Genoese fortress. Zander. Genoese fortress - unusual angles

Above the steep rocks on Mount Krepostnaya rises the stone Genoese fortress, the pride of Sudak, his calling card and a priceless pearl. Today, with its grandeur, it attracts tourist crowds, but hundreds of years ago, the appearance of the citadel played a secondary role. In those days, its fortification properties came to the fore, and, I must say, it perfectly performed its tasks. Due to its favorable location and powerful defensive fortifications, the Sudak fortress was considered almost impregnable. In addition, it was protected by steep mountain slopes and an artificial moat that existed at that time.

There are several legends about the history of the fortress, one of which tells about the construction in 212, but so far the plausibility of this version has not been confirmed by facts. A more popular point of view is that the fortress appeared at the end of the 7th century, and it was founded by the Khazars or the Byzantines. The main part of the structures and walls that have come down to us is attributed to the experienced Genoese who built the citadel from 1371 to 1469.

Above the steep rocks on Mount Krepostnaya rises the stone Genoese fortress, the pride of Sudak, his calling card and a priceless pearl.

Time and wars did not spare the Sudak fortress, to this day it has survived only partially. The main gate, 12 towers, the temple-mosque, the temple of the Twelve Apostles, the warehouse and the ruins of the barracks testify to its former power and greatness.

Helpful information

Finding the fortress is not difficult, even if you are in Sudak for the first time, as it is visible from any part of the city. To get to the fortress, you can use public transport: trolleybus number 1 (Dachnoe - Cozy) or suburban trolleybus number 5 (Sudak - Novy Svet).

By private car from the bus station you need to go along the street. Guards, st. Oktyabrskaya, then along the street. Lenin, which, after going to the Tourist highway, will lead you straight to the fortress. And finally, lovers of walking from the bus station will reach the Sudak fortress in about 30-40 minutes.

You can enter the Sudak fortress through the main gate. Entrance is paid, ticket offices are located on the nearby Genoese Fortress street. Entrance: 150 RUB (200 RUB with a tour), for children - 75 RUB (100 RUB with a tour). The average duration of the tour is 40 minutes.

For sightseeing, you can join a tour group or walk through the fortifications on your own. Fortunately, signs with detailed information about the objects are installed throughout the reserve.

From the observation platforms, located almost at the very cliff, incredible views of Sudak and the mountains surrounding it open up. The spectacle is truly unforgettable and inspiring.

Working hours: without days off and breaks; in summer - from 8:00 to 20:00 (ticket office - until 19:00), in winter - from 9:00 to 17:00 (ticket office - until 16:00).

What to see

In the building of the former temple-mosque, the museum of the reserve "Sudak fortress" was opened, in the exhibition halls of which valuable archaeological finds are collected. Here you can find ancient coins, amphorae, antique jewelry and all kinds of works of art.

A rare chance to plunge into the medieval atmosphere and take part in impromptu battles is given to the participants of the knightly festival "Genoese Helmet", which is held annually in the fortress.

For the period of the festival, the cost of entrance tickets increases significantly, but the spectacle is worth the money and time spent.

Prices on the page are for August 2018.

And places worthy of the attention of tourists. The very first on their list is the Genoese fortress. I decided to dedicate this post to her.

Location

There is a defensive structure on the Fortress Hill. It used to be a coral reef. Today it enters the Sudak Bay. There are very beautiful places here. You can see the famous and other sights of the surroundings.

Founding history

The construction of the fortress began as far back as 242 AD, simultaneously with the founding of the city. What was then a small settlement. Why it was named after the Genoese is difficult to say. After all, they did not start construction work from scratch, which, by the way, was ideally suited for this.

At the same time, historians claim that the first defensive type building was erected around the 7th century. Before the arrival of the Genoese, the Khazars, the Byzantines, and even the Golden Horde ruled here. But it was the people, after whom the fortress is named, that built what we can admire today.

