Vorontsov Palace of Information. Service in the Novorossiysk Territory. Why you should definitely visit the Vorontsov Palace in Alupka

Vorontsov Palace- a precious decoration of Taurida. Many visit the small southern coastal town of Alupka just to take a walk along mysterious park surrounding famous castle. Its walls contain many unsolved mysteries. The palace was designed by the court architect of the English Queen Victoria, members of the Masonic lodge met here under the cover of mystery, the legendary Winston Churchill stopped here, the greats of this world rested, famous films were shot ...

Just some 20 years...

Starting the story about the Vorontsov Palace, it is impossible not to mention the person thanks to whom this palace arose. architectural masterpiece. A descendant of an old Russian noble family, Mikhail Semenovich Vorontsov was famous for his intelligence, education and refined taste. According to the traditions of his time, he was enlisted in the regiment from birth, and at the age of four he was “promoted” to ensign! From the age of 19, Vorontsov has been really fighting - with the Turks, Swedes and French. In the famous battle of Borodino, the young count is wounded. In 1815-1818 Vorontsov commanded the Russian occupation corps in France. He also takes part in the Caucasian campaigns, for which in 1845 he was elevated to princely dignity.

The activity of Prince Vorontsov was no less fruitful in peacetime. He left a significant mark on himself in Novorossia, which he ruled as a governor from 1823 to 1844. In those days, the region entrusted to him included a significant part of the Northern Black Sea region, including the Crimea. Vorontsov turned out to be an excellent business executive. During his reign, Odessa, Kherson, Nikolaev, Sevastopol grew economically. The governor orders to build roads, including the magnificent south coast highway in the Crimea. At this time, a shipping company was established along the Black Sea, the foundations of viticulture and fine-fleeced sheep breeding were laid.

“He owned great wealth - his own and his wife, Countess Branicka, - and a huge allowance received as a governor and spent most of his own funds for the construction of a palace and a garden on the southern coast of Crimea, ”Leo Tolstoy wrote about Count in Hadji Murat.

To build his dream, Vorontsov spares no money, no time, no human resources. The construction of the palace lasted 20 years - the work was carried out from 1828 to 1848! Edward Blore, who is the court architect of the English Queen Victoria, is invited to create the project. He owns the projects of many famous buildings- Walter Scott's Castle in Scotland and Buckingham Palace in London. It is still unknown whether Blore ever visited Alupka, but he miraculously managed to perfectly combine the architecture with the surrounding mountain landscape. Perhaps the projector was inspired, but it is possible that he still came to the Crimea to get acquainted with the local relief.

By the time Blore's project was implemented, the foundations and the first masonry of the portal niche of the central building were already ready. Initially, the palace was built according to the design of architects Francesco Boffo and Thomas Harrison.

Hereditary masons and stone-cutters who had experience in building and embossing white-stone cathedrals come to build the palace. Thus, a luxurious residence was built by quitrent serfs from the Vladimir and Moscow provinces. This beautiful piece of architecture was built by hand using primitive tools.

The canteen building was the first to grow, then the Central building was built. In 1842, a billiard room was added to the dining room. And in the years 1838-1844, the Front Courtyard was formed, the guest building, the eastern wings, all the towers of the palace, the pentagon of the outbuildings were built. The library building was built last.

The architecture of the palace contains elements of various eras of styles, but the architectural eclecticism looks very harmonious. The architects boldly combined the English style with the neo-Moorish style. A vivid example of this: Gothic chimneys, reminiscent of the minarets of a mosque. The southern entrance exhibits oriental splendor. It is very similar to the Spanish Alhambra Palace, which once belonged to the Arab rulers. On its facade, the inscription on Arabic saying: "There is no conqueror but Allah."

The western part of the facade is made in neo-Gothic style. From the side of the mountains, the buildings of the palace resemble the harsh outlines of the castles of English aristocrats. The towers of the palace are very diverse. The building is decorated with all sorts of spiers and domes, carved cornices and openwork balustrades, stairs and chimneys... No wonder that in the 20th century Stevenson and Shakespeare were filmed here, the famous Sky Swallows, Crazy Day, or The Marriage of Figaro and many others were filmed. paintings.

The construction of the park terrace in front of the southern facade of the palace was entrusted to the military. From 1840 to 1848, with the help of the soldiers of the sapper battalion, large-scale earthworks were carried out.

In the summer of 1848, the last spectacular touch was made. Sculptural figures of lions were installed on the central staircase leading to the main entrance. Charming animals were born in the workshop of the Italian sculptor Giovanni Bonnani.

