;
• the Green Bazaar area — a commercial function that changed form but did not disappear from the center;
• the old grid of central streets — a trace of Verny’s regular planning;
• the Museum of Almaty — a convenient point where Zhetysu, Verny, Alma-Ata, and the modern city can be brought together into one line.

You do not have to look for “the oldest building.” For this course, it is more useful to learn how to ask a precise question: what function did this place perform in Verny, and why did it appear exactly here?

5. Mini-Practice: One Place, One Layer

Choose one old building or place in the center of Almaty. The Ascension Cathedral, the Green Bazaar area, an old street block, a museum exhibition about Verny, or another place where the pre-revolutionary layer is visible would all work.

Fill out a short card:

1. Place: where is it located?

2. Verny layer: military, settler, commercial, administrative-religious, or mixed?

3. Evidence: what proves this layer — function, layout, material, name, museum label, historical photo?

4. Connection with earthquakes: is the influence of seismic experience visible here — material, construction, loss of old buildings, memory of the disaster?

5. One conclusion: what does this place say about Verny as a city, not just as a fortress?

Example of a short answer: “The Ascension Cathedral is a late layer of Verny, administrative-religious and engineering. It stands in the central urban zone, is connected with the city’s Orthodox infrastructure, and shows how seismic resistance became important after the earthquakes. It is not just a church, but a sign that Verny was learning to live in a dangerous landscape.”

Brief Summary

Verny is the second major layer after Zhetysu: not the beginning of the entire history of the place, but the beginning of its modern urban form. It can be read through three things: military-administrative logic, the regular grid, and the experience of earthquakes. If you see Almaty’s old center only as a set of beautiful buildings, the Verny layer is lost; if you ask about function, material, and place on the map, the city begins to explain itself.