Black City (Baku)
Coordinates: 40°22′59″N 49°53′20″E / 40.383°N 49.889°E
Black City (Azerbaijani: Qara Şəhər) is the general name for the southeastern neighbourhoods of Baku, which once formed its suburbs. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century it became the main location for Azerbaijan's oil industry. In a deliberately ironic name change, the area is now being redeveloped as White City.
Baku was incorporated into the Russian Empire in 1813 under the Treaty of Gulistan. At that time it was a small town of 10,000 inhabitants. The world's first oil well was drilled at Baku in 1847/1848, and was soon followed by many more. The first oil refining plants were built in 1859 in the city suburbs. By the 1860s the Baku fields accounted for 90% of the world's oil supply. Industrial buildings came to occupy large sections of the city. Plants and factories were hazardous to the population due to air pollution from their smokestacks. Public pressure forced the provincial authorities to consider developing a separate industrial zone. In 1870, the authorities suggested that pasture lands to the east of the city be allotted for construction of oil refineries. By 1872 there were almost sixty refineries in Baku producing kerosene. A law was passed prohibiting construction of any new plants in the city, and allocating a new district outside the city limits for refineries.
By 1874 there were 123 refineries in what would become known as "Black City". The refinery district was about 8 miles (13 km) from the shipping ports. An industrial area plan was completed in 1876. Some of the farms and pastures of the neighbouring village of Keshla were zoned to accommodate replacements for factories that had been dismantled in the city. The new industrial zone was 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) from residential areas. To prevent further pollution, the new zoning law prohibited oil refineries from being built within the residential area. By 1880, there were 118 industrial businesses functioning in the Black City area.
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