Alupka Vorontsov Palace. Medieval castle in Crimea: Vorontsov Palace - everything you need to know before visiting. Mixing styles and peoples

Vorontsov Palace in Alupka (Crimea) is rightfully considered one of the pearls of the peninsula. An elegant and, at the same time, majestic structure is located at the foot of Mount Ai-Petri. It is surrounded by a unique park complex, and from the main staircase you can see amazing view to the Black Sea.

The palace complex fits organically into the surrounding landscape due to the fact that its location corresponds mountainous terrain. That is why the palace has such an original image. The Vorontsov Palace in Crimea and the adjacent park often became a film set. At least 17 films have received recognition from the general public.

Ticket prices for the Vorontsov Palace in 2020

Ticket prices are indicated on the official website of the complex. They depend on the selected exhibitions and excursions.

• Separate expositions and exhibitions: adults - from 50 to 350 rubles, students, pensioners and teenagers 16-18 years old - from 25 to 200 rubles.
• Walking tours of the park: adults - 100 rubles, students, pensioners and teenagers 16-18 years old - 70 rubles.
• Excursions around the park by electric car: 800 rubles. from a group of 4-20 people.
• For preferential and free category of visitors, as well as for children from 7 to 16 years old: a fee of 70 rubles is charged. for the use of audio guides.
• “Single ticket” (all expositions and exhibitions): adults - 900 rubles, students, pensioners and teenagers 16-18 years old - 500 rubles.

Opening hours of the Vorontsov Palace

You can visit exhibitions, temporary and permanent exhibitions daily from 09:00 to 17:00. However, the State Rooms and South Terraces are open until 20:00 on Saturdays. There are excursions around the palace park, but only if there is a group of 15 to 20 people. There are options for walking and traveling by electric car. A “single ticket” can be purchased on any day except Monday and Wednesday.

History of the Vorontsov Palace

The first owner of the palace was His Serene Highness Prince Mikhail Semenovich Vorontsov, a descendant of an ancient family known since the 14th century, a hero-order bearer who participated in many military campaigns and retired with the rank of field marshal, Novorossiysk and Bessarabian governor-general, honorary member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences . After his death in 1856, the palace was owned in turn by the prince's close relatives. After the revolution, the facility was nationalized.

The period of construction of the Vorontsov Palace in Crimea dates back to the period 1828-1848. Quit-rent serfs were involved in heavy work, and hereditary stonemasons performed the relief decoration, manually. First, the Dining Building was erected, then the Central Building. Already in the forties of the 19th century, a billiard room, outbuildings, towers, guest and utility buildings, as well as a library appeared. Sappers were working hard on the ledges of the South Terrace. Thanks to them, the Vorontsov Palace in Alupka acquired a luxurious grand staircase, on the pedestals of which lions made by the Italian master Giovanni Bonnani were installed in 1948. This was the final chord in the design of the overall ensemble. palace complex.

Already in 1921, the Vorontsov Palace in Crimea, which never changed its common name, turned into a museum. During the Second World War there was no time to hide the exhibits, so many of them were taken away by the occupiers. The amounts stolen turned out to be colossal. During the Yalta Conference (February 1945), the palace temporarily became the residence of W. Churchill and his retinue. Until 1956, a government dacha was located here. Subsequently, a decision was made to reopen the museum, which is still functioning, but in a new status. In the 90s of the last century, the complex began to be called a palace and park museum-reserve.

Architecture

In the appearance of the building, elements of different eras and a successful combination of architectural styles are visible - strict English, with a neo-Gothic direction, and lush oriental, neo-Moorish. An interesting fact is that the palace began to be built according to one project (by the Italian Francesco Boffo and the Englishman Thomas Harrison), and ended according to another (by the famous British eclectic architect Edward Blore). By the way, the latter did not visit Alupka while working on the project, as he was too busy with orders from the royal family in his homeland.

The main material for the construction of the Vorontsov Palace in Alupka is diabase, which is superior in strength to granite stones. The museum-reserve includes five separate buildings, courtyards, a terrace, a front and additional staircase, and a park area.

