Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky

Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky

Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky (Russian: Петропавловск-Камчатский, .mw-parser-output .IPA-label-small{font-size:85%}.mw-parser-output .references .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .infobox .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .navbox .IPA-label-small{font-size:100%}IPA: [pʲɪtrɐˈpavləfsk kɐmˈtɕatskʲɪj] ⓘ) is a city and the administrative center of Kamchatka Krai, Russia. It is located in the far east of the country and lies along the coast of Avacha Bay by the Pacific Ocean. As of the 2021 census, it had a population of 164,900.[7] The city is widely known simply as Petropavlovsk (literally "city of Peter and Paul"). The adjective Kamchatsky ("Kamchatkan") was added to the official name in 1924. Cossack units visited the area from 1697. The explorer and navigator Captain Vitus Bering (a Danish-born Russian) is considered[by whom?] to have founded the city in 1740, although navigator Ivan Fomich Yelagin [ru] had laid the foundation a few months earlier. Bering reached Avacha Bay in late 1740 and in his capacity as the superior officer, named the new settlement "Petropavlovsk" (Peter and Paul) after his two ships, the Saint Peter and the Saint Paul, which had been built in Okhotsk for his second expedition (1733–42). The town's location on the eastern coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula, on the sheltered Avacha Bay and at the mouth of the Avacha River, saw it develop to become the most important settlement in Kamchatka. It gained town status on 9 April 1812.