Vorontsov Palace (Alupka) - the decoration of the southern Crimea. Vorontsov Palace - the most beautiful palace ensemble of Crimea

If you chose Alupka for a holiday in Crimea in 2016, you will definitely see the Vorontsov Palace in photographs, postcards, paintings, signs throughout the city. The most majestic in the Crimea, it has become a real decoration of this seaside town and one of the main attractions of the South Coast, which millions of tourists come to see every year. The magnificent architecture of the Vorontsov Palace in Alupka, a luxurious park, stunning views of the slopes of the Crimean Mountains and the Black Sea will not leave anyone indifferent.

Location: Alupka, Palace highway, 10.

What is the most convenient way to get there: the easiest way to come to Alupka is from Yalta: minibuses No. 102, 115, 107 go here. From Simferopol and Sevastopol, you can get to the Vorontsov Palace from the bus station.

What is the best time of the year to visit A: any time of the year in good weather.

History of the Vorontsov Palace in Crimea

The Vorontsov Palace in Alupka was built as the residence of the Governor-General of the Novorossiysk Territory, Count M.S. Vorontsov. It must be said that the very choice of Crimea for the construction of this majestic structure should have flattered our peninsula: in those days, Novorossia included a vast territory from Odessa to the Don.

The palace was built according to the project of the English architect Edward Blore, who "had a hand" in the construction of Buckingham Palace in London and Walter Scott's castle in Scotland. Until now, there are disputes as to whether the architect was personally in the Crimea or created his masterpiece, guided solely by stories about the surrounding landscapes. The first is more believable, because the Vorontsov Palace in Alupka fits perfectly into the landscape: its sharp turrets seem to repeat the peaks of the Crimean mountains, and the combination of several architectural styles, including eastern ones, perfectly reflects the fate of the Crimea.

The palace was built in 1828-1848 under the guidance of another English architect, William Gunt. In parallel with the building, work was also carried out on the creation of the park: Karl Kebach, a gardener, to whom Crimea owes the appearance of magnificent gardens and parks of Foros, Gaspra, Oreanda, Massandra, Miskhor, was responsible for them.

Mikhail Semenovich Vorontsov did not have long to own the palace: he died in Odessa in 1856. After him, the estate passed to his son, and then to his relatives, the wealthy noblemen Vorontsov-Dashkov. In 1917, the Vorontsov Palace was nationalized. He was much more fortunate than other cultural sites in the Crimea: since 1921, a historical and household museum has been set up here, since 1956 - an art museum. In 1990, the Vorontsov Palace became the Alupka Palace and Park Museum-Reserve.

architectural masterpiece

The first thing you pay attention to when you see a photo of the Vorontsov Palace is the unusual color of the stone from which it was built. All other estates of Russian aristocrats in Crimea delight with light, white facades, while the residence of Count Vorontsov looks like a gray block, lost in dense greenery. The building was erected from diorite, a grayish-greenish stone of volcanic origin. It was mined here, in Alupka, and each block was processed manually.

The Vorontsov Palace welcomes tourists with the Shuvalovsky Passage. Walking along the cobblestone pavement, surrounded by high walls, it seems that now you will find yourself in a real medieval castle. However, one glance at the frivolous turrets is enough to understand that the Vorontsov Palace is not so simple.

Blore combined Neo-Gothic and Neo-Moorish styles in the design of the palace. In England, such a mixture would be called romanticism, but in Russia - eclecticism. The northern facade of the Vorontsov Palace with strict lines resembles the residences of English aristocrats. But the southern one, facing the sea, is decorated in an oriental style: experts say that Blore was inspired by the Alhambra Palace, the residence of the Arab rulers of Spain in Grenada. The Lion Terrace leads to the park - a staircase decorated with marble figures of lions - analogues of sculptures from the tomb of Pope Clement XII in Rome.