Palace inside

The official website of the Vorontsov Palace offers several interesting exhibitions for visiting. The main exposition of the complex is the State Halls, located in the Main building of the complex. Their decoration has been preserved almost original form. The design and decoration of the Front Office are made according to all the rules of the English style. There are portraits of the first owner, as well as his comrades who participated in the Battle of Borodino. A Chinese cabinet is capable of surprising visitors with elaborately decorated furniture and rice straw mats that occupy most of the surface of the walls. The lobby with wooden profiled ceilings, simple furniture and fireplaces decorated with diabase portals is adjacent to a vestibule in which there is an embroidered image of the Persian Shah. The Blue Living Room amazes with its sophistication and amazing stucco ornaments, once made by a serf master.

In the Winter Garden you can see climbing ficus, preserved since 1838, and rare exotic plants. There are interesting sculptures and a fountain here. The state dining room of the Vorontsov Palace in Alupka (Crimea) resembles knight's castle. It features an original balcony for musicians and a fountain shaped like a fireplace. The State Rooms are completed by the Billiard Room with artistic canvases placed on the walls.

The next exhibition includes the one-story Shuvalov outbuilding, to which only people close to the family of M. S. Vorontsov’s daughter had access. The cozy house has several rooms, each of which is interesting in its own way. Next, you can go to the butler’s apartment, located in the Utility Building, and see how the prince’s service staff lived, receiving full board, and even a salary. Here you can also look into the Vorontsov kitchen. And finally, another exhibition of the “Southern Terraces” includes the main staircase itself, sculptures of lions, flowering flower beds and cascading fountains.

In addition to the main objects of the Vorontsov Palace in Alupka, temporary and permanent exhibitions are located on its territory. Among them are Russian and Western European porcelain facades, paintings by artists of different periods, including the second half of the 20th century, sculptures, graphics, etc.

Vorontsov Palace Park

The lower part of the park is characterized by the Italian regular style. Around the palace complex, mainly coniferous trees grow - spruce, fir, cedar, pine and cypress, so the area always remains green. In spring and summer, magnolias, exotic shrubs and the amazing Cercis bloom in the park, the trunks of which in April are densely covered with purple-crimson flowers reminiscent of moths. The park of the Vorontsov Palace is incredibly beautiful, and walking through it is an incredible pleasure.

Vorontsov Palace - how to get there

There are several options for visiting the palace and park complex in Alupka. Two routes pass through the city - upper and lower, so you can get here from different settlements peninsulas connected by the Yuzhnoberezhny and Sevastopol highways.

From Yalta

There are two regular buses on the route Yalta - Vorontsov Palace - No. 132 from the center. It stays within walking distance of the attraction - just a 10-minute walk. The stop for minibuses running between Yalta and Alupka (No. 107 and 115) is located a little further from the complex - a 15-minute walk.

From Sevastopol

You can get to the Vorontsov Palace by direct bus "Sevastopol - Alupka" to the "Pitomnik" stop and walk.

From Alushta

The route Alushta - Vorontsov Palace consists of two stages. First you need to take the Crimean trolleybus No. 52 to Yalta, and then transfer to a bus or minibus (description above).

From Simferopol

From Simferopol you can get to the Yalta trolleybus station, located near the Bus Station, from the Lenin Square stop at minibus No. 54 or 63 to the “Kuibyshev Square” stop and transfer to trolleybus No. 52 to Yalta. Next, the path to the Vorontsov Palace - how to get there is described above. You can get to Yalta faster by intercity transport.

Crimean taxi drivers and private cab drivers know very well where the Vorontsov Palace is located, so they deliver passengers not only from Yalta, but also from Foros, Gurzuf, Alushta and even Simferopol. At independent trip By car you will have to take care of the navigator in advance.

Important information Until October 2017, it was possible to get to the Vorontsov Palace by sea. Currently, the Alupka pier is closed due to its destruction

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. The local landscape was used in its creation, and the main feature of the palace is a mixture of several diametrically opposed architectural styles.

The entrance to the palace is more reminiscent of a castle from the European Middle Ages.

The palace was built from especially hard dolerite stone, natural reserves of which were located at the site of the future building. This is solidified magma, which was previously called diabase. Dolerite is characterized by 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 the palace was built by quitrent serfs from the Vladimir and Moscow provinces, working by hand with the most primitive tools.

This narrow corridor between two fortress-like walls is called Shuvalovsky Proezd. Counts Shuvalov were relatives of the Vorontsovs. And somewhere here were the apartments of Sophia, the daughter of Mikhail Semenovich.

Through the passage we find ourselves in the courtyard. Here the textured treatment of the walls with “torn” stone is used. We did not examine the museum exhibitions, limiting ourselves to an external inspection.