Heaven on Earth

Whatever beautiful palace, without the luxurious park surrounding it, it would not be so attractive and popular. Founded about 200 years ago, the unique garden has more than 200 species of trees and shrubs from around the world.

The creator of the palace and park splendor was a real magician. German by origin, Karl Kebach skillfully used every meter of space. Erecting fountains in the park, he combined them into cascades, creating lakes and ponds. The fairy-tale surroundings are harmoniously complemented by plant compositions. A talented gardener lovingly planted each exotic bush in a specially brought black soil.

The structure of the garden ensemble is curious. It consists of the Upper and Lower landscape parks. The upper - "Alupka chaos" is an array of natural diabase, granite blocks, randomly scattered, as if by the elements. There are also caves with grottoes, and a crater extinct volcano. Severe landscapes made of stone are softened by views of the cozy alleys of the Lower Park. As if flowing along the slopes, the terraces are bordered by Italian pines.

The park enchants with pleasant-sounding romantic names: Tea Pavilion, Swan Lake, Maria Fountain. The latter, decorated at the base with white roses, is a copy of the Bakhchisaray fountain. Freischutz waterfall is amazing. When falling, its jets split like a transparent bridal veil. Walking in the Upper Park along Solnechnaya, Platanova, Chestnut meadows, you catch yourself thinking that you are in a real paradise, and this fairy tale is real!

Mikhail Vorontsov, by the way, like many famous and influential figures of his time, belonged to the Masonic lodge. Therefore, in his residence and in the park, one can find secret signs and symbols of a mighty brotherhood.

New story

Three generations of the Vorontsov family enjoyed life in the building built by their grandfather magnificent palace. Before the October Revolution, 150 rooms of the castle were luxurious apartments, decorated with antique sculptures, antique furniture and pictures. The canvases decorating the walls belonged to the brushes of great painters. To this day, paintings by Levitsky, Borovikovsky, Aivazovsky, as well as Italian, English and French artists, have miraculously survived. The interiors of the palace were complemented by bronze candelabra, porcelain, crystal, malachite, and antique vases. The front rooms were filled with mahogany, walnut and oak furniture made by the best Russian craftsmen.

Other times came, and the Vorontsov Palace, along with its treasures, was nationalized. In mid-1921, it began to function as a museum. During the Great Patriotic War the exhibits of the Alupka Museum could not be evacuated. Twice the palace was threatened with destruction, and both times it was saved by the senior researcher of the museum, S. G. Shchekoldin. The Germans took out a significant part of the art treasures, including 537 works of painting and graphics, and only a small part of the paintings were found after the war and returned to the palace. The tragic episodes in the history of the Vorontsov Palace are described in the book "What the Lions Are Silent About", created on the basis of Shchekoldin's memoirs

From February 4 to February 11, 1945, the Vorontsov Palace became the residence of the British delegation headed by Winston Churchill. At this time, the epoch-making Yalta Conference took place.

From 1945 to 1955, the apartments in Alupka were used as a state dacha. In 1956, by decision of the government, the museum again began to function in the palace. And, finally, since 1990, the Alupka Palace and Park Complex has become a museum-reserve. New status very important, it allows the institution to protect park area from non-core use, in particular, from cottage development. This phenomenon today is a headache for Crimea. Let's hope that paradise called the Vorontsov Palace will remain a protected area for a long time and will delight "everyone who enters it" with beauty and nobility.

A lot is connected with the Vorontsov Palace romantic stories, which could well become the basis for a dozen ladies' novels. I will say more - Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin was involved in a love affair. But first things first.

The palace in Alupka is so harmoniously inscribed in the surrounding landscape, repeating with its Moorish turrets and Gothic facades the outlines of the Ai-Petri mountain range located in the immediate vicinity, that it seems as if this entire architectural and natural ensemble has always been here.

Governor-General of Novorossia Mikhail Semenovich Vorontsov began construction of a representative residence in the Crimea in 1824. In addition to Alupka in the south of Crimea, Vorontsov owned Massandra (I showed the Massandra Palace here), Ai-Danil and Gurzuf. But it was the Alupka estate that the count decided to turn into a summer residence.

Simultaneously with the construction of the palace, the laying of a road from Simferopol to the southern coast of Crimea began.

In the world, Mikhail Semenovich Vorontsov was known as an Angloman, so it is not surprising that he entrusted the creation of the palace project to the court architect of the English Queen, Edward Blore. It was he who designed Buckingham Palace in London. It is noteworthy that in twenty years of construction, Blore never came to look at his brainchild. The work was supervised by his assistant and student William Gunt, thanks to whom some amendments were made to the drawings in accordance with the characteristics of the area.

