diff --git a/Dockerfile.solr b/Dockerfile.solr
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..01ee12cf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Dockerfile.solr
@@ -0,0 +1,149 @@
+FROM ubuntu:12.04.5
+
+# defines root user, to perform privileged operations
+USER root
+
+# enable apt mirrors (best performance due to use the closest repository)
+RUN readonly APT_SOURCES="/etc/apt/sources.list" \
+    && readonly UBUNTU_RELEASE_NAME="$(cat /etc/lsb-release | grep CODENAME | cut -d '=' -f2)" \
+    && sed --in-place \
+            --regexp-extended \
+            --expression \
+              "1s/^/deb mirror:\/\/mirrors\.ubuntu\.com\/mirrors\.txt "${UBUNTU_RELEASE_NAME}"-security main restricted universe multiverse\n\n/" \
+            --expression \
+              "1s/^/deb mirror:\/\/mirrors\.ubuntu\.com\/mirrors\.txt "${UBUNTU_RELEASE_NAME}"-backports main restricted universe multiverse\n/" \
+            --expression \
+              "1s/^/deb mirror:\/\/mirrors\.ubuntu\.com\/mirrors\.txt "${UBUNTU_RELEASE_NAME}"-updates main restricted universe multiverse\n/" \
+            --expression \
+              "1s/^/deb mirror:\/\/mirrors\.ubuntu\.com\/mirrors\.txt "${UBUNTU_RELEASE_NAME}" main restricted universe multiverse\n/" \
+            --expression \
+              "1s/^/\# Enable Ubuntu mirrors and multiverse\n/" \
+            "${APT_SOURCES}"
+
+# upgrade Ubuntu packages, install security updates and required packages
+RUN readonly UBUNTU_PACKAGES=" \
+                curl \
+                " \
+    && apt-get update \
+    && apt-get upgrade --assume-yes \
+    && apt-get install --no-install-recommends \
+                        --assume-yes \
+                        ${UBUNTU_PACKAGES} \
+    # remove apt cache in order to improve Docker image size
+    && apt-get clean
+
+## Solr
+# environment variables
+ENV SOLR_VERSION 3.5.0
+ENV SOLR_USER solr
+ENV SOLR_UID 8983
+ENV SOLR_PORT 8983
+
+# declare required packages
+RUN readonly SOLR_PACKAGES=" \
+              openjdk-6-jre-headless \
+              tomcat6 \
+              " \
+    # install packages
+    && apt-get install \
+                --no-install-recommends \
+                --assume-yes \
+                ${SOLR_PACKAGES} \
+    # remove apt cache in order to improve Docker image size
+    && apt-get clean
+
+# create group
+RUN groupadd \
+      --system \
+      --gid ${SOLR_UID} \
+      ${SOLR_USER} \
+    # create user and add to group
+    && useradd \
+        --system \
+        --uid ${SOLR_UID} \
+        --gid ${SOLR_USER} \
+        ${SOLR_USER}
+
+# create temp folder
+RUN mkdir /tmp/solr \
+    && cd /tmp/solr \
+    # download Solr
+    && curl \
+        --silent \
+        --show-error \
+        --location \
+        --output apache-solr-${SOLR_VERSION}.tgz \
+        https://archive.apache.org/dist/lucene/solr/${SOLR_VERSION}/apache-solr-${SOLR_VERSION}.tgz \
+    # extract Solr
+    && tar \
+        --extract \
+        --gunzip \
+        --file \
+          apache-solr-${SOLR_VERSION}.tgz \
+        --directory \
+          /opt \
+    # link Solr folder
+    && ln \
+        --symbolic \
+        --force \
+        /opt/apache-solr-${SOLR_VERSION} \
+        /opt/solr \
+    # change permissions
+    && chown \
+        --recursive \
+        ${SOLR_USER}:${SOLR_USER} \
+        /opt/apache-solr-${SOLR_VERSION} \
+    && chown \
+        --recursive \
+        ${SOLR_USER}:${SOLR_USER} \
+        /opt/solr \
+    # purge source files
+    && cd / \
+    && rm \
+        --recursive \
+        --force \
+        /tmp/solr
+
+ADD schema.xml /opt/apache-solr-3.5.0/example/solr/conf/schema.xml
+
+## DUMB-init
+# more information at: https://github.com/Yelp/dumb-init
+
+# environment variables
+ENV DUMB_INIT_VERSION 1.2.0
+
+# download
+RUN mkdir \
+      --parents \
+      /tmp/dumb-init \
+    && cd /tmp/dumb-init \
+    && curl \
+        --silent \
+        --show-error \
+        --location \
+        --remote-name \
+        https://github.com/Yelp/dumb-init/releases/download/v${DUMB_INIT_VERSION}/dumb-init_${DUMB_INIT_VERSION}_amd64.deb \
+    # install
+    && dpkg \
+        --install \
+        dumb-init_${DUMB_INIT_VERSION}_amd64.deb \
+    # remove temp folder
+    && cd / \
+    && rm \
+        --force \
+        --recursive \
+        /tmp/dumb-init
+
+## Docker specifics
+# expose Solr service port
+EXPOSE ${SOLR_PORT}
+
+# drop back to the regular Solr user - good practice
+USER ${SOLR_USER}
+
+# change workdir to Solr folder
+WORKDIR /opt/solr/example
+
+# docker entrypoint/cmd configuration
+ENTRYPOINT ["/usr/bin/dumb-init", "--"]
+CMD ["java","-Xmx256m","-jar","start.jar"]
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/docker-compose.yml b/docker-compose.yml
index 47838ead..85411e7a 100644
--- a/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/docker-compose.yml
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ services:
     links:
       - mysql:exmap-mysql
       - redis:exmap-redis
-      - elastic:exmap-elastic
+      - solr:exmap-solr
     environment:
       - DEBUG=True
       - LOCAL_DEV=True
@@ -25,6 +25,9 @@ services:
       - MYSQL_DATABASE=expomap
       - ELASTICSEARCH_HOST=elastic
       - EMAIL_BACKEND=django.core.mail.backends.console.EmailBackend
+      - SEARCH_ENGINE=haystack.backends.solr_backend.SolrEngine
+      - SEARCH_URI=http://solr:8983/solr
+      - SEARCH_INDEX_NAME=haystack
 
