Which modern cities of Crimea were called cafes? Kafa fortress in Feodosia: a journey to the Middle Ages. Kafa Feodosia fortress educational tour
The city came under the control of the Roman (Byzantine) Empire, was captured by the Khazars in the 6th century, and then again transferred to Byzantium. Over the next centuries it existed as a small village, which came under the influence of the Golden Horde in the 13th century.
Kaffa - the capital of the Genoese Crimea
From 1266, over about two centuries (until 1475), the Genoese created a prosperous trading port city of Caffa (Greek) on the site of the destroyed Feodosia. Καφᾶς , Italian Caffa, tour. kafa (“skull”), also Old Persian. kaōfa - (“mountain ridge”).
In 1308, Kaffa was besieged and assaulted by the Khan of the Golden Horde, Tokhta. However, the Genoese managed to agree with his successor Khan Uzbek on the existence of the colony. Since 1313, the city was governed in Genoa by a special council Gazaria Office(Officium Gazariae), and in Caffa directly by the consul with the help of the council of pharmacists (trustees) and the council of elders.
In 1346-1347 the city was besieged by the troops of Khan Janibek.
In the same year, Caffa became one of the first European cities on the path of the Black Death, the second plague pandemic. With ships and rats, the plague spread further to Constantinople and the Mediterranean ports. .
Despite periodic wars, the Genoese maintained generally allied relations with the Golden Horde khans, who were formally the supreme rulers of the territories of the colonies, granting them complete self-government within the walls of the cities, and appointing a special prefect from the natives of the Crimea to govern the rural district of the Kafinian possessions.
Around 1474, the city was visited by Afanasy Nikitin, who mentioned it in his travel notes “Walking across the Three Seas”.
Temples of Kaffa
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Feodosia kenassa |
Kefe - residence of the Turkish governor
The main type of trade in Caffa in the 15th-16th centuries. was the slave trade. It came true here most of yasyr, which the Crimean Khan captured during raids on the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Grand Duchy of Moscow and later on the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Sometimes up to several tens of thousands of slaves passed through Kaffa during the season. Even under Bogdan Khmelnitsky, the capture of yasyr by the Crimean Khan in Ukraine was prescribed in an agreement with the Cossacks. In the 17th-18th centuries, with the strengthening of borders, the slave trade began to decrease.
The traditional wine trade declined due to Islamic restrictions, although it was allowed for Christians in the Ottoman domains.
An important industry in the vicinity of Kafa was the extraction of self-salt in natural estuaries.
Johann Thunmann, who visited the Crimean Khanate in the 18th century, speaking about the city, noted:
| Keffe, or Kaffa, in Greek "Kafas" is the largest and most important city in Crimea. It is called Kyrym-Istanbuli and Yarym-Istanbuli, i.e. Crimean Constantinople and semi-Constantinople. It lies on the slope of a deserted, rocky, sandy hill, on the seashore, and has a long and narrow shape. It has high walls and towers, now much ruined, two fortified castles, about 4,000 houses and many mosques; all but one of them look bad. Until recently, the Greeks had twelve churches here, the Armenians - 32, and the Catholics one - St. Petra. But this last one and many others are now in ruins. |
Population of Kefe in the 16th century
The city of Kefe was divided into an inner fortress, an outer fortress and a suburb. The internal fortress was called “Frankish” (Turkish: Frenk hisarı). The Ottomans called all Western Europeans (Italians, Spaniards, French, Germans, English) Franks. In inner fortress the city administration was located. In the outer fortress, which was also called Birun, lived artisans, traders, musicians, etc. Outside the fortress, in the suburbs, also called Khaki, lived the common people.
Christians and Jews were not allowed to live in the inner fortress, only in the outer and suburbs.
The Muslim population was divided into two categories: those who paid taxes to the treasury (osm. hane-i avarız) and those exempt from them (hane-i gayrı-ez avarız). The second category included officials, military men, teachers and scientists, as well as very poor people who were unable to pay taxes.