They didn’t go far for the stone for construction - they took the Crimean volcanic rock dolerite (diabase) right from under their feet: the central, dining, guest, library and utility buildings of the palace complex were made of dolerite. By the way, Red Square in Moscow is paved with Crimean dolerite.

The Vorontsov Palace was designed in the style of the late English Gothic (Tudor style), but with elements oriental architecture, which is why from different angles it looks either like a medieval castle, or as the residence of a Mohammedan ruler.

The reason for such an unexpected combination of styles in the appearance of the palace lies in the personalities of the architect and the customer. Edward Blore was well acquainted with the architecture of the British colony - with the architecture of India. Therefore, it was not difficult for him to combine the Tudor style with variations on the theme in one project. indian architecture the Mughal period. Probably, in his view, such a mixture should correspond to the Crimea, given that for a long time the peninsula was Muslim. In addition, romantic trends prevailed in architectural fashion, which was also to the taste of Count Vorontsov.

Portrait of Mikhail Semenovich Vorontsov by Lawrence, 1823

On the western side is the main entrance to the palace complex. This part of the Vorontsov Palace resembles a medieval castle with round watchtowers, narrow loopholes and blank fortress walls.

Here we see the Shuvalovsky building and the Shuvalovsky gate passage. The daughter of Mikhail Semenovich Vorontsov, having married, became Countess Shuvalova, and her apartments were located in the right building.

Shuvalovsky passage between two rough masonry walls made of gray diabase blocks, with round battlements and narrow lancet windows, makes us believe that we are in a medieval castle.

Shuvalovsky passage

Separate gates lead to the utility yard. In the center of the courtyard grows a plane tree planted during the construction of the palace. There is also a museum ticket office, where instead of paper ticket You will be given a metal token.

Passing the outbuildings, we find ourselves in the main courtyard in front of the northern facade of the palace, facing Ai-Petri and the upper park.

Northern facade of the palace

According to experts, the architecture of the northern façade, with its vertical ledges, miniature decorative turrets and large bay windows, harmoniously combines elements of 16th-century Gothic and Renaissance architecture.

In front of the palace there are two stalls with marble fountains in the center of each. In a shady pergola of flowering wisteria, the Selsibile fountain was hidden - a copy of the "Fountain of Tears" from the Khan's Palace in Bakhchisarai, sung by Pushkin.

Nearby, at the left wing of the palace, there is a white marble fountain "Source of Amur".

Let's go around the palace on the east side to look at the south facade facing the sea, made according to Indian architecture.

The white-blue squadron with two tiers of arched windows is decorated with a double jagged horseshoe-shaped arch and covered with stucco alabaster ornament made in the Eastern tradition. At the level of the second floor, along its decorative frieze, there are three balconies with openwork lattices and a relief Arabic inscription - a praise to the prophet repeated six times: "And there is no winner but Allah." At the back of the exedra is a wide lancet door leading to the Blue Drawing Room of the palace, where we will go a little later.

To the left and right of the exedra stretch two symmetrical wings of an open terrace on the second floor, resting on cast-iron columns with capitals in the form of lotus buds. To the west of the squadron are the Winter Garden, behind it is the dining room, and further the southern facade of the Shuvalov building.

A wide staircase with three pairs of lions descends from the eskeda to the sea - the Lion's Terrace. At the entrance to the palace, the lions are awake, standing guard, on the middle platform the stairs wake up or fall asleep, and those closer to the sea sleep peacefully, putting their muzzles on their paws. The Lion's Terrace ends with a platform with exits to the lower park, to Aivazovsky's rock and the Tea House on the seashore.

Fountain "Bowl" in the lower park

The south terrace is a favorite place for taking pictures in beautiful poses and beautiful outfits.

From here the paths diverge to the Lower Vorontsovsky Park.

After examining the palace facade, it is interesting to look at the count's chambers. We immediately found out that the second floor and mezzanines were closed for inspection: there was a time when the tourists went up to the rooms on the second floor, but the ceilings of the first floor suffered from this. In the end, the museum decided to leave only nine halls on the ground floor accessible to tourists.

Like many other Crimean palaces, after the revolution of 1917, the Vorontsov Castle was nationalized, but not turned into a health resort, but became a museum of noble life. Perhaps this happy circumstance played an important role in the preservation of palace interiors. During the Great Patriotic War, the palace was looted, but not destroyed. From 1945 to 1955, a state dacha was located here. And finally, in 1956, the museum was reopened here.

Entering the palace with north side, you find yourself in the corridor, where the dressing room used to be. Now, in cabinets made of bog oak, completely covering one of the walls from floor to ceiling, the books of the Alupka Library of Count Vorontsov, who was a famous bibliophile, are stored.

