The settlement was founded by the Russians on 18 June 1837 as a fortress of Svjatovij Duh (Holy Spirit). The area was already inhabited during the Middle Ages as Liesh, and became a Genoese colony called Layso between the thirteenth and fifteenth .
It owes its present name to the Turkish Ottomans , who renamed Artlar or arts after destroying the Genoese Layso. Curiously, the name Adler means in German ,