Population of the Muslim quarters (mahallas) of the city in 1542. Quarters were named after the quarter mosque, and mosques were almost always named after the person who built it, or who was the imam there.
- Inner fortress
- Quarter / families / bachelors / not paying taxes
- Nasuh Reis Mosque / 10 / 2 / 7
- Khoja Jafer Mosque / 16 / 6 / 6
- Khoja Shaban Mosque / - / - / 3
- Musalla Mosque / 9 / 4 / 5
- Atchy Mahmud Mosque / 21 / 11 / 8
- Haji Kishver Mosque / 21 / 6 / 4
- Balat Mosque / - / - / 3
- Chenelu Mosque / 55 / 16 / 12
- Merjan Agha Mosque / 20 / 18 / 17
- Haji Nebi Cathedral Mosque / 7 / - / 1
- Outer fortress
- Yenicheri Khalil Mosque / 53 / 16 / 19
- Daghtasyan Mosque / 19 / 4 / 2
- Khoja Jafer Mosque / 41 / 5 / 8
- Sinan Agha Mosque / 25 / 5 / 3
- Kebir Mosque / 39 / 5 / 8
- Cathedral Mosque of Jedid-Der Golbashi / 35 / 18 / 9
- Khatun Mosque / 72 / 16 / 6
- Seyyid Balak Mosque / 32 / 10 / 2
- Khoja Veli Mosque / 54 / 11 / 7
- Serbazar Mosque / 46 / 22 / 10
- Merjan Agha Mosque / 71 / 13 / 11
- Aktash Mosque / 34 / 7 / 5
- Shirvani Mosque / 36 / 9 / 5
- Janjan Mosque / 24 / 4 / 6
- Khoja Hasan Mosque / 4 / 7 / 1
- Nayreddin Mosque / 28 / 8 / 6
- Hasan Ruban Mosque / 47 / 6 / 4
- Kasim Pasha Cathedral Mosque / 67 / 24 / 13
- Uryandede Mosque / 22 / - / 3
- Suburb
- Ahmed Hayat Mosque / 33 / 14 / 3
- Sinan Agha Mosque / 34 / 7 / 10
- Beylihafiz Mosque / 21 / 1 / 2
- Ebul Kemal Mosque / 71 / 3 / 3
- Katib Sinanfakih Mosque / 26 / 6 / 3
- Hamza-i Bosna Mosque / 36 / 14 / 4
- Hyusameddin Mosque / 64 / 16 / 16
Population of the Armenian-Greek quarters of the city in 1542 (Armenians and Greeks settled mixed). All Orthodox Christians were considered Greeks, except Russians (including Georgians, Bulgarians, Serbs, Romanians).
- Quarter | families | | bachelors | | families in which the husband, the head of the family, has died |
- |arm.|gr.| |arm.|gr.| |arm.|gr.|
- Toros | 77 | 76 | | 16 | 13 | | 16 | 6 |
- Kharoseb | 54 | 31 | | 11 | - | | 9 | - |
- Menkenad | 30 |121| | 2 | 25 | | 5 | 31 |
- Iskender | 84 | 15 | | 25 | 2 | | 15 | - |
- Vasil | 64 | 25 | | 18 | 4 | | 11 | 5 |
- Tashtaban | 46 | 12 | | 10 | 1 | | 7 | 2 |
- Gurcu | 87 | - | | 14 | - | | 4 | - |
- Bayati | 68 | - | | 10 | - | | 9 | - |
- Enes Bay |129 | 27 | | 21 | 5 | | 9 | 7 |
- Ali Yuzbash | - | 44 | | - | 7 | | - | 15 |
- Grigör |117| - | | 20 | - | | 16 | - |
- Kybos |146| - | | 43 | - | | 14 | - |
- Sajlu |112 | - | | 18 | - | | 10 | - |
- Trabzon Community | - | 64 | | - | - | | - | - |
Other non-Muslims in 1542:
- Quarter/Community | families | bachelors | families in which the husband, the head of the family, has died |
- Jewish community Efrench | 8 | 6 | - |
- Jewish community | 81 |29|15|
- Circassian community | 3 | - | - |
- Russian community | 27 | 1 | 3 |
Feodosia within the Russian Empire
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| Dacha "Victoria" | The building of the Feodosia Museum of Antiquities (not preserved) | Dacha of tobacco merchant Stamboli |
Feodosia city government
Feodosia district
World War I
October 16 (29), 1914, during a surprise raid by the Ottoman fleet on Black Sea coast Russia, later named "Sevastopol Reveille", light cruiser "
The first settlements on the site of modern Feodosia appeared about 10 thousand years ago, during the Neolithic era. At numerous sites of primitive people in the vicinity of the city, flint arrowheads and spears, stone chisels, scrapers and other tools were discovered. In the 1st millennium BC. e. Tribes of the Cimmerians, Scythians, and Taurians lived in this area. Traces of Scythian material culture were discovered in burial mounds in the vicinity of Feodosia.
The history of Feodosia proper begins in the 6th century BC. e., when merchants from the Greek city of Miletus founded a small trading post on the shore of a convenient bay. The settlement was named, which translated from Greek means “given by God.” Quite soon, the trading post turned into a large polis, establishing trade and political ties with other Greek city-states and surrounding tribes.
In 355 BC. e. Feodosia is captured by the Bosporan ruler Leukon I. The city became the most important grain granary of the Bosporan kingdom, and the city port became the second most important after the capital - Panticapaeum (modern Kerch). Over the next 300 years, the city experienced an era of economic growth and cultural prosperity.
During the decline of the Greek colonies in Crimea at the turn of the old and new eras, many greek cities Roman legions capture the peninsula. The city is not worried better times, and at the end of the 4th century it was destroyed by the nomadic tribe of the Huns. In subsequent centuries, on the site of Feodosia there was a small Alan settlement of Ardabda (Semibozhnaya). At the end of the 7th - beginning of the 8th centuries, the Khazars invaded the peninsula, as a result of which many Christian settlements disappeared. The Khazars also capture Ardabda. Then, for several centuries, Feodosia became a Byzantine fortification.
In 1223, after the Tatars captured the peninsula, the territory of Feodosia became part of the Crimean ulus of the Golden Horde. However, soon Genoese merchants acquired a section of the coast of Feodosia Bay from the Tatars and founded a trading settlement here, which they gave the name Kafa (Kaffa). To protect the city from uninvited guests, they erected a powerful fortress, the walls and towers of which have survived to this day. The Genoese owned the city for two centuries and during this time made it the administrative center of their vast Crimean possessions. At this time, Kafa is the largest trading port of the northern Black Sea region. Trade routes between the West and the East pass through it. The multinational city, whose population reaches 80 thousand people, mints its own coin and is not inferior to the most important European capitals in terms of living standards.
In the XIII-XV centuries, Kafa became the center of the slave trade. The Caen slave market was notorious throughout Europe. Numerous documents have been preserved indicating that “living goods” - slaves - were the main object of trade for the Genoese.
After the fall of Constantinople in 1453 and the death of Byzantium, the city began to lose its commercial importance. In 1475, Kafa was captured by the Ottoman Turks, who renamed it Kefe. The residence of the Sultan's governor in Crimea was built in the city, at which a large garrison was located. The Turks thoroughly rebuilt the city in their own way, decorating it with mosques, minarets, and oriental bathhouse buildings.
Starting from the second half of the 16th century, Russian squads undertook military campaigns against the Crimean Khanate, including against the Turkish fortress of Kefe. Two centuries later, the city still becomes Russian. In 1771, during the Russian-Turkish War, the fortress was taken by the army of Prince V.M. Dolgorukov. In 1783, Crimea was annexed to the Russian Empire, and a year later the ancient name was returned to the city. In 1787, Feodosia was entitled county town became part of the Tauride province.
