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Foros

Foros is Crimea’s southernmost resort town, jutting out into the mind-blowingly blue local waters. The name is a legacy of Crimea’s ancient Greek colonists, and translates as “wind” or “favorable wind” or “gust.” Indeed, sailors know that Foros (as opposed to sometimes calm-deviled Yalta) is always blessed with a nice breeze, bringing the scent of sun-drenched pines down off the stunning mountains, and the smell of salt up from the sea. Excuse us the cliche, but Foros is indeed a little paradise.

Foros is also the site of the dacha in which Mikhail Gorbachev was held under house arrest during the failed hard-line coup in 1991. You can see the bright orange roof of the ugly structure from the road. Now it’s an official residence of the Ukrainian president. It’s right next to the lovely old Foros Lighthouse, in fact. You can’t visit the latter, because it’s an official strategic point, but it’s worth driving around and checking out.

Foros’ Cape Sarych is Crimea’s southernmost point. If you want to swim to Turkey, here’s where to start from. It’s only 263 kilometers to the north Turkish coast.

The most striking thing in Foros is the Church of the Resurrection of Christ, a jewel of a building perched on a hill above the sea. You get dizzy just looking up at it from the road. Take the winding road to the church and you’ll see lovely mosaics and dizzy-making Black Sea views.

The church on the 400m high rock and looks like something out of a fairytale. In summer, it's surrounded by lush green vegetation and the sea sparkles just beyond. Primary colours predominate. But in January, the sea merges with the sky and the sunlight filters into pastels in the cool air.

The Church of the Resurrection of Christ was built in 1892 . 4 years earlier, Tsar Alexander III and his family had been returning to St Petersburg from Crimea when the train he was in was involved in a major rail crash. Most of the train was derailed, but the carriage carrying the Imperial family remained unscathed on the tracks.

The construction of the church was funded by a rich local tea merchant, A.G.Kuznetsov, in gratitude for to God for saving the Tsar and his family.

The church was designed in the Byzantine style similar to that of Muscovite churches at the end of the 18th century by architect N. M. Chagin. An Italian artist, Antonio Salviati, was brought in to do the mosaics, and the interior paintings are the work of three artists - A.K. Korzukhin, V.E. Makovsky and the academician N. E. Sverchkov.

7 years after the 1917 revolution, the church was closed, and its priest was sent to Siberia. The church was vandalised, some of the murals were painted over, and the church was turned into a snackbar for visiting tourists until 1969, when this establishment was closed, too, and the church was abandoned.

In 1992, Gorbachev's reforms enabled the church to be given back to the community, and after lengthy restoration work it has re-opened . Services are now held regularly.

How to get there: From the Sevastopol bus station, route buses leave every half hour to Foros. They’ll either take you to the village itself, or let you off on the road above. Tickets: $1,5. Ride takes 40 minutes.

Where to stay: Renting rooms in Foros is relatively expensive, costing up to $30. Camping is a pleasant option.

Foros' Park. Founded in the first half of the 19 century, the park contains 200 various kinds and forms of trees and bushes. It is a landscaped park with elements of the regular style. The park territory has a hilly relief with a gradual decline to the sea. A luxurious place for seaside vacation, "Foros" sanatoria with a beautivul beach, is located in the park area.

Foros Park was founded in the first half of the XIX century. Here on the area of 70 hectares more than 200 kinds and forms of trees and bushes grow most of which are exotic.

At this landscape park such plants grow as: sequoiadendron gigantic; alepp, italian, seaside, Sