The Russian church at Oltu stands in the centre of the district town. It carries no inscription, but it is known to have been built by the Russians between 1885 and 1890, after the Ottoman-Russian war of 1877-78. Restoration work begun in 2019 was completed in 2023.
The building measures 32 by 15 metres and consists of rectangular spaces on either side of a ciborium-type dome supported by rectangular piers. The long fronts on the north and south were kept short. At the middle of the west front are decorated, round-arched entrance doors projecting slightly outwards, and raising those entrances and the apse on the east makes the cross plan more apparent in the roofline. Oltu is 118 kilometres from Erzurum, served by public transport from the western district garage in the Şükrü Paşa quarter.
Getting there
- Access
- 118 kilometres from the city centre. Take the Oltu public transport that leaves from the western district garage in the Şükrü Paşa neighbourhood.
When to go
- Climate
- Across Erzurum as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from -9.1 °C in January to 19.6 °C in August; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in July and August; rainfall is heaviest in May (73 mm) and lightest in August (18 mm). Long-term means for 1929-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
