Description of the attraction
The main attraction of Alupka is Palace of the Governor-General of the Novorossiysk Territory, Count M. S. Vorontsov … It was built in 1828-1848 years at the foot of the mountain Ai-Petri and is now a museum.
Mikhail Semenovich Vorontsov (1782-1856), the son of the famous Englishman and Russian envoy in London Semyon Vorontsov, was the most famous Russian nobleman. He was well educated, handsome and brave. He went through the Turkish wars, the war of 1812 and foreign campaigns, participated in the capture of Paris, and then commanded the occupation forces in France. His portrait by D. Dow hangs in the famous military gallery of the Hermitage.
In 1823, he was appointed governor-general of Novorossiya - and since then his life has forever been connected with the south of the Russian Empire. Mikhail Vorontsov still fought: in 1828 he took Varna, in the 40s he turned out to be the commander-in-chief of the Caucasus, but his main business was the development of Novorossiya. His main residence was Odessa (now the city is decorated with a monument to Vorontsov), here he was buried. In Odessa and Chisinau, he met with Pushkin, which was just in exile in these places. They say that Pushkin had an affair with Vorontsov's young wife and he was jealous. Most likely, there was no romance, but the poet was distinguished by a rather cheeky behavior in society and could compromise her. Therefore, his relationship with Vorontsov was extremely strained. In history, there are several poignant Pushkin epigrams dedicated to this.
Palace construction
Vorontsov came to rest in Crimea. He decided to arrange a summer residence for himself in Alupka: these were fantastically beautiful, but almost deserted places, apart from a very small village.
Vorontsov loved everything English since childhood … He entrusted the construction of the palace to an Englishman Thomas Harrison … He was an honored elderly architect, an old acquaintance of his father: he designed buildings in Lancaster Castle, many bridges in England and even prison castles. But Harrison only managed to create a rough draft and passed away. Then Vorontsov entrusted the construction to another Englishman, younger - Edward Blore … He collaborated a lot with the British royal house. It was he who completed and finished the famous Buckingham Palace. And now Blore conceived a grandiose palace in which all styles from English Gothic to Moorish would be mixed, and so that the whole would look surprisingly harmonious. He included part of the project of the previous master in his own - for example, the niche of the main portal.
The construction itself was supervised by a third Englishman - William Gunt … Work on the palace and park lasted from 1828 to 1848. They were built conscientiously, from the most durable Crimean stone - diabase (the correct modern name for this breed is dolerite). In total, there are five buildings and more than a hundred luxuriously decorated rooms. They began to build from the canteen building, and the central one was urgently completed by 1837, when he came to Crimea Nicholas I with the heir. By this time, the house was already ready enough to receive the emperor.
The last to appear lion terrace, decorated with six sculptures of lions - each with its own character. The lower lions are sleeping, the middle ones are playing, and the upper ones are guarding the entrance and carefully watching the sea.
Of course, such a huge economy required at first a huge number of workers, and then - servants. They all lived here too, so the complex was a whole city. They built a palace Vorontsov serfs, but they were paid for this and very well for those times: from ten to twenty rubles a month (other nobles received smaller sums from their estates). Part of it went to pay the quitrent (after all, serfs), but a lot remained on hand.
Upper and Lower parks
In addition to the palace itself, it is separately interesting a huge park created by the genius gardener Karl Antonovich Kebach … Kebach was a hereditary gardener from a German family: the Kebachs in Germany have been engaged in gardens since the 17th century. He devoted half his life to this park: from 1824 to 1851 he was engaged practically exclusively in it. I wrote off and communicated with botanical gardens, was close friends with the second director of the Nikitsky Botanical Garden N. Gartvis … It was here that Kebakh got married. A separate Gothic-style house was built for his family. At the end of his life, he was considered the chief specialist of the southern Crimea - without his advice, no gardens were planted in any estates.
Vorontsov Park occupies almost forty hectares and rises from the sea like an amphitheater. Upper landscape park is arranged in a romantic style and diligently copies wild nature, however, every detail is carefully thought out. Here again the owner's enthusiasm for everything English was reflected - this type of park was invented by the British.
In the Upper Park, you should pay attention to the following attractions:
- Big and Small chaos … These are two large groups of dolerite lying volcanic boulders as if in disorder - the European version of the "rock garden". In fact, their location has been calculated, and paths and streams have been laid inside, ornamental species of shrubs have been specially planted - for example, strawberry, which looks beautiful against the background of gray-green stones.