   mysql:
     restart: always
@@ -45,12 +48,10 @@ services:
     volumes:
       - ./data/redis:/var/lib/redis
 
-  elastic:
-    restart: always
-    image: elasticsearch:2.4.6
-    container_name: exmap-elastic
+  solr:
+    build:
+      context: .
+      dockerfile: Dockerfile.solr
+    container_name: exmap-solr
     ports:
-      - 9200:9200
-      - 9300:9300
-    volumes:
-      - ./data/elasticsearch:/usr/share/elasticsearch/data
+     - "8983:8983"
diff --git a/proj/settings.py b/proj/settings.py
index d03fd1be..662938e2 100644
--- a/proj/settings.py
+++ b/proj/settings.py
@@ -437,9 +437,9 @@ PYMORPHY_DICTS = {
 # search backend
 HAYSTACK_CONNECTIONS = {
     'default': {
-        'ENGINE': 'haystack.backends.elasticsearch_backend.ElasticsearchSearchEngine',
-        'URL': 'http://%s:9200/' % os.environ.get('ELASTICSEARCH_HOST'),
-        'INDEX_NAME': 'haystack',
+        'ENGINE': os.environ.get('SEARCH_ENGINE'),
+        'URL': os.environ.get('SEARCH_URI'),
+        'INDEX_NAME': os.environ.get('SEARCH_INDEX_NAME'),
     },
 }
 
diff --git a/schema.xml b/schema.xml
index cb9d9e20..78fe08a8 100644
--- a/schema.xml
+++ b/schema.xml
@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@
         <tokenizer class="solr.StandardTokenizerFactory"/>
         <filter class="solr.StopFilterFactory"
                 ignoreCase="true"
-                words="lang/stopwords_en.txt"
+                words="stopwords_en.txt"
                 enablePositionIncrements="true"
                 />
         <filter class="solr.LowerCaseFilterFactory"/>
@@ -87,7 +87,7 @@
         <filter class="solr.SynonymFilterFactory" synonyms="synonyms.txt" ignoreCase="true" expand="true"/>
         <filter class="solr.StopFilterFactory"
                 ignoreCase="true"
-                words="lang/stopwords_en.txt"
+                words="stopwords_en.txt"
                 enablePositionIncrements="true"
                 />
         <filter class="solr.LowerCaseFilterFactory"/>