They began to build fortress walls in 1371. Some of the buildings were remodeled and refurbished. All the work took almost a hundred years. Construction ended only in 1469. Six years later, the Ottoman Turks captured the Crimea. In 1475, during the last siege, all the surviving defenders were burned. Along with the temple where they tried to take refuge.

Almost three hundred years later, when Prince Dolgoruky came to the Sudak lands, the fortress walls were given to him without a fight. Already in the Potemkin times, several additional barracks for soldiers were built here.

Today we can see the fortress in perfect condition thanks to a large-scale reconstruction in the early seventies. Perhaps, if not for her, then today this building would not be much different from in Feodosia.

Features, description

The territory covered by the fortress walls is more than impressive - almost thirty hectares. Some fortifications are located on Cape Kyz-Kule-Burun. It has two lines of defense. The height of the walls is about 8 meters, and the thickness is 2. There are 18 fifteen-meter towers on its territory.

The entire fortress can be conditionally divided into three complexes. The Lower Complex contains the main gate, battlements and 14 towers. It was the main gate that impressed me the most. Their view is majestic, impressive by the number of spectacular buildings:

• Platform in front of the gate in the form of a horseshoe;
• Composite type bridge;
• Ditch (dry);
• Lancet-type portal (arch) with two small turrets.

A battlement wall stretches to the north-west with two of the five towers still standing. In the direction to the northeast, 4 towers have survived, including a semicircular building with a chapel. In the upper complex - the citadel there is a consular castle with a powerful line of defense, which formed a kind of courtyard.

There are not many buildings on the territory of the Inner Complex. But here one of the most ancient structures has been preserved - the Maiden's Tower, built long before the Genoese fortress of Sudak itself. Here are the ruins of the temple on the consoles. As well as the Mosque, built during the reign of the Turks. The description of this amazing place is endless. Moreover, there is still a functioning museum. It is small, but it contains finds important for history, obtained during excavations.

By the way, visiting the fortress is not free. But believe me, the price is affordable for everyone. In addition, in comparison with the moral pleasure received, I would call it insignificant. In addition, a mesmerizing view of Sudak opens from here, and one more cape -.

Prices 2019, official website

Unfortunately, or maybe vice versa - fortunately, it will not work to come here whenever you want. Time to visit from 8 to 18. Naturally, there are no lunch breaks and days off. Only on the last Friday of each month you will not get into the Temple with an Arcade Museum.

• Children under 7 years old and tourists of privileged categories - pass for free;
• Schoolchildren, as well as students, pensioners and residents of Sudak (district) - 75 rubles;
• An adult ticket will cost 150 rubles.

If desired, you can order a tour of the territory with a guide. So you will learn a lot more interesting things, but it will cost more - from 100 to 200 rubles per person.

Official site: http://sudak-museum.ru/
Phone for information: 8 978 894 08 50.

How to get (get) to the Genoese fortress of Sudak

You can get here without any problems by any means of transport, including public. You need to take a fixed-route taxi No. 1 or 5. You reach the turn onto the street of the same name (Utes stop). The fortress is only a few minutes walk from it.

By the way, there is an opportunity to walk here from the Sudak bus station. Better yet, move around on a personal or borrowed one. A detailed map and coordinates can be found below.

Photo

Genoese fortress - a famous landmark of the city of Sudak

The Crimean peninsula is famous for a huge number of remarkable places where thousands of tourists from all over our vast planet come all year round. One of the main attractions of this place, of course, is the Genoese fortress in Sudak - a building that was originally intended as a reference location for the colony of the ancient Genoese Soldaya. This is a unique monument of art, namely an architectural structure, of a global scale.

View of the Genoese fortress from the city

Some residents of Sudak believe that even if their city was not rich in all natural resources, and there was no magnificent Black Sea on the territory of Crimea, this fortress would still attract no less number of tourists. Thanks to the large-scale reinforcing fortification of its structure, the Genoese fortress was recognized by scientists as the most unique monument of military defense architecture of the 10th-13th centuries in all of Tavria. From the south and east, this citadel is absolutely impregnable, from the west it is extremely difficult to get to it, and from the north, access to the building is very difficult due to the deepest ditch.

The Genoese fortress had as many as two tiers of defense from the enemy. The lower tier looks like an outer wall, one and a half to two meters thick and six to eight meters high. The upper tier is the Consular Castle and the towers connected by a wall, as well as a whole complex of the Watchtower at the very top. This is what saved the Genoese from the brutal attacks of foreigners. Between these defense structures in the Middle Ages there were peaceful streets and city buildings, the survivors of which can still be seen here at sunrise and sunset.

Enclosing wall of the Genoese fortress

Of the two-story Watchtower, which forms an irregular quadrangle at its top, only three walls have survived to this day - a quarter of the structure collapsed into the sea. There are also traces of the existence of a fireplace, a stone staircase and a niche inside the fortress. Once upon a time, on one of the walls of the building, a Catholic fresco was drawn, depicting a Madonna with seven swords piercing her heart. As modern researchers suggest, there was a home Catholic chapel in honor of the Holy Virgin Mary.

Fascinating story Genoese fortress

An amazing temple has been erected within the walls of the Genoese fortress of Sudak, which has a fascinating history of origin. Many scientists argue about this, but there is one, the most plausible version of the events that took place many hundreds of years ago. According to scientists, initially a mosque was erected on this site for Islamic believers of the Seljut Turks. Over time, the mosque was redesigned as an Orthodox Christian church, but then the Genoese arranged a place for the religion of Catholics in this room. After the Turks conquered Sudak, the original appearance of an Islamic mosque was returned to the temple. Then, when the Crimea was annexed to Russia, the premises were again used for the religion of Orthodox believers. Many worshipers saw these walls in the following time: it managed to visit both a church for the Germans and an Armenian-Catholic church for worship ...

The Genoese fortress of Crimea is located on the oldest cone-shaped coral reef, on Mount Kyz-Kulle-Burun, which means "Cape of the Maiden's Tower" in the Crimean Tatar language. This Sudak fortress was named Genoese only because the vast majority of the buildings of this greatest architectural monument were erected during the period of the Genoese residence in the Crimea, and the length of the walls along the entire perimeter is more than two kilometers. The total area of ​​this fortress is about thirty hectares. The walls, more than two meters thick, reach six to eight meters in height. The majestic appearance of the fortress is given by fourteen beautiful towers up to fifteen meters high. On each of the towers there is a plate with heraldic symbols and an inscription in medieval Latin, which speaks of the name of this tower in honor of the consul, during whose reign it was erected.

Ancient cannons on the shore

The Genoese fortress in the Crimea has undergone a lot of changes for many centuries, has seen several different owners within its walls. The first fortresses here began to be built by the Byzantines around the sixth or seventh centuries. Over time, the Khazars conquered this fortress, but already in the tenth or twelfth centuries, the Byzantine inhabitants again returned the Genoese fortress to their property. In the thirteenth century, the fortress of Sudak became the center of the Venetian colony, but later the Genoese drove them out of this territory. Already in 1365, the Genoese soldiers captured Sudak, gradually occupying the entire southern coast of Crimea, making this fortress their own military base.

What can be seen here now?

Until now, the three-tiered three-walled tower of the northeastern part of the Pasquale Giudice open type building, which was built in 1392, has been best preserved. The Corrado Chikalo tower built in 1404 is also popular. This is the only building of the Genoese fortress, which has a semicircular shape. The defensive port building of Astagver, built in 1386, is also well preserved.

The ruins of one of the ancient towers in the Genoese fortress

The most favorable time to visit the Genoese fortress is August. After all, it is in this summer month that a festival of knights called the “Genoese Helmet” is held here every year, where they conduct a visual reconstruction of the events of the Genoese times and real knightly battles.

The fortress is located in Ukraine, on the territory of the Crimean peninsula, in a wonderful place, right on Mount Fortress, also called Dzhenevez-Kaya, which means “Genoese rock” in the Crimean Tatar language. Everyone can visit this place with a guide, listening to the most interesting history of the fortress, or go there alone so that no one interferes with the view of the ancient building.