For several decades, life in the city practically came to a standstill. And only at the end of the 19th century, after the railway line from Dzhankoy was laid and the construction of the port was completed, Feodosia turned into a large trading port, through which Crimean and Little Russian wheat was exported in large quantities, as well as oil discovered in the vicinity of Feodosia. Soon, an iron foundry, three tobacco factories, a brick and tile factory, a confectionery factory and other industries began operating in the city. As Feodosia developed, it gradually lost its centuries-old appearance. Many old buildings were dismantled into stones, from which new houses were built. At the same time, the resort development of Feodosia began. Many wealthy Crimeans build their dachas and villas on the shores of the Feodosia Bay.
In the years Civil War From 1918 to 1920, the city alternately belonged to whites and reds. The last units of the White Army left Feodosia on November 17, 1920. Soviet power was finally established in the city, which resulted in mass executions of ordinary people suspected of involvement in the “counter-revolution”.
In 1921, the first health resort was opened in the city. The city began to develop as a medical resort. During the Great Patriotic War, Feodosia was occupied by German troops. During the Kerch-Feodosia landing operation on December 29-30, 1941, the enemy was briefly pushed out of the city. Feodosia was completely liberated from the Germans only on April 13, 1944. During the bombing of the city, many archaeological and architectural monuments were destroyed.
After the war, enterprises of the military-industrial complex began to operate in Feodosia. The city was closed to foreigners. In 1972, construction of the Feodosia branch of the North Crimean Canal was completed, and ten years later the city was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree. IN last years Feodosia is actively developing the resort and tourism and excursion industries.
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One of significant dates in the history of the peninsula. On June 1, 1475, the Turkish fleet besieged the city of Kafa (Feodosia). It is from this day that the countdown of a new milestone in the history of the peninsula begins. Kafa fell first. Its walls simply could not withstand the artillery, panic developed in the city, and on the fourth day Kafa surrendered to the Turks, who imposed a huge ransom on it. The Italian population was killed in huge numbers. Then the Turks captured other Italian colonies in Taurida. The last to surrender was Sudak, taken by hunger. And finally, in 1492, the Mangup principality of Theodoro fell.....
This is today modern Feodosia - a provincial town whose population does not exceed 100 thousand. But some 5-6 centuries ago - it was the largest shopping mall Europe, although it was often called the largest center of the slave trade. And all these dubious heights were achieved during the existence of the Genoese colony here.
Cafe. Painting by K. Bogaevsky 
A kind of archaic development of business and trade in the largest trading metropolis in Europe, Genoa, forced Italian traders to build their own branches. They were also in Crimea - in Sugdei, Balaklava and Cafe. In the last oldest fortress appeared in the first decade of the 14th century in the form of a fence made of logs held together with lime mortar - p. With the creation of this, although still unreliable, fortress, Kafa officially received the status of a city, granted to it by Pope John XXII in 1322.
They traded with the north - with the Slavs, Byzantium and other countries of the Black Sea basin and, as a rule, with salt, fish, and other local and usually less profitable goods. In exchange for them reverse direction canvases, carpets, silk and woolen fabrics, wine, and fruit were delivered. And slaves played a special role in the economy of Kafa. According to medieval writers, slaves were sold in the Cafe "more than anywhere else in the world."
Although, no, there were also some innovations here. For example, according to a number of historians, shipbuilding facilities were built on the basis of the Dock Tower. The Dock Gate is depicted in an early 19th century engraving. in the form of a wide arched opening, adjacent on the edge line to the Giustiniani Tower - the corner defensive structure of the citadel. Dockovaya is one of the five surviving towers of the former large medieval city.
In total there were about 50 of them. 
