Description of the attraction
The rotunda in the urban-type settlement Shelkino is located on Cape Turtle, not far from the Riga recreation center. According to one legend, the gazebo was built specifically for the filming of several episodes of the movie "King Lear". Another legend says that the rotunda was one of the favorite resting places of the famous cosmonaut V. Tereshkova, therefore it is often called the gazebo of Valentina Tereshkova. However, these stories have no official confirmation. It is only known that the initiator of the construction of the rotunda on Cape Turtle was the then director of the Riga boarding house E. Vilka, a woman who madly loved her city and gave it its main symbol.
A small brick pavilion, erected in 1972 in the form of a rotunda, is a round building with a dome resting on columns located along the perimeter. She very harmoniously complemented the general panorama of the Shchelkino village, making it more romantic. For residents and tourists of the city, walks to the rotunda have become one of the traditions, but in 2009, for unknown reasons, the gazebo collapsed.
At the end of summer 2010, a new one was built on the same place where the former symbol of the city stood. The shape and dimensions of the newly built gazebo exactly repeated the outlines of the old one, but this time the builders rebuilt the rotunda in the form of a monolithic reinforced concrete structure.
The gazebo offers a wonderful panorama of the city of Shelkino, the sea landscape, the Kazantip cape-reserve and the Russian Bay of the Arabat Bay of the Azov Sea. As before, at sunset time, the First Cape, thanks to its romantic structure, turns into a corner of the fairy world. However, something else, besides the appearance of the rotunda, has changed - now it is no longer the only one in the city. Closer to the recreation boarding house "Riga", another gazebo was erected, which exactly (in shape, size and construction materials) repeated the original.
Today, the Rotunda in Shelkino is a Crimean landmark, which makes this region even more interesting and better.