The interior decoration, as is easy to understand from the photo of the Vorontsov Palace in Crimea, has remained almost unchanged since the 19th century. Each room has its own individual design - for example, the Chinese Study, the Winter Garden, the Blue Living Room, the Chintz Room. The main dining room in the Vorontsov Palace in Alupka is very original: it resembles the hall of a medieval palace. The halls are decorated with sculptures and works by famous painters - Italian, French, English and, of course, Russian masters. In total, there are about 150 rooms in the Vorontsov Palace, including utility rooms, but, of course, only a part is open to the public.

Vorontsov Palace - movie star

If, when looking at a photo of the Vorontsov Palace, you get the feeling that it is familiar to you, it means that you are a connoisseur of the classics of Soviet cinema. It is unlikely that there is another one that would "light up" in so many films! The Vorontsov Palace in Crimea depicted the royal residence in The Ordinary Miracle and Hamlet, The Three Musketeers and The Heavenly Swallows. Scarlet Sails, Crazy Day, or The Marriage of Figaro and Sappho were filmed here. There is a high probability of encountering a film crew in the summer of 2015: the halls and landscapes of the palace-museum are constantly used when shooting feature films and documentaries.

Expositions of the Vorontsov Palace in Crimea

In 2016 in the Vorontsov Palace you will be able to visit the following expositions:

• "Ceremonial halls of the Main building of the Vorontsov Palace".
• Southern terraces.
• "Dvoretsky's Apartment" in the Economic Building.
• House of Count Shuvalov.
• Vorontsovskaya kitchen.
• Interior expositions “Count I.I. Vorontsov-Dashkov "and" Office of the commandant of the State. Summer cottages.
• "Paris Archive" (paintings and photographic materials - a gift from the Comstadius family).
• “The gift of Professor V.N. Golubev” (paintings by artists of the 20th century).

Ticket price to the Vorontsov Palace

Most of the expositions of the Vorontsov Palace are open seven days a week. On any day of the week, you can come and enjoy the luxurious park. Please note that one-day excursions, which can be bought in almost any resort town in Crimea, usually do not include visiting the halls, so if you want to enjoy the interior decoration of the Vorontsov Palace, you will have to think about this moment in advance. However, an examination of the exterior of this stunning building and a huge park (its area is more than 40 hectares!) Will leave an unforgettable impression! In general, it is worth allocating at least 3-4 hours to visit this attraction, as well as the Nikitsky Botanical Garden in Crimea, and if you want to listen to a tour and walk through all the expositions, and then also swim on the Alupka beach, then plan a trip for a whole day!

On the first Tuesday of each month, free excursions are organized for schoolchildren and students. You can take a photo in the Vorontsov Palace by paying an additional 30 rubles. By the way, the museum has its own price list for on-site registration and professional photography, so if you wish, you can arrange a real photo shoot against the backdrop of a magnificent palace!

Alupka- a resort town as part of Greater Yalta, located at the foot of Mount Ai-Petri, 17 km southwest of the city of Yalta in the Crimea.

Vorontsov Palace and its park complex - "highlight" Alupka landscape and

the main attraction of the seaside town.

Rest on the Black Sea in Alupka attracts tourists with a mild climate without sharp seasonal fluctuations, healing sea and pine air, in which one can breathe easily and freely, as well as a picturesque view of the surroundings of a Russian seaside town on the southern coast of Crimea.

A particularly bewitching view of Alupka opens from the sea: in the center of the panorama on a hill flaunts the magnificent Alupka Palace (Vorontsovsky); buildings of coastal sanatoriums are stretched in a chain along the sea and are buried in the greenery of parks, and the teeth of the majestic mountain Ai-Petri dominate over them.

Ai-Petrinsky mountain range- one of the highest in the Crimea. Like a shield, it closes Alupka from the northern cold winds, and the largest number of sunny days per year (compared to the Black Sea resorts of the Caucasus) make this town on the Black Sea coast a wonderful resort - the second after Yalta on the southern coast of Crimea.

Vorontsov Palace in Alupka.

Vorontsov Palace(Alupka) is the former summer Crimean residence Governor-General of the Novorossiysk Territory Count Mikhail Semenovich Vorontsov.