Another wall is decorated with old engravings depicting the construction of the palace and Alupka landscapes.

Landscape Carlo Bossoli "Palace of Prince Vorontsov in Alupka"

Through the corridor we enter the front office of the owner of the palace.

The central place on the western wall of the study is occupied by a portrait of Count Vorontsov by Louise Desseme. Mikhail Semyonovich was one of the most famous heroes of the Patriotic War of 1812. Nearby are portraits of the heroes of Borodino, Lev Aleksandrovich Naryshkin and Fedor Semyonovich Uvarov, painted by the famous portrait painter George Doe.

The walls of the office are covered with painted wallpaper, which was specially ordered in England. Massive wooden doors are complemented by oak paneling on the walls and a wood-effect stucco ceiling.

Against the wall is an antique ebony bookcase in the Boule style, bought by the owner of the palace himself. The cabinet is decorated with tortoise shell and complex carved bronze inlay.

Next to the bookcase, a round table, English chairs and armchairs with Gothic carvings were comfortably attached. This arrangement of furniture gives the office an atmosphere conducive not only to business conversations, but also to friendly meetings.

Another reminder of Mikhail Semenovich Vorontsov's Anglomania is a window in the form of a bay window. This element, often found in English architecture, visually enlarges the office space and gives more light. A table covered with green cloth and two armchairs were placed in the bay window. Sitting in an armchair, you can admire the upper park, and in clear weather, the peaks of Ai-Petri.

From the office we get into the Chintz room. It is called chintz because the walls of the room are really covered with chintz.

There is original fabric on the walls, the only flaw of which is the faded color. Initially, the chintz was a crimson shade with small splashes of blue, which was combined with a fireplace made of pink Ural marble and a basket-shaped chandelier. The pinkish-blue reflections of the pendants on the chandelier echoed the color of the chintz on the walls.

We pass through the Chintz Room to Chinese cabinet the hostess of the house, Elizaveta Ksaveryevna Vorontsova, whose portrait by George Doe can be seen on the right wall from the entrance.

The room is decorated in the then fashionable oriental style, but without any specific references to China, India or the countries of the East in general. Oak panels, high lancet windows and doors leading to the southern terrace, to the sea, unexpectedly but successfully combine with rice mats embroidered with silk and beads on the walls and wooden carved details in the interior.

The ceiling in the room is not wooden, as it may seem, but stucco. Russian peasant Roman Furtunov skillfully made a plaster ceiling, imitating wood carving.

Near the window there is a round table made of Karelian birch. Nearby, behind the curtain, there is a small corner cabinet, presented by Vorontsov to Empress Alexandra Fedorovna, wife of Nicholas I, as a token of gratitude for the hospitality shown to him.

And a few lyrical digressions. From the school bench, many people know that Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin was carried away by the wife of the Novorossiysk Governor-General. It is believed that it was Elizabeth Vorontsova who Pushkin dedicated the poems "The Burnt Letter", "The Stormy Day Has Extinct...", "The Desire for Glory", "The Talisman", "Keep Me, My Talisman...". In addition, according to the number of Vorontsova's portrait drawings performed by Pushkin, her image surpasses all others - 17 portraits were counted in total.

There were rumors that it was Pushkin who was the father of one of the daughters of Elizabeth Ksaveryevna. However, researchers of the poet's biography have reason to assume that Pushkin was only a cover for the novel by Elizaveta Ksaveryevna with her relative and Pushkin's friend Alexander Raevsky. In any case, one can say thanks to Mikhail Semyonovich Vorontsov, who "contributed" to the change of the poet's southern exile to an exile in Mikhailovskoye. Because it was there that Alexander Sergeevich wrote not only the novel "Eugene Onegin", but also his other poetic works, which became the pride of Russian literature. And by the way, the same researchers claim that Vorontsov himself had an illegitimate daughter with his wife's best friend, Olga Stanislavovna Naryshkina. Portraits of Olga Stanislavovna and her daughter were always kept among Vorontsov's personal belongings and even stood on the desktop of the front office.

But let's not linger in the Chinese Cabinet, but let's go further - to the Main lobby.

The front vestibule is located in the center of the palace. From the south and north, two small vestibules adjoin symmetrically to it, and from the west and east there are offices and lounges. Northern vestibule, like northern facade palace, made in the English style. In contrast to the Englishness, the southern vestibule is decorated with carpets depicting the Persian Shah Fath-Ali.

Following the traditions of the English style, the architect connected the vestibule with the chambers of the second floor with stairs, but hid them behind the wall, which is why at first glance you can’t understand how the owners got from the first floor to their bedrooms.

Portraits of eminent ancestors of the owners of the residence are hung on the walls of the vestibule, so that from the threshold entering the palace he has an idea of the nobility of the family and the origin of the owners of the house. The parents of Elizaveta Ksaveryevna Vorontsova, Countess Alexandra Vasilievna Branitskaya and her husband, Crown Hetman of Poland Xavier Branitsky, are looking at us from the walls. The largest canvas is the ceremonial portrait of Empress Catherine II by Rokotov.

From the vestibule, we will proceed to the eastern palace wing, which begins with the Blue Drawing Room. It is impossible not to notice the contrast between the adjoining front lobby and this sunlit room. The pale blue walls and ceiling are covered with a stucco pattern of leaves and flowers. Like the ceiling in the Chinese Cabinet, the skillful stucco molding of the living room was made by Roman Furtunov and his assistants.

The living room is divided into southern and northern parts by retractable wooden curtains, which are almost invisible when folded. In the southern part there was an "auditorium", which housed a furniture set, transported to Alupka at the end of the 19th century from the Odessa Palace. The interior is complemented by a carved fireplace made of white Carrara marble and huge crater vases painted in blue tones.

For musical evenings and theatrical performances, a grand piano is installed in the northern part of the Blue Living Room. In 1863, one of the founders of the Russian realistic theater, Mikhail Semenovich Shchepkin, performed here. In 1898, Fyodor Chaliapin sang in the Vorontsov Palace to the accompaniment of Sergei Rachmaninov.

From the Blue Drawing Room, the guests of the Vorontsovs went out into the Winter Garden. In the 19th century, almost every European palace had its own winter garden, which was used for reading and relaxing.

The winter garden serves as a transition from the central building to the dining room. Initially, it was a loggia, which was subsequently glazed, having constructed a large lantern on top for better illumination. The walls of the winter garden are entwined with ficus-repens. The fountain and marble sculptures are surrounded by araucaria, cycads, date palms and monsters.

Near the glazed wall, consisting of huge French windows, there is a row of marble busts, among which are sculptural portraits of representatives of the Vorontsov family - Semyon Romanovich Vorontsov, Mikhail Semenovich himself and his wife Elizaveta Ksarievna. Next to them is a marble bust of Catherine II by Johann Esterreich. They say that for the excessive realism of her image in stone, the aging empress not only did not pay for the work, but also sent the sculptor from Russia within a day.

Passing the Winter Garden, not forgetting to admire the view of the South Terrace and the sea from the windows, we get into the next room - the Grand Dining Room. This is the largest and most pompous part of the palace.

The area of the dining room is about 150 sq.m., the height of the ceiling is 8 m. Under the Vorontsovs, it was illuminated by dozens of candelabra and chandeliers. An enormous table, composed of four offset pieces with polished mahogany tops, rises on pedestals with animal paws and occupies a large part of the room. By the window there is a massive sideboard on the same lion's paws as the tables, and under the sideboard there is a bath in Egyptian style for cooling wine, which was filled with crushed ice.

In the center of the northern wall of the main dining room, between the fireplaces, there is a fountain, the niche of which is decorated with a majolica panel depicting fantastic birds and dragons. Above the fountain is a carved wooden balcony for musicians.

The Billiard Room adjoins the Dining Room from the east. The closeness of this room to the Dining Room is reminded by two large still life paintings by the Flemish artist Peter Sneyers, "Pantry of Vegetables" and "Pantry with Fish", located opposite each other.

The Vorontsovs, like many other aristocrats, collected paintings. Especially at that time the canvases of the painters of Holland, Flanders, Italy of the 16th-18th centuries were valued.

This is the last room of the Vorontsovs' quarters accessible for inspection. Now we can walk through the Upper Park.

The work on the creation of the park, which began even a little earlier than the construction of the palace, in 1820, was entrusted to the chief gardener South Shore Crimea Karl Antonovich Kebakh. When laying the park, the abundance of mountain springs was taken into account, which were used to create artificial lakes, numerous cascades and small waterfalls. In this part of the park, the murmur of water is constantly heard.

Most of the paths of the Upper Park lead to the lakes and the Great Chaos - a huge stone blockage of natural origin.

The largest of the park's lakes is Swan Lake. The gardener deliberately gave it an irregular shape to create the illusion of its natural rather than artificial origin. Under the Vorontsovs, the bottom of the lake was strewn with semi-precious "Koktebel pebbles" - jasper, carnelian, chalcedony, which were found in abundance in Koktebel.

