Famous as the birthplace of legendary Azerbaijani poet Nizami, Ganja is a truly ancient city still bearing the traces of the myriad kingdoms and empires to have ruled over it.
In central Ganja, you’ll find ancient mosques and hammams built during the reign of the Safavids that sit side by side with structures from the Ganja Khanate and Russian Empire as well as eye-catching examples of socialist classicism. The city is truly brimming with history, yet it also exudes a distinctive youthful energy, reflected in its selection as the 2016 European Youth Capital. In and around the city centre you can admire atmospheric 19th-century red-brick buildings and discover traces of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic – the first democratic republic in the eastern world whose first capital was Ganja.
From 1804 until 1918 under the Russian Empire the city was renamed from Ganja to Elisabethpol in honour of the wife of Alexander I of Russia, Elisabeth.
Ganja was the European Youth Capital in 2016, the first EYC outside of the European Union. The city also became the cultural capital of the Commonwealth of Independent States for 2017.