Of course, ancient Kafa was several times inferior to modern Feodosia in terms of territory and population, but it was a famous harbor in the world, in which up to 200 ships could be seen at once. By the middle of the XIV century. these impressions were strengthened by the very appearance of the citadel, which occupied a dominant position against the background of the entire urban landscape. The development of Quarantine Hill was strictly regulated by the Charter of 1316.
The rules he adopted provided for the demolition of some buildings that had been erected here before and did not meet the new urban planning requirements. Owning real estate was thus available only to wealthy individuals. Although on the other hand, small by today's standards port city there were about 200 churches of the 4 largest faiths.
Greeks, Armenians, Syrians, Italians, Tatars, Russians and Goths. Jews, Syrians - whoever was here. The territory of the city of Kafa was divided into contrado- urban cells that united people along ethnic and professional lines. In total there were about 60 of them. It is clear that the Genoese lived best of all.
The two central towers of the city - Clementa and Crisco (on the latter, popularly called the Tower of Christ, according to some versions there was even the largest tower clock in Europe - a kind of symbol of the power and wealth of the city). The towers were located perpendicular to the coastline. Both of them are perfectly preserved, a large fragment of the gate with a wall connecting it to the Clement Tower has been preserved, and below, by the sea, the foundation of another tower, Giustiniani, has been preserved. But the consular palace, the residence of the Catholic bishop, the courthouse, offices, warehouses are buried under the foundations modern quarters. After the annexation of Crimea to Russia, the city was built up at an accelerated pace.
Tower of Clement (1348) 
Of course, looking at the current perfectly preserved Sudak fortress, it is difficult to believe that the Kafa fortress was much fortified, which was the envy of the Sugdeans at one time. The residents of Kafa were able to verify the timeliness of the fortification measures they had taken already in 1343. Then the not yet completely ready fortress withstood a protracted siege by the troops of Khan Janibek. Taking advantage of their dominance at sea, the Kafyans managed to disorganize the enemy’s rear and end this war in the spring of next year with a decisive night raid, as a result of which the Tatars lost battering guns and more than five thousand soldiers.
One of the symbols of modern Feodosia is the perfectly preserved Tower of St. Konstantin, located on the territory of the park, at the beginning of the street. Gorky. At one time, it was the dominant object of the western flank of the sea facade. Completely rebuilt only at the beginning of the 15th century, that is, later than most other objects of the external fortress, it is an example of architectural sophistication that is rare for defensive architecture. This feeling is achieved by the skyward proportions themselves, built on the contrast between its heavy, slightly pyramidal lower part. 
A hundred years ago, with the assistance of Ivan Aivazovsky, they even tried to restore the tower, although not successfully. According to some Genoese documents, in the tower of St. Constantine kept an arsenal of weapons, with a special staff - an overseer and one soldier. The tower was locked with three keys, kept by the consul and two guards. 
The city gates opened at strictly defined hours in the morning and closed in the evening by a special signal from the serf guards. After the evening bell rang, the townspeople, under threat of fines, were forbidden to go out into the streets, even the consul himself. Surprisingly, even years later, the Charter stipulated the time when residents had to turn off the lights in their homes. At night, even the consul was not allowed to leave the city walls. This is city life in medieval Crimea. And although there are preserved remains of old fortresses on the peninsula where in at its best, rather than Kafskaya, but for some reason the atmosphere of that time is especially acutely felt here in Quarantine.
Ancient Feodosia fell in the 4th century. AD during the invasion of the Huns. In the centuries that followed, life barely glimmered here. In the XIII-XIV centuries. on the ruins ancient city Hellenes a new one arose, called Cafe; for two centuries it was owned by the Genoese.
One of the following is associated with Kafa tragic events in the history of Europe - the plague epidemic in 1347-1351. In 1347, a plague broke out among the Golden Horde troops of Dzhenibek, who were laying siege to Kafa, claiming the lives of tens of thousands of soldiers. Unable to take possession of the fortress, the Tatars, using catapults, began to throw the corpses of the dead over the defensive walls into the city. The disease broke into Cafa, and the Genoese were forced to leave the fortress, fleeing on ships. Where they stopped on the way to Genoa, pockets of a terrible disease arose. The plague claimed 75 million human lives - a quarter of the population of Europe. This epidemic is mentioned in the Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio.