Near Swan Lake - Trout Pond and even further - Mirror. On the Mirror Pond, the water seems to be still, which is why the trees and the sky are reflected on its surface as in a mirror.

To the east of the lakes in the landscape part of the park there are four picturesque glades - Platanovaya, Solnechnaya, Contrasting, where Himalayan cedar and yew berry, and Kashtanovaya rise in the middle of the lawn.

Above the ponds along the path through the Hall of Grottoes, between artfully placed rock fragments, the way goes to Greater and Lesser Chaos. Millions of years ago, as a result of earthquakes and landslides, frozen magma turned into a placer of huge debris. The creators of the park left the boulders untouched, only removed small fragments and planted the top with pines. This is how the famous "Alupka chaos" turned out.

At this point, we will interrupt the walk through the Vorontsovsky Park, so that there is a reason to come back here again.

The Vorontsov Palace in Alupka is one of the most visited Yalta palaces and the only one that I visited, and even then by accident. It’s not that I didn’t want to see it, but I really didn’t want to do it in the summer, it’s too crowded at this time.
The palace was built in the English style, and the building contains elements of various eras, from early forms to the 16th century. The farther from the western gate, the more recent style of construction. The English style is combined with the neo-Moorish style. For example, Gothic chimneys resemble the minarets of a mosque. The palace was built from 1828 to 1848 as summer residence Governor-General of the Novorossiysk Territory, Count Vorontsov. Interestingly, the Vorontsov Palace is one of the first buildings in Russia, where sewerage and water supply were built for the comfort of living.

The main facade of the Vorontsov Palace

The palace was owned by three generations of the Vorontsov family. Since 1921 in palace complex functioning museum. After the Great Patriotic War, for about 10 years, the territory of the Vorontsov Palace was a secret object and there was a dacha for the party leadership. Now it is a museum again.

The Vorontsov Palace is located on the territory of Alupka Park, which was created by the famous botanist and gardener Karl Antonovich Kebach for 25 years. He designed clearings, placed trees according to their size. It was a matter of principle, because, according to Karl's plan, the trees were not supposed to block gorgeous view to the top of Ai-Petri mountain.

The park is spread over an area of 40 hectares. Geographically divided into Upper and lower parks. The park is designed in such a way that it complements the local nature. More than two hundred species of plants grow here, which were imported from the regions of the North and South America, Mediterranean. The cost of laying out the park is twice as high as the construction of the palace itself. Up to 36,000 rubles were spent on the maintenance of the park in 1910 - a huge amount at that time.

Map of Vorontsovsky park

The attraction of the park are piles of stones from solidified magma, ejected by the volcano since time immemorial, called "Big Chaos" and "Small Chaos". These chaoses were carefully inscribed in the layout of the park, a dozen paths were laid through the piles of stones, forming almost a labyrinth, benches were placed, and observation platforms. Separate blocks are entwined with ivy and wild grapes. Sometimes it is very difficult to believe that you are in a park, and not abandoned.

A large number of fountains have been built in the park. Most of them were built according to the designs of V. Gunt.
In general, in Crimea, there has long been a tradition of respect for water. The construction of a fountain, both in the Muslim Crimea and in Russia, was considered a worthy deed, and even charitable. Where at least some trickle flowed, they put a fountain, decorated it with a saying from the Koran or the emblem of an engineering department, sometimes they beat out the date. Along the old roads, in the old Crimean settlements, a lot of these ancient fountains have been preserved, many are still functioning.

Three ponds are also artificially created on the territory of the park: Upper, Mirror and Lebediny. Around the ponds grow maples, ash and dogwood.

To decorate the bottom swan lake Count Vorontsov ordered 20 bags of semi-precious stones, which were delivered by ship. IN sunny weather they created an indescribable beauty play of light.

The owner chases the ducks out of his property

A couple more interesting facts about the park, according to the guides. Vorontsovsky Park literally grew on blood, because the soil under the trees was abundantly fertilized with the blood of freshly killed animals. A separate gardener was assigned to each tree, who did not sleep, did not eat, but watched his ward, cherished and cherished.

The Chilean Araucaria owes its name to the Araucans - Indians living in Chile, for whom the fruits of this tree form the basis of the diet. This copy is over 130 years old. It does not develop well in our conditions. In its homeland, it grows up to 50 meters in height, has a trunk up to one meter in diameter. There are only 5 such trees in Crimea. Araucaria branches are covered with sharp thorns, so neither monkeys nor birds sit on them.

Chilean araucaria

Crimean pine

pistachio

lower park

The fountain "Maria" is made based on the famous Bakhchisarai fountain, sung by Pushkin. The fountain is made of white and colored marble and decorated with shells and rosettes. Water falls in small drops from one bowl to another, forming a quiet, even rhythm of drops - “tears”.