Mikhail Semyonovich Vorontsov

Portrait of Mikhail Semenovich Vorontsov by Lawrence, 1823.

Count, from 1845 - prince Mikhail Semyonovich Vorontsov(May 18 or 19, 1782 - November 6 or 7, 1856) - Russian statesman from the Vorontsov family, Field Marshal General (1856), Adjutant General (1815), hero of the war of 1812. In 1815-1818 he was the commander of the Russian occupation corps in France. In 1823-1854 - Novorossiysk and Bessarabian Governor-General; in this position, he contributed a lot to the economic development of the region, the construction of Odessa and other cities.

Customer and first owner of the Alupka Palace. In 1844-1854 he was governor in the Caucasus.

HISTORY OF THE VORONTSOV PALACE

The estate was conceived as the summer residence of the Governor-General Mikhail Vorontsov, who had many estates in different regions of the country and was considered the richest landowner in Russia. In 1824, the possessions of the Revelioti family, who owned most of the southern coast of Taurida, were acquired. Vorontsov invites the German botanist Karl Kebach, who took up the first plantings, from which Vorontsov Park appeared.

In 1824 they begin to build and Vorontsov Palace. The architects were Thomas Harrison (Vorontsov spent all his childhood and youth in England, so he decided to trust an experienced British architect) and Francesco Boffo (he created the Vorontsov Palace in Odessa). The palace was conceived in the neoclassical style. Four years later, the groundbreaking was completed, but Harrison died suddenly in 1829.

Mikhail Vorontsov himself in 1831 decides to suspend construction and decides to change the style of the palace. He goes to England to Edward Blore, and he only created his own project based on English Gothic based on the presented drawings of the area. Blor himself did not appear in Alupka - Vorontsov Palace in Crimea erected by his student William Gunt, who was recommended by the architect himself.

Gunt made a number of changes to the project. Thus, the Vorontsov Palace in Alupka is designed in the Tudor style, which was so popular in England in the 16th century. But given that Turkish influence was still felt in the Crimea, the southern gate, as opposed to the northern one, was made in the eastern Indo-Moorish style. Complementing the composition are marble lions by sculptor Giovanni Bonnani. The palace was built until 1848. The park was completed 3 years later. The palace has 150 rooms divided between 5 buildings.

The peculiarity of the architecture of the palace is clearly visible from the sea - it is in harmony with the Ai-Petri massif. This is not surprising, since the walls were supposed to be an extension of the mountains hanging over it.

For the manufacture of the palace, a local stone was used - diabase (a greenish-gray stone of volcanic origin), which was located in abundance in the district. It was blown up with dynamite and turned into blocks. Even today you can see many fragments of diabase rocks in the park.

The work was attended by foreign masters who were engaged in the garden, and the serfs of Count Vorontsov. The sculptor Roman Furtunov was especially successful, who was the only one of the serfs who received an equal salary with foreign masters.

After the death of Count Mikhail, the Vorontsov Palace of Crimea was inherited by children. First in the male line, then in the female line. During the years of Soviet power, it was nationalized. It housed a dacha of the NKVD, and since 1952 a sanatorium. At this time, part of the furniture of the palace was lost, in particular, a billiard table was lost, which, after the collapse of the USSR, was replaced by another found in warehouses in Yalta.

The Alupka Palace and Park Museum-Reserve fits perfectly into the amazing landscape with a mountain range, evergreen vegetation and several narrow streets of the town rising uphill from the sea coast.

It's built from diabase- material, which in its strength exceeds 2 times granite and is mined on the Crimean peninsula. The gray-green color of the stone creates a single architectural composition of the Vorontsov Palace with nature.

The palace was designed by an English architect Edward Blore. Construction was carried out from 1828 to 1848. Finishing lasted until 1852. The architecture of the palace is unique. It consists in a combination of different styles:

• The North Façade is Late English Gothic;
• The Western Facade is a European medieval castle, a fortress of the 8th-12th centuries;
• Southern - elements of India and the East. The huge dome of the southern facade with Arabic inscriptions, open towards the Black Sea, has a romantic look. The "Lion's Terrace" with the gradually alert "kings" of the animals adorns the magnificent staircase leading to the entrance to the castle from the side of the park. Three pairs of Carrara white marble lions were made in the workshop of the Florentine sculptor Bonnani, but the most famous (bottom) is the “Sleeping Lion”

Shuvalovsky passage.

