Kuban Oblast
The eastern shore of the Black Sea was populated from the antiquity, often changing allegiations. There are archeological sites within the district, including the Byzantine Church in Loo, which provide evidence of presence of the Byzantine Empire and the Republic of Genoa in the Middle Ages. Eventually the area was taken by the Ottoman Empire, and after the Russo-Turkish War of 1828–29 was occupied by the Russian Empire. A number of forts were constructed by Russians, including Lazarevsky and Golovinsky Forts. The native population, the Ubykh, were forcibly resettled in the 1860s. The area remained underdeveloped, and only in 1866 Black Sea Okrug with the administrative center in Novorossiysk was established to administer the area. Since 1870, it was subdivided into three parts, one of which was administered from Dakhovsky, currently the center of Sochi. In 1888, Black Sea Okrug was merged into Kuban Oblast. In 1896, it was transformed into Black Sea Governorate with the center in Novorossiysk. The area was a part of Sochi Okrug.