Mary Fountain (Fountain of Tears)

From the sea is the famous lion terrace.

The southern entrance is decorated with oriental splendor. The Arabic inscription translates as: "And there is no winner but Allah."

coral tree

Fountain of Bakhchisarai

I didn’t go inside the palace, I really don’t like a slender run in the crowd. Maybe some other time I'll visit.

Winter Garden of the Palace

During the Yalta Conference in February 1945, the British delegation headed by W. Churchill lived in the Vorontsov Palace. A curious story is connected with him, which happened during a walk in the park of Churchill and Stalin. Churchill, who really liked the sleeping lion sculpture, said that he looked like himself and suggested that Stalin ransom him. Stalin refused this offer, but suggested to Churchill that if he answered his question correctly, then Stalin would present a sleeping lion. "Which finger on the hand is the main one?" - such was Stalin's question. Churchill replied: "Of course, index." “Wrong,” Stalin replied and twisted the figure from his fingers, which is popularly called the figurine.

sleeping lion

Fountain "Sink"

The southern facade of the Vorontsov Palace and the Lion's Terrace

In 1823, the hero of the Patriotic War of 1812, Count Mikhail Semenovich Vorontsov, became the governor-general of the Novorossiysk Territory, which at that time included Crimea. The development of Crimea owes much to this strong-willed and energetic person. Under his leadership, a highway is being built on the southern coast of Crimea, the agricultural and especially the wine industry is developing rapidly, and the number of industrial enterprises is growing rapidly. In 1828, the history of the Black Sea Shipping Company begins. In the same years, the count actively buys land from the local Tatar population and dreams of creating his own palace.

The construction of the palace lasted for 20 years.

After the death in 1829 of Thomas Harrison in 1831, Count Vorontsov unexpectedly orders to stop the construction of the palace and radically change the style of the neoclassical style of the palace. The count invites one of the most talented architect of that time - Edward Blore. As conceived by the architect, the palace is being built in the English Gothic style. In the same year, the construction of the main building began. The building material for the construction of the walls was diabase - a rock volcanic origin which is several times stronger than granite. Deposits of this stone are in abundance nearby. Diabase is very difficult to process, but this does not stop Count Vorontsov, because he was the richest man in the country and more than 60,000 serfs worked under him. Even a sapper battalion took part in earthworks, whose soldiers worked on the construction of terraces on the south side of the facade.

An interesting fact: the architect Blore never visited the construction site. He got all the idea of the terrain from numerous drawings and engravings.

In 1948, the construction of the palace came to an end. The Vorontsov Palace consists of five buildings, decorated with towers, which are interconnected by various passages, stairs and courtyards. The architect managed to organically fit the buildings elongated from west to east into the mountainous landscape of the area. Outwardly, the palace is very much like a family feudal castle in England.

Palace interiors

The interiors of the Vorontsov Palace are in no way inferior to the Livadia Palace in the luxury of their decoration. The decoration of the rooms is almost completely preserved. Each room, and there are only about 150 of them, is made in a personal style. The materials that were used in the decoration are reflected in the names of the rooms. The Chinese cabinet is trimmed with the finest rice straws, decor elements are embroidered with beads and silk. The decoration of the Chintz Room is skillfully made from this fabric. The brightest room in the Vorontsov Palace is the Blue Drawing Room, the highlight of which is a stucco ornament in the form of petals and leaves. There are about three thousand of them in total, and each of them is not like the other. The fireplaces of the palace are a separate masterpiece of architectural art. In each room they are unique and made of different materials.

Alupka park

The Vorontsov Palace is located on the territory of Alupka Park, which is a pearl landscape design. This masterpiece was created by the Chief Gardener of the Southern Coast of Crimea, Karl Antonovich Kebakh, for 25 years. The park is spread over an area of 40 hectares. More than two hundred species of plants grow here, which were brought from the regions of North and South America, the Mediterranean. Geographically divided into Upper and Lower parks. The park is designed in such a way that it complements the local nature. Three reservoirs have been artificially created on the territory of the park.

An interesting fact: To decorate the bottom of Swan Lake, Count Vorontsov ordered 20 bags of semi-precious stones, which were delivered by ship. In sunny weather, they created an indescribably beautiful play of light.