Northern façade of the palace. Here you can already see the features not of a medieval fortress, but of a country English palace of the 16th century, for which large window openings and high chimneys are typical.

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

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

Particularly interesting and rare specimens have plaques with the name, homeland and approximate age. For example, this is an oriental plane tree with Western Mediterranean 190 years old.

The park ensemble consists of upper and lower parks. The upper park consists of massifs 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 the southern terrace, a wide staircase made of the same diorite leads to the façade, flanked by 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

Horseshoe arch, two-tier vault, plaster carving in the niche where the Tudor flower design and lotus motif are intertwined. On the fresco of the niche there is an inscription repeated six times 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 a view of the sea from the southern façade...

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

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

And on the right there is a large rose garden.

The Vorontsov Palace was nationalized after the revolution, the remaining property was supplemented with collections from other southern coastal 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 could not be carried out; museum workers prevented this.

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

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

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

There are many romantic stories associated with the Vorontsov Palace, which could well become the basis for a dozen romance novels. I will say more - Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin was involved in the love affair. But first things first.

The palace in Alupka is so harmoniously integrated into the surrounding landscape, repeating with its Moorish turrets and Gothic battlements of 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 Novorossiya Mikhail Semenovich Vorontsov began construction of a representative residence in 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, construction of a road from Simferopol to the southern coast of Crimea began.

In the world, Mikhail Semenovich Vorontsov was known as an Anglomaniac, so it is not surprising that he entrusted the creation of the palace project to the court architect Queen of England Edward Blore. It was he who designed Buckingham Palace in London. It is noteworthy that during the 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 to get stones 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 late English Gothic (Tudor style), but with elements of oriental architecture, which is why from different angles it looks either like a medieval castle or like 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 of Indian architecture of the Mughal period in one project. Probably, in his mind, such a mixture should correspond to Crimea, given that the peninsula was Muslim for a long time. 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 fortress-like walls of rough masonry made of gray diabase blocks, with round crenellated towers and narrow lancet windows makes us believe that we are in a medieval castle.

Shuvalovsky proezd

A separate gate leads 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 you will be given a metal token instead of a paper ticket.

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

Northern façade of the palace

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

In front of the palace there are two parterres with marble fountains in the center of each. The “Selsibil” fountain, a copy of the “Fountain of Tears” from the Khan’s Palace in Bakhchisarai, glorified by Pushkin, took refuge in a shady pergola of blooming wisteria.

Nearby, at the left wing of the palace, is the white marble fountain “Source of the Amur”.

Let's go around the palace on the eastern side to look at the southern facade facing the sea, made based on Indian architecture.

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

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

A wide staircase with three pairs of lions descends from the esqueda to the sea - the Lion's Terrace. At the entrance to the palace, lions are awake, standing guard; on the middle landing of the stairs they wake up or fall asleep, and those closer to the sea sleep peacefully, with their muzzles resting 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

South terrace - favorite place for photographing in beautiful poses and beautiful outfits.

From here the paths diverge to Nizhny 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 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 first floor accessible to tourists.

Like many other Crimean palaces, after the 1917 revolution, 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 the 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 from the north side, you find yourself in a corridor where there used to be a dressing room. Now in cabinets made of bog oak, completely covering one of the walls from floor to ceiling, books from the Alupka library of Count Vorontsov, who was a famous bibliophile, are stored.

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

Landscape by Carlo Bossoli "Palace of Prince Vorontsov in Alupka"

Through the corridor we enter the State Office of the owner of the palace.

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

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

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

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

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

From the office we find ourselves in the Calico Room. It is called chintz because the walls of the room are actually 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.

Through the Calico Room we pass into the Chinese study of the mistress of the house, Elizaveta Ksaveryevna Vorontsova, whose portrait by George Dow can be seen on the right wall from the entrance.

The room is decorated in the then fashionable oriental style, but without any specific links 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 silk and beaded rice mats on the walls and wooden carved details in the interior.

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

There is a round table made of Karelian birch by the window. Nearby, behind the curtain, is a small corner cabinet, given to Vorontsov by Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, wife of Nicholas I, as a token of gratitude for the hospitality shown to them.

And a few lyrical digressions. Many people know from school that Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin was infatuated with the wife of the Novorossiysk governor-general. It is believed that it was to Elizaveta Vorontsova that Pushkin dedicated the poems “The Burnt Letter”, “The Rainy Day Has Extinguished...”, “The Desire for Glory”, “The Talisman”, “Keep Me, My Talisman...”. In addition, in terms of the number of portrait drawings of Vorontsova executed by Pushkin, her image surpasses all others - a total of 17 portraits were counted.

There were rumors that it was Pushkin who was the father of one of Elizaveta Ksaveryevna’s daughters. However, researchers of the poet’s biography also have reason to assume that Pushkin was only a cover for Elizaveta Ksaveryevna’s affair with her relative and friend of Pushkin, Alexander Raevsky. In any case, we can say thanks to Mikhail Semyonovich Vorontsov, who “contributed” to the change of the poet’s southern exile to 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 office, but let's go further - to the Main Entrance Hall.

The main entrance hall is located in the center of the palace. Two small vestibules symmetrically adjoin it from the south and north, and offices and lounges are located from the west and east. 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.

Following the traditions of the English style, the architect connected the lobby with the rooms on the second floor with stairs, but hid them behind the wall, which is why at first glance you cannot 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 lobby, so that from the threshold of entering the palace he would have an idea of ​​the nobility of the family and the origin of the owners of the house. The parents of Elizaveta Ksaveryevna Vorontsova are looking at us from the walls - Countess Alexandra Vasilievna Branitskaya and her husband, Crown Hetman of Poland Ksavery Branitsky. The largest canvas is a ceremonial portrait of Empress Catherine II by Rokotov.

From the lobby we proceed to the eastern palace wing, which begins with the Blue Drawing Room. It is impossible not to notice the contrast between the adjacent grand entrance hall and this sun-filled room. The soft blue walls and ceiling are covered with a stucco pattern of leaves and flowers. Like the ceiling in the Chinese office, 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 set of furniture 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 vases - craters, painted in blue tones.

For musical evenings and theatrical performances, there is a grand piano in the northern part of the Blue Drawing 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 Living Room, the Vorontsovs' guests 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 relaxation.

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

Along the glass wall, consisting of huge French windows, there is a row of marble busts, among which sculptural portraits representatives of the Vorontsov family - Semyon Romanovich Vorontsov, Mikhail Semenovich himself and his wife Elizaveta Ksaryevna. Next to them is a marble bust of Catherine II by Johann Oesterreich. 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 out of Russia within 24 hours.

Passing the Winter Garden, not forgetting to admire the view of the South Terrace and the sea from the windows, we find ourselves in the next room - the State 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 ceiling height is 8 m. Under the Vorontsovs, it was illuminated by dozens of candelabra and chandeliers. A huge table, consisting of four offset parts with polished mahogany tops, rises on pedestals with animal paws and occupies a significant 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 bathtub for cooling wine, which was filled with crushed ice.

In the center of the northern wall of the formal 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 proximity of this room to the Dining Room is reminiscent of two large still lifes by the Flemish artist Peter Sneyers, “Vegetable Pantry” and “Fish Pantry” located opposite each other.

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

This is the last room of the Vorontsovs’ chambers available for inspection. Now we can take a walk around the Upper Park.

The work on creating the park, which began even somewhat 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 out the park, the abundance of mountain springs, which were used to create artificial lakes, numerous cascades and small waterfalls. In this part of the park you can constantly hear the murmur of water.

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

The largest lake in the park 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 stones” - jasper, carnelians, chalcedony, which were found in abundance in Koktebel.

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

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

Above the ponds, along the path through the Hall of Grottoes, between skillfully placed rock fragments, the path goes to the Greater and Lesser Chaos. Millions of years ago, frozen magma turned into a scattering of huge debris as a result of earthquakes and landslides. The creators of the park left the stone blocks untouched, they only removed small fragments and planted the top with pine trees. This is how the famous “Alupka chaos” turned out.

At this point, we’ll pause our walk through Vorontsovsky Park so that we have a reason to come back here again.

Vorontsov Palace in Alupka (Crimea) is a unique architectural and historical monument, located at the foot of Mount Ai-Petri. Next to the palace there is another...

Vorontsov Palace in Alupka: history of creation, photo, description, architect

From Masterweb

Vorontsov Palace in Alupka (Crimea) is a unique architectural and historical monument, located at the foot of Mount Ai-Petri. Next to the palace there is another object, a monument of park and garden art, which was created over many years. About the history of the creation of the Vorontsov Palace in Alupka, the park next to it and interesting facts related to this place will be discussed in this essay.

History of construction. Start

The Vorontsov Palace in Alupka was built over two decades - from 1828 to 1848. It was intended for the Governor General Count Vorontsov M.S. as a summer residence. The author of the palace project was the famous English architect Edward Blore. E. Blore himself did not come to Alupka and made design calculations at home, but he was well aware of all the nuances concerning the local relief.

In addition, the foundation, as well as the first masonry of the portal niche in the central building, were already ready. This was due to the fact that the palace was initially supposed to be built according to a different project, the authors of which were T. Harrison and F. Boffo.

All work on the construction of the Vorontsov Palace in Alupka was carried out by ordinary serfs from the Moscow and Vladimir provinces. Real craftsmen, hereditary skilled stone cutters and masons, were involved in the construction. They had extensive experience in the field of relief decoration, acquired during the construction of white stone cathedrals. Absolutely all work was carried out manually, using the simplest tools.

Continued construction

After the architect of the Vorontsov Palace in Alupka, E. Blor, completed work on the project, the workers began construction of the building. From 1830 to 1834, the construction of the building in which the dining room was located lasted. From 1831 to 1837, the most important building, the central building, was built. From 1841 to 1842, a billiard room was built, attached to the dining room building. In 1838-1844, the eastern wings, the guest building, as well as all the palace towers and the pentagon of economic buildings were built. The very last building to be erected was the library building (from 1842 to 1846), at the same time the decoration of the front yard was being completed.

The largest volume of earthworks was carried out in the period from 1840 to 1848. Soldiers of a separate sapper battalion created park terraces near the southern facade of the palace. In the summer of 1848, workers installed lion sculptures on the central staircase that leads to the main entrance. These figures were created by the Italian master D. Bonnani, famous sculptor that time. The installation of these figures not only gave the name to the terrace (lion terrace), but also completed the construction, finishing and decoration of the Vorontsov Palace in Alupka.

Palace architecture

The palace of Count Vorontsov was built, in comparison with classicism, according to completely new construction and architectural principles. An important and one of the main architectural features was that it was located according to the relief of the mountains. Thanks to this innovation, the building blends extremely organically with the surrounding landscape. This amazing combination helped give the entire complex a unique artistic image.

The Vorontsov Palace in Alupka was built in the spirit of the English canons of architecture, while there is eclecticism in both the decoration and the building itself. For example, you can see elements from different eras - from the early periods of architecture to the 16th-17th centuries. The elements originate from the western gate - the closer to the extreme point of the palace, the later the architectural style will be revealed to your gaze.

The neo-Moorish style goes well with English Gothic. For example, chimneys made in the Gothic style resemble minarets. The southern entrance of the palace is made in oriental style. The horseshoe-shaped arch, two-tier vault, Arabic-style carvings, which are intertwined with a Tudor flower pattern (English rose), are harmoniously combined with Arabic script, made on a gold frieze.

Palace interior

The interiors of the palace have been preserved almost in their original form. It is worth noting that each room has an individual finish, which creates unique image premises. A description of the Vorontsov Palace in Alupka and its interiors will take a lot of time, but it is necessary to briefly talk about them.

The lobby immediately returns you to Russia XIX century. Its walls are decorated with large portraits of Catherine II, as well as members of the count's family. The room has a fireplace made in the English style, the floor is covered with parquet made of precious wood, the walls and ceiling are also decorated with wood.

Front office

The count's front office is very spacious, but very restrained in design and decoration. In the room there are many portraits of military generals who were his comrades in the War of 1812. The office is decorated with wood and fabric, and there is also a fireplace. The furniture is very exquisite; it was ordered from the best European craftsmen of that time.

The office successfully combines various styles, such as Renaissance, Gothic and Baroque. From the windows of the office there is a magnificent view of Mount Ai-Petri. Count Vorontsov loved this office very much and spent a lot of time here working with documents.

Calico reception room and Chinese office

Photos inside the Vorontsov Palace in Alupka show all the beauty of the halls, including the chintz reception room. The walls of this cozy room are covered with fabric, painted in warm colors with a beautiful pattern. Initially, it was an office in crimson tones by E. K. Vorontsova, but later it was remodeled. The parquet in this room is made of different types of wood that have different colors. There are portraits and landscapes on the walls, and the office itself is furnished with furniture by Italian masters.

The Chinese cabinet is designed in soft orange tones and trimmed with wood and fabric. The furniture and interior elements, however, are not Chinese, but English, so Chinese cabinet can be called conditional. This room contains several portraits, a fireplace in the Baroque style, as well as exquisite parquet flooring to match the walls.