In the Middle Ages, Kafa was the main trading port of the Northern Black Sea region. It was also notorious as the main center of the slave trade in Crimea.
During the heyday of the medieval city, the population was approximately the same as in today's Feodosia - about 70-100 thousand people.
It was a multinational city, distinguished by religious diversity: in the 15th century. there were 17 Catholic churches, 2 monasteries, more than 40 Armenian churches, Orthodox churches, synagogues, Muslim mosques.
In the summer of 1475, Cafa was captured by the Ottoman Turks. The city was renamed Keffe and became the center of the Crimean province of the Turkish Sultan. Here was the residence of the Sultan's governor in Crimea.
The Turks, who destroyed many buildings during the capture of Kafa, thoroughly rebuilt the city in their own way, decorating it with mosques, minarets, and oriental bathhouse buildings.
Keffe was still the main slave market in Crimea. “Seagulls” of Zaporozhye Cossacks appeared more than once at the walls of Keffe. In 1616, for example, the Cossacks, under the leadership of Hetman Konashevich-Sagaidachny, captured Sinop and Trebizond, and then with a sudden blow destroyed the entire Turkish fleet stationed in the bay and, having taken Keffe by storm, freed several thousand slaves intended for sale into slavery. The Cossacks took possession of the fortress and later rescued their compatriots from captivity.
In 1226, Genoese merchants traded the Feodosian ruins from the Tatar Khan Oran-Timur and in their place built the Cafu fortress, which became the center of the Black Sea possessions of Genoa.
Quite soon, the Kafa fortress turned into the largest transit center international trade and strong point Genoese colonies in the Black Sea region. Wheat, oriental spices, gold and precious stones were exported to Europe through Kafa.
The city was vast and rich. There were hundreds of merchant galleys in the port. There were sometimes not enough piers for arriving ships. The multilingual conversation of dozens of nationalities was heard: Greeks and Italians, Armenians and Jews, Ukrainians and Bulgarians, Karaites and Tatars lived here.
Kafa was a slave trading city. Historical documents indicate that in the 12th–15th centuries Kafa was the center of the slave trade in the Black Sea basin; its slave market was known both under the Genoese and, later, under the Turks.
The Kafa fortress, the second largest after the Thessaloniki fortress in Greece, was one of the most powerful in Europe. The fortress had two lines of fortifications: the citadel and the outer part.
The citadel was built in 1340–1343 around Quarantine Hill, on steep slopes towards the sea, which could serve as a primary barrier for enemies, and was completed over another ten years. The citadel is built of limestone on lime mortar with carefully rubbed seams. Building materials for the fortress were usually mined in places where they reached the surface rocks on the slopes of surrounding mountains or from the bottom of the sea. The length of the walls of the citadel was 718 meters, of which 469 meters were preserved. The walls reached a height of 11 meters and 2 meters in width.
The perimeter of the outer fortress was almost 5.5 kilometers and included more than 30 towers. Under the fortress walls there was a deep ditch filled with water, which served as defensive structure and as a channel for draining stormwater into the sea. In plan, the city fortress resembled an amphitheater, the stage of which was Feodosia Bay.
The citadel housed the consular palace, the treasury, the residence of the Latin bishop, a courthouse with a balcony for announcing consular decisions, offices for checking scales, warehouses and stores for especially valuable goods - precious stones, furs, silks.
In the 19th century, most of the buildings were dismantled. To this day, the southern wall of the citadel with two towers (the tower of St. Clement and the Crisco Tower), part of the western wall, gate pylons, several towers in different parts of the city (Dock, Constantine, round) have been preserved. A bridge, Turkish baths and several churches have also been preserved on the territory of the citadel.