The attraction of the park is the piles of stones from solidified magma, thrown out by the volcano in ancient times, called "Big Chaos" and "Small Chaos". Also, a large number of fountains were built in the park.

glade in the park

Interesting facts about the Vorontsov Palace

The palace was owned by three generations of the Vorontsov family. The cost of laying out the parks is twice as high as the construction of the palace itself. Up to 36,000 rubles were spent on the maintenance of the park in 1910, a huge amount at that time. The Vorontsov Palace is one of the first buildings in Russia, where sewerage and water supply were built for the comfort of living. A museum has been functioning in the palace complex since 1921. Only after the Great Patriotic War, for about 10 years, the territory of the Vorontsov Palace was a secret object and there was a dacha for the party leadership. During the Yalta Conference in February 1945, the British delegation headed by W. Churchill lived in the Vorontsov Palace. A curious story is connected with him, which happened during a walk in the park of Churchill and Stalin. The fact is that the staircase on the side of the facade, which faces the sea, is decorated with sculptures of guarding lions. Churchill, who really liked the sculpture of the sleeping lion, said that he looked like himself and suggested that Stalin buy him. Stalin refused this offer, but suggested to Churchill that if he answered his question correctly, then Stalin would present a sleeping lion. "Which finger on the hand is the main one?" - such was Stalin's question. Churchill replied, "Of course, index." “Wrong,” Stalin replied and twisted the figure from his fingers, which is popularly called the figurine.

The Alupka Palace and Park Museum-Reserve, also known as the Vorontsov Palace, was built in the period 1828-1848. designed by the English architect Edward Blore as the Crimean residence of Count Mikhail Semenovich Vorontsov. When it was created, the local landscape was used, and the main feature of the palace is a mixture of several diametrically opposed architectural styles.

The entrance to the territory of the palace is more like a castle of the European Middle Ages.

The palace was built of especially hard dolerite stone, the natural resources of which were located on the site of the future building. This is a solidified magma, which was previously called diabase. Dolerite is characterized by a high hardness of 6-7 units on the Mohs scale. This means that this material is so hard that it is used for paving roads, and can only be processed with diamond.

It sounds even more surprising when you find out that quitrent serfs from the Vladimir and Moscow provinces built the palace, working manually with the most primitive tools.

This narrow corridor between two fortress walls is called Shuvalovsky passage. The Shuvalovs were relatives of the Vorontsovs. And somewhere here were the apartments of Sophia, the daughter of Mikhail Semenovich.

Through the passage we get into the courtyard. Here, textured processing of the walls with “torn” stone is applied. Museum expositions we did not examine, limiting ourselves to an external examination.

North facade of the palace. Here the features are already visible medieval fortress, but a country English palace of the 16th century, for which large window openings and tall chimneys are typical.

The western part of the palace is made in neo-gothic style.

At the Vorontsov Palace there is a park founded about 200 years ago, which has more than 200 species of trees and shrubs from around the world. The well-known German gardener-architect Karl Kebach was specially invited to create it.

On especially interesting and rare specimens there are plates with the name, homeland and approximate age. For example, this is an eastern plane tree from the western Mediterranean, 190 years old.

The park ensemble consists of the upper and lower parks. The Upper Park is an array of natural diabase, it is also called "Alupka chaos". Paths are harmoniously laid through all these stones and plants.

Through the park we approach the eastern facade.

On south terrace a wide staircase made of the same diorite leads to the facade, on the sides of which there are sculptures of lions, made in the workshop of the Italian sculptor Bonanni. The southern facade itself is made in the Arabic style and with oriental splendor. Exactly this a nice place palace.

A horseshoe-shaped arch, a two-tier vault, a plaster carving in a niche where a Tudor flower pattern and a lotus motif are intertwined. On the fresco of the niche, there is a six-fold repeated inscription with a saying from the Koran: "And there is no god but Allah."

The palace is located right at the foot of Mount Ai-Petri, we will also climb it, but a little later.

And what is the view of the sea from the southern facade...

The area in the Alupka region is rich in water, which made it possible to create Vorontsovsky park more than a dozen different fountains. Most of them were designed by V. Gunt.

The lower park is also diverse and begins with a gentle relief. It borders the Vorontsov Palace and is decorated in a classic park style.

To the right is a large rose garden.

The Vorontsov Palace was nationalized after the revolution, the remaining property was supplemented with collections from other southern coast palaces, and in 1921 a historical and household museum was opened here.

During the Patriotic War Crimea was occupied by German fascists. During the retreat, the Germans wanted to blow up the palace, but the explosion failed, museum workers prevented this.

In February 1945, during the Crimean Conference, the Alupka Palace was given to the British delegation headed by W. Churchill, who even wanted to buy it.

From 1945 to 1955 there was a state dacha here, referred to in the documents as “special facility No. 3”.

As a museum, the palace was reopened to visitors already in 1956.