Surb Sarkis in the Gora-Post area of Pyatigorsk was built from 1997 and consecrated on 29 November 2003 by His Holiness Catholicos Karekin II. It succeeds the city’s first Armenian church, which stood on what is now Kirov Avenue and served the community from 1860 until 1920. Pyatigorsk and the Caucasian Mineral Waters towns hold a long established Armenian population.