Description of the attraction
The Yalta Historical and Literary Museum is the oldest museum in Ukraine. It was founded in October 1892 in the Crimean-Caucasian Mountain Club on the basis of the Yalta branch. The idea of creating this museum belongs to the climatologist V. N. Dmitriev and A. L. Bartier-Delagarte - archaeologist, numismatist, military engineer. This idea was supported by many representatives of the local intelligentsia. For the formation of the museum's funds, exhibits from the members of the Mountain Club were donated. They were mainly numismatic collections and geological finds. The museum is especially proud of the collection of coins of the Bosporus Kingdom and ancient Roman coins found in the territory of Yalta.
In 1905, the museum acquired a unique collection of Crimean butterflies, collected over the years by Dr. Schmidt. Thanks to the collective and private donors, by 1906 the museum's funds had read 2,600 exhibits.
The basis of the archaeological exposition is the ancient monuments that once belonged to the collection of A. M. Romanov, the Grand Duke, who was a great admirer of archeology. These monuments were found during excavations of the ancient Roman fortification of Charax.
The Yalta Historical and Literary Museum today consists of several branches located in old mansions, which are monuments of architecture and culture. The expositions of the museum acquaint with the life of Yalta in the XIX-XX centuries. Many exhibits tell about the stay of such eminent figures as M. P. Mussorgsky, I. A. Bunin, A. P. Chekhov and others. Visitors show great interest in the historical and archaeological department, as well as in the ethnographic collection dedicated to the traditions and culture of the Crimean South Coast Tatars.
The year 2004 was marked by the opening of the exhibition "Treasures of the Romans, Hellenes and the Goths", where unique archaeological finds of Big Yalta were presented. The exhibition presented finds from the necropolises of the fifth and tenth centuries, as well as from the sanctuary near the Gurzuf Saddle. The main expositions are supplemented by rare editions of books, collections of antique ceramics, engravings, paintings, lithographs and objects of decorative and applied art. The modern funds of the museum have more than 135,000 exhibits.