- Moonstone - a twenty-meter rock on the outskirts of Lesser Chaos. One of its edges is so flat that it can reflect moonlight.
- Swan, Lunny and Mirror Ponds … They are also surrounded by boulders and are stylized as mountain lakes. Several bags of semi-precious stones were once poured into the bottom of Swan Lake so that they shimmer beautifully under the sun. Swans have been living here since Vorontsov's times. Once upon a time, roses were planted along the banks. The moon lake was specially made to admire it in the moonlight: the bottom is strewn with silvery sand. The mirror lake is the smallest and most secluded one. The trees around it are specially planted at an angle to reflect beautifully in the water.
- Glades of the park … Plane meadow, on which, in addition to plane trees, also grows exotic Chilean araucaria, which is more than 130 years old. Peacocks fly to the branches of plane trees. Sunny glade - from here a view of Ai-Petri opens and a cypress tree, which is more than 200 years old, also grows here. Contrasting glade - here specially selected trees and shrubs, sharply differing from each other in the color of leaves and trunks.
The lower, parade park is more regulated, it descends to the sea with terraces and offers magnificent views of the sea, the front facade of the palace and the staircase with lions. A hundred-meter long descends to the sea palm avenue lined with roses.
Worth seeing here fountains … A fountain of tears, inspired by Pushkin's poem "The Fountain of Bakhchisarai", a fountain of cupids, a fountain "shell", a source of "cat's eye". The park is decorated with Polovtsian "stone women" - statues, which in the X-XI centuries. Polovtsians put on their mounds.
Soviet period
The Vorontsovs owned this place before the revolution. The last was the granddaughter of Mikhail Semenovich - Elizaveta Dashkovaclose to the last empress. She did a lot of charity work: for example, during the First World War, hospitals were opened in all of her mansions, both here and in St. Petersburg. But the revolution forced her to emigrate, and the palace went to the Soviet government.
The palace was lucky - it was not plundered and ruined, but became museum, which brought nationalized values from all over the peninsula. The building was already almost a hundred years old, but it turned out to be so strong that it was not damaged during earthquakes of 1927 … Even during the occupation, the museum managed to preserve the buildings and most of its collections (although the director of the museum after the war sat down for aiding the invaders).
During Yalta Conference the English delegation was settled here: Winston Churchill lived in the former chambers of Vorontsov himself. For some time after the war, the palace was used as a summer residence, then as sanatorium, but in 1956 the museum reopened here.
Palace Museum
This is the richest Crimean museum, in it more than 11 thousand exhibits … In the post-war years, it was often used for filming … "Mio, my Mio", "Heavenly Swallows", "Ordinary Miracle", "Amphibian Man" - this is not the whole list of films that were filmed in this place. Now the museum has five permanent exhibitions and several successive exhibitions.
First of all, people come here, of course, to look at state rooms of the main buildingdecorated in English style. The interior decoration has been almost completely preserved here. In the one-story guest wing there is a section dedicated to Mikhail Vorontsov's daughter, S. M. Shuvalova. Here you can see collection of paintings and printscollected by this family, and the interiors of the late 40s of the XIX century.
Service building dedicated to the work of the kitchen: a huge cast-iron stove, dishes, cookbooks, pantries - everything that had to do with providing the owners with tasty and healthy food. A separate exposition tells about the life of Vorontsov's butlers and the problems of managing this entire huge economy.
Interesting Facts
- Moscow Red Square is paved with the same Crimean stone from which the palace was built.
- There is a legend among the museum staff that Hitler secretly came here during the years of occupation.
- In Alupka they often tell the following anecdote: Winston Churchill, walking with Stalin in the park, suggested that he sell one of the lion sculptures to England. Stalin said that he would not sell, but if Churchill answered his riddle, he would donate. The riddle sounded like this: "Which finger is the most important on your hand?" “Pointing,” Churchill replied, and he turned out to be wrong - Stalin showed him a fig in response.
On a note
- Location: Alupka, Dvortsovoe sh., 18
- Official website:
- Opening hours: from 9:00 to 18:00, on Saturdays from 9:00 to 20:00, seven days a week.
- The cost of tickets to the Main Building: adults - 350 rubles, concessionary tickets - 200 rubles. Ticket price for all expositions: adult 830 rubles, concessionary - 450 rubles.