The Genoese fortress is a unique building of the Middle Ages, here everyone can feel like a real knight of the thirteenth century!

History of the Genoese fortress

The name of the fortress is nothing but a historical inaccuracy, since, in fact, the citadel existed long before the Genoese colonization of Crimea. Ancient literary sources attribute the construction of the Sudak fortress to the Alans, nomadic relatives of the Scythians and Sarmatians. According to legend, the foundation of the future fortification was laid by the harsh steppe dwellers as early as 212 AD. e. Materials for construction were taken from the surrounding area: in the Kapsel valley, collapsed ditches are still preserved, which served as ancient architects' quarries.

Approximately from the middle of the 7th century, the Byzantine city of Sugdea, one of the most important trading centers of the Black Sea coast, settled on the mountain slope. From the side of the sea, the ancient settlement was protected by powerful stone walls, which made it practically invulnerable. If we turn to written sources, then the mention of Sugdey can be found among several peoples at once, and among the Turks and Arabs the fortress appeared under the name "Sugdak".

Starting from the 11th century, the Polovtsy and the Golden Horde alternately became the owners of the citadel. But the legendary Genoese appeared in Sugdeya only by the 14th century and almost immediately began to rebuild the fortification. As a result, the city, located inside the ancient fortress, was replenished with temples, multi-storey buildings and merchant shops. A small settlement was formed outside the fortress wall, where craftsmen's workshops were moved to avoid fires. But already in 1475, impregnable Sugdeya was taken by the Turks, who killed all its defenders and turned the fortification into the administrative center of one of their Crimean provinces.

In the 18th century, archaeologists drew attention to the Sudak fortress. By that time, the great monument of antiquity did not make the most pleasant impression: the fortification walls and towers were inevitably destroyed. It is not known what the future fate of the citadel would have been if Empress Maria Alexandrovna had not visited it in 1864. It was thanks to the patronage of the wife of Alexander II that the fortress complex was taken under close supervision, transferring it under the responsibility of the Odessa Society of History and Antiquities.

The first stage of work on the restoration of the main attraction of Sudak was carried out already in 1890. By the way, the renovation of dilapidated buildings was carried out with funds provided by the famous historian of those days, Berthier-Delagard.

Oddly enough, but the sad fate that befell many architectural monuments after the October Revolution, the Genoese fortress passed. No one tried to destroy the citadel - on the contrary, more and more archaeological expeditions began to arrive in it.

Location and appearance

The Sudak fortress is located on a 157-meter coral reef called the Fortress Mountain. The outline of the hill resembles a cone with a pronounced cape protruding into the Sudak Bay. The cape itself was named Kyz-Kulle-Burun, which in translation from the Crimean Tatar means "Cape of the Maiden's Tower". Legends can be made about the impregnability of the citadel: from the east and south, the approaches to the fortification are blocked by steep 70-meter slopes of the mountain, access from the west is also difficult, and the approaches to the northeastern part were once blocked by a dry moat.

The Genoese fortress had external and internal lines of defense. According to the idea of ​​the ancient builders, the function of the outer "shield" was to be performed by 14 watchtowers and the Main Gate complex, which protected the port part of the city from encroachment. Moreover, each of the watchtowers was given its own name (usually the building was named after the consul under whom it was erected). Initially, the 15-meter towers were connected with each other by a stone wall, the height of which in different parts of the fortress varied from 6 to 8 m, but time and regular raids by nomads significantly lowered its level.

The inner line of defense (citadel) combined 4 towers, fastened with a section of a stone fence, the Consular Castle, the Watchtower and the Maiden's Tower. Since this part of the Genoese fortress was built in a big hurry (the city was subjected to numerous attacks by the Turks), it does not contain embedded slabs traditional for Genoese structures. As a result, the names of most of the watchtowers of the citadel have not been preserved.

Did you know that...