Blue living room and boudoir

The blue (artistic) living room amazes with its beauty. However, initially this hall was called Turkish and was designed in oriental colors. The composition of the blue living room is perfectly complemented by the snow-white stucco ornament on the azure ceiling and walls. The hall has a white stone fireplace, made in the Renaissance style. The living room is furnished with magnificent furniture in white, inlaid with gold and upholstered in yellow silk. The furniture is complemented by large, chic blue vases and a snow-white piano, also inlaid with gold leaf.

The boudoir is small in size, but, like the previous room, it has a classic style. The light color of the walls harmonizes with the parquet, and comfortable upholstered furniture immediately speaks of the purpose of the room. On the walls there are portraits of family members and mirrors in beautiful carved frames.

State dining room

Looking at the photo of the Vorontsov Palace in Alupka, we will see a complex of buildings, one of which is the dining room building. This room has 150 m2 of area and eight-meter ceilings. The dining room is in Tudor Gothic style. The carved wooden ceiling successfully conveys the shape of the Gothic ceilings.

The style of carving, pattern and color of the ceiling absolutely accurately replicate the design of the wall panels, doorway finials and window frames. All the pomp and grandeur of the formal dining room is emphasized by the furniture. Four large tables are pushed together, their tops made of mahogany. The table legs are made of oak and carved in the shape of animal paws.

Around the table there are more than 20 chairs made of noble trees, with floral carvings and upholstery in French fabric. The dining room has large fireplaces in English style. Along the walls there are sideboards and tables for serving guests.

Right there, in the dining room, there is a small fountain recessed into a niche. It is decorated with white and blue tiles, as well as paintings. Above the fountain is a wooden balcony where musicians were stationed to play for guests.

Palace Park

The Vorontsov Palace and the park in Alupka were built simultaneously, but it took a lot of time. A talented gardener and botanist from Germany, K. A. Kebach, worked on the creation of this masterpiece of park and garden art from the end of 1824 to mid-1851. The Palace Park is part of the museum's exhibition part, total area which is 361,913 m2. It is a monument of national importance, striking in its beauty.

The creator of the park managed to collect plants from all over the world and ensure that they coexist peacefully. The park itself is divided into lower and upper parts. On the upper part there are sunny, chestnut and contrasting meadows. Each of them grows different types of plants and trees (oriental plane tree, Italian pine, berry yew, Chilean araucaria, Himalayan cedar, etc.). In addition, there is Swan Lake with these beautiful birds, as well as a waterfall and two lakes – Mirror and Verkhnee. At the bottom of the park there is a small tea house surrounded by beautiful trees and plants.

History of the Vorontsov Palace in Alupka

The palace belonged to three generations of the Vorontsov family, but after the October Revolution it was nationalized. In 1921, the palace and park were opened as a museum. In 1941, after the start of the Great Patriotic War, the exhibits in the museum did not have time to be evacuated, just like from other Crimean museums.

The museum could have been destroyed twice, but miraculously this did not happen, but the Nazis managed to take away a large number of valuable exhibits. After the war, the curator of the museum, S. G. Shchekoldin, presented an inventory, from which it followed that the damage caused amounted to about five million rubles (at that time a colossal amount).

The Vorontsov Palace became the residence of British Prime Minister W. Churchill during the Yalta Conference, which took place in early February 1945.

After the war, for 10 years the palace was used as a state dacha, and since 1956 it was returned to the status of a museum and opened to visitors. In 1990, the complex was given the status of a palace and park museum-reserve.

Sculptures of the Vorontsov Palace in Alupka

A winter garden was created in one of the halls of the palace. It contains great amount exotic tropical plants brought from South America and from the islands of Oceania. A neat white marble fountain was created in the center of this garden, and sculptures were placed throughout the hall.

The composition is created from famous copies of sculptures from ancient times and the Renaissance. Among them are statues: bathing Aphrodite, Apollo Belvedere, sculptures “Girl”, “First Steps” and the muse of astronomy - Urania. The stone is processed so perfectly that the statues seem very realistic.

On the other side of the winter garden there is a composition of busts famous people of that time and family members. For example, Catherine II, Count Vorontsov himself, his wife and father. All sculptures are harmoniously combined with both the interior of the hall and the beautiful plants.