The palace ensemble consists of 5 buildings, open and closed courtyards, terraces. The Vorontsov Palace looks both stern and elegant, stable and romantic.

The western part of the palace (the so-called Shuvalovsky passage) appears before tourists in the form of a stone-paved street of a medieval city with old fortress walls with powerful towers and narrow loophole windows. The daughter of Mikhail Semenovich Vorontsov, having married, became Countess Shuvalova, and her apartments were located in the right building.

North facade

In front of the palace there are two stalls with marble fountains in the center of each. Hidden in a shady pergola of flowering wisteria

Fountain "Selsibil" - 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 - white marble Fountain "Source of Cupid".

South facade of the palace.

The southern facade is famous for its high portal with a deep niche, on the frieze of which the saying is inscribed in Arabic script

"There is no winner but Allah."

Marble lion on the south terrace.

PALACE INTERIORS

The main exposition includes 10 rooms. The rooms of the upper floor are closed so as not to overload the weakened ceilings. The tour begins through the side entrance, leading to the corridor that led to the count's office. Initially, the rooms on the ground floor served as a bedroom for the Vorontsovs. The main rooms opened in the exposition "ceremonial halls of the main building":

1. Front office;

2. Dining room with a balcony for musicians;

3. Greenhouse, including a collection of rare plants from distant countries;

4. Billiard room;

5. Chintz room;

6. Chinese cabinet;

7. Lobby;

8. Blue living room, the walls of which are decorated with stucco roses. Also exhibited here is a grand piano, which is not original in Vorontsov's interior.

Each of the 150 rooms that make up the palace ensemble is unique: the Print Room, the Blue Living Room, the Grand Dining Room, the Winter Garden, the Chinese Study, the Billiard Room, and the Lobby. Everywhere you can see the luxury and love of the owners for their home.

A special pride of the Alupka Palace - luxury fireplaces in the Gothic style, made of marble-like limestone and polished diabase stone.

"Front 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. The northern vestibule, like the northern facade of the palace, is made in the English style. In contrast to the Englishness, the southern vestibule is decorated with carpets depicting the Persian Shah Fath-Ali.

"front office"

The study looks quite restrained, in English, but the abundance of wood in the room gives warmth and comfort to the interior. The wallpaper was specially ordered in England.

The central place on the western wall of the study is occupied by a portrait of Count Vorontsov by Louise Desseme.

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 space of the office 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.

"The Chintz Room"

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 study of the mistress of the house Elizaveta Ksaveryevna Vorontsova, whose portrait by George Doe can be seen on the right wall from the entrance.

Portrait of Elizabeth Ksaveryevna Vorontsova, by George Doe.

"Chinese cabinet"

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.

In the corner between the windows there is a valuable piece of furniture, a small corner cabinet.

It is made in the shape of a tortoise shell in the Bull style, decorated with bronze, but what is especially valuable about it is that it is a gift from Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, wife of Nicholas I, as a token of gratitude for the hospitality he showed to the owners of the house in Alupka.

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...".

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.

"Front Dining Room"

The Grand Dining Room is the most majestic hall of the Vorontsov 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 an Egyptian-style tub 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.

"Kitchen"

"Blue Living Room"

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.

"Billiard room"

There is a lot of wood here: panels, ceiling, parquet floor.

Sofas and chairs are upholstered in expensive olive satin satin. There are many paintings on the walls. The canvases of the painters of Holland, Flanders, Italy of the 16-18 centuries were especially valued at that time.

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.

"Winter Garden"

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.

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 monstera.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/u7-r7cK5dUE

"Vorontsovsky 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 of the Southern coast of 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 skillfully placed rock fragments, the path leads to the Great 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.