• In the 13th century, the Venetian merchant Matteo Polo settled in Sugdea. Nothing outstanding nobleman, perhaps, would not have attracted the attention of historians, if not for his nephew, who often visited his wealthy relative. The name of this young Venetian is known to every schoolchild today - this is the legendary navigator Marco Polo.
• If you look closely, you can easily notice red lines on the walls of the citadel - this mark is the visual boundary of the ancient part of the masonry and the modern superstructure, made during the restoration work.
• 14 feature films were filmed in the Genoese fortress. Among the most famous to the viewer are Gadfly, Pirates of the XX century, Primordial Rus' and even the historical blockbuster of 2016 - Viking.

Thanks to several stages of restoration work, the Genoese fortress looks more like a finished architectural monument than classical ruins. And yet, it was not possible to completely reconstruct the ancient fortification. Today only powerful walls, several buildings (including the Consular Castle) and reconstructed towers, the characteristic feature of which is an open (three-walled) structure, remind of the former splendor of Sugdeya. Today, visitors to the Genoese fortress can see the following of them:

• tower of Pasquale Giudice;
• the tower of Corrado Chigala;
• the tower of Luchini di Fieschi di Lavagna;
• tower semicircular;
• Georgievskaya tower;
• tower of Baldo Guarco;
• tower of Giovanni Marione;
• watchtower;
• the corner tower;
• nameless tower number 1;
• nameless tower number 19.

As for residential buildings, do not be too lazy to climb to the top of the hill and wander through the deserted halls of the Consular Castle. The massive building is equipped with an impressive keep and two smaller towers, which makes it resemble the estate of an English feudal lord. In normal times, the inner premises of the donjon served as the residence of the Genoese consul, and the first tier of the tower was occupied by armories and a small reservoir, and the personal quarters of the nobleman were located on the second and subsequent floors. In the interior of the castle there are several comfortable wooden staircases that you can climb to the upper floors to wander around the personal possessions of the Genoese aristocrats and admire the view from there to the lower tier of the fortification.

Those who want to touch the history of the Genoese fortress should go to the so-called temple with an arcade - a former Turkish mosque, later rebuilt into an Armenian Catholic church. Inside the sanctuary there is a museum exhibition, which presents household items and decorations found during excavations of the citadel.

Taking a tour of the inner fortification line, pay attention to the rectangular stone baths - these are the remains of ancient reservoirs. Life-giving moisture entered the tanks through a special pipeline from the valley or simply in the form of precipitation, but in the dry summer months, the inhabitants of the fortress still had to save precious drops.

Information for tourists

The Genoese fortress receives visitors daily. Fortification work schedule: from January to March from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.; from March to April from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.; from May to September from 8 am to 8 pm; from October to December from 9 am to 6 pm The ticket office closes an hour earlier than the museum-reserve itself.

On the last Friday of the month, the main museum of the Genoese fortress (the building of the former Turkish mosque) is closed.

Steep rocky approaches to the main attraction of Sudak impose a number of serious obligations on its visitors. For example, in order to avoid accidents, people in a state of intoxication are strictly prohibited from entering the fortress. Smoking or small picnics are not allowed on the territory of the citadel. Tourists with pets are not allowed here either.

Entrance to the Genoese fortress is paid, however, an exception is made for visitors under the age of 16. The cost of a standard adult ticket is 160 rubles, but if you add 50 rubles to this amount, you can count on a full-fledged excursion accompanied by an experienced guide.

The Genoese Fortress hosts the annual Genoese Helmet knight festival, which is one of the top 5 best knight festivals in the CIS. Any tourist can get to the event, but the cost of entrance tickets for the period of the celebrations increases significantly.

During the festival, a “medieval fair” operates on the territory of the fortress. The main assortment of stalls is antique trinkets and souvenirs with knightly symbols.

How to get there

You can get to the Fortress Hill, on which the main attraction of Sudak rises, both on foot and by car. Two buses run from the city station in the direction of the Genoese fortress: the route "Dachnoe - Cozy". You need to get off at the final stop in Uyutny, since this is the village closest to the fortress. The official address of the object: Republic of Crimea, Sudak, st. Genoese fortress, 1.