Wealth of exhibits

In the photo, the Vorontsov Palace in Alupka amazes with its monumentality, elegance and architectural aesthetics. In addition to its beauty, this palace will surprise the visitor with its exhibits, which are exhibited in the guest building, in the halls of the main building and in the tea house. Here you will be able to see paintings by famous painters and furnishings of that time.

The museum's exposition includes about 27,000 exhibits in the main collection alone, as well as the rich library of Count Vorontsov, numbering more than 10,000 volumes. In addition, here you can see a rich variety of plants, as well as enjoy views of the park itself and Mount Ai-Petri.

Once in Crimea, you should definitely go to Alupka and visit the Vorontsov Palace. The impressions from the trip will amaze you, leaving pleasant memories of this excursion for life.

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The Alupka Palace, a masterpiece of Romanticism architecture, was built over almost 20 years, from 1828 to 1848, by order of the powerful Governor-General of the Novorossiysk Territory, aristocrat and Anglomaniac Count Mikhail Semenovich Vorontsov. The count personally chose the place for his Crimean residence on a picturesque stone cape at the foot of Mount Ai-Petri in the little-known Tatar village of Alupka. The Englishman Edward Blore, the author of Walter Scott's castle in Scotland and the court architect of the British crown, managed to organically fit the palace building into the surrounding landscape. In the architecture of the Vorontsov Palace, Blore combined different styles - English, neo-Moorish and Gothic, paying tribute to the secular fashion of that time for the novels of Walter Scott and oriental fairy tales.

History of creation

Initially, the famous Italian architect Francesco Boffo, who had already built a palace for the count in Odessa, was appointed to build the residence. The Englishman Thomas Harrison, an engineer and adherent of neoclassicism, was supposed to help him. Work began, and by 1828 the foundation, which was filled with lead for earthquake resistance, as well as the first masonry of the portal niche of the central building were ready. But Harrison died in 1829, and two years later the count decided to suspend construction of the palace, apparently abandoning the idea of ​​​​building a residence in the neoclassical style.

Vorontsov turns to the Englishman Edward Blore, a brilliant architectural historian, graphic artist and fashionable architect in his homeland. Most likely, Count Pembroke recommended him to Vorontsov. We had to wait almost a year for new drawings. But Mikhail Semenovich liked the result, and in December 1832 the construction of the buildings began. Blore brilliantly solved the problem from a historical perspective: the architecture of the palace demonstrates the development of medieval European and Moorish architecture, ranging from the forms of the early Middle Ages to the 16th century. The palace building is deployed in such a way that it repeats the outlines of the visible mountains. It is surprising that the architect himself, who so accurately integrated the building into the surrounding nature, never visited Crimea, but used only numerous landscape sketches and relief drawings that were sent to him in England.

The resulting castle could well serve as an illustration for historical novels: five buildings, fortified with defensive towers, different in shape and height, interconnected by many open and closed passages, stairs and courtyards.

The construction was carried out from local greenish-gray stone - diabase, which is not inferior in strength to basalt, which was taken from natural placers in Alupka. Processing it required considerable effort, since complex designs on the exterior of the house could be ruined by one wrong blow with a chisel. Therefore, Russian stone cutters who built white stone churches in Central Russia were invited to carry out the most complex stone cutting work.

The main decorative decoration of the Vorontsov Palace - the motif of a gently sloping pointed keeled arch - is repeated several times in the cast-iron balustrade of the balconies, and in the carved stone lattice enclosing the roof, and in the decorative decoration of the portal of the southern entrance, made in the Moorish style of the Alhambra Palace.

In the design of the seaward southern entrance, a Tudor flower design and a lotus motif are intertwined, which ends with the Arabic inscription repeated six times across the frieze: “And there is no winner but Allah,” just as it is written in the Alhambra of Granada.

In front of the façade is the Lion's Terrace and a monumental staircase in white Carrara marble by the Italian sculptor Giovanni Bonanni. On both sides of the steps there are three pairs of lions: the bottom left is sleeping, the bottom right is awakening, above is a pair of awake ones, and the third pair is roaring.

The rear façade of the palace and its western part, a variation on the theme of Tudor England of the 16th - early 17th centuries, are reminiscent of the harsh castles of English aristocrats.

By the way, this palace was one of the first in Russia to be equipped with hot water and sewerage.

The cost of building the palace complex amounted to about 9 million silver rubles - an astronomical amount for those times. But Count Vorontsov could afford it, since after his marriage in 1819 to Elizaveta Ksaverievna Branitskaya, he doubled his fortune and became the richest landowner Russian Empire. Elizaveta Ksaverevna, the same one with whom, according to one version, Alexander Pushkin fell in love in exile in Odessa, personally supervised the creation of the building’s interiors, took care of the decoration of the park and often paid for the work.

Inhabitants of the palace

Mikhail Semenovich did not manage to live in the Alupka Palace for a long time. Another assignment followed - this time to the Caucasus. But in Alupka at the end of the 1840s, his daughter, Countess Sofya Mikhailovna, settled with her children. Then, after the death of Prince Vorontsov (he received the princely title in 1845), the palace, by right of primacy, passed to his only son, Semyon Mikhailovich. In 1882, his widow, Maria Vasilievna Vorontsova, went abroad and took many valuables from the palace. She had no children, the palace was abandoned, and by the end of the 19th century the building, park and farm fell into complete disrepair.

In 1904, the castle received new owners - relatives along the Vorontsov-Dashkov line. The wife of the Tsar's deputy in the Caucasus, Countess Elizaveta Andreevna Vorontsova-Dashkova, née Countess Shuvalova, energetically got down to business. She rented out land for sanatoriums and boarding houses and built more than 120 dachas on the estate.

After the revolution and the establishment of Soviet power in Crimea, the lands of the Vorontsov-Dashkovs were nationalized. And on February 22, 1921, Lenin’s telegram arrived in Crimea: “Take decisive measures to truly protect artistic values, paintings, porcelain, bronze, marble, etc., located in Yalta palaces and private buildings, now allocated for sanatoriums of the People's Commissariat of Health...”

At the beginning of the 20s South Coast Crimea, museums were created in a number of the largest noble estates, among them the Alupka Museum. The museum's collection was seriously damaged during the Great Patriotic War: much was taken away by the occupiers, including 537 works of painting and graphics. Just not most The paintings were found after the war and returned to the palace.

In February 1945, during the Crimean (Yalta) Conference, the Alupka Palace became the residence of the British delegation. Meetings of the heads of the Allied powers - Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt - took place in the State Dining Room of the palace.

Later the palace became the state dacha of the NKVD. In 1952, a sanatorium was located there, and only in 1956, by decision of the Soviet government, the Crimean state museum visual arts. Since 1990, the palace has been part of the Alupka Palace and Park Museum-Reserve. Its collection today includes works of painting, sculpture and applied art, as well as documents, ancient drawings and lithographs that introduce the history of the construction of the palace.

English park

The English park of the palace is the work of the German gardener-botanist Karl Kebach, whom Vorontsov invited to Crimea in 1824, when there was no design for the palace itself. He eagerly set about creating a park, taking into account the relief, climate and local flora, combining, however, everything with the latest achievements of gardening art. About 200 species of trees and bushes were brought here from all over the world. Parcels with seeds and seedlings came from America, Italy, the Caucasus, Karelia, China and Japan. They said that more than two thousand varieties of roses bloomed here at the same time. The German gardener became so famous in Crimea that landowners began to invite him to create or improve their parks and gardens along the entire coast.

Karl Kebach clearly planned the park on the principle of an amphitheater, maintaining connections in its structure with the main palace and other architectural objects. The coastal highway (Yalta - Simeiz) divides the park into Upper and Lower.

The lower park is designed in the style of Italian Renaissance gardens with fountains, marble sculptures, Byzantine columns, vases and stone benches. The upper one was created according to the principle of English landscape parks of the Romanticism era - more natural and natural: in it, rocky debris, shady ponds and preserved areas of the Crimean forest alternate with picturesque meadows, a unique system of lakes, waterfalls, cascades and grottoes. Kebakh created the Upper Park as a place of contemplation of the sea and Mount Ai-Petri, towering above the park and palace, like the ruins of a giants’ castle.

A carefully thought-out drainage system and individual plant care did their job - many, even very rare and whimsical plants, took root well. In total, 250 species of trees and shrubs grew in the park by the end of the 19th century. Plants Vorontsovsky Park They were so popular that the seedlings were even sold externally to other gardens and estates.

The glory of Vorontsov Park as a masterpiece of landscape architecture was strengthened by the artists who worked here on sketches: Isaac Levitan, Vasily Surikov, Aristarkh Lentulov... And the parks, gardens and vineyards that belonged to Count Mikhail Vorontsov and his relatives - the Naryshkins and Pototskys, completely changed the appearance of the coast from Alushta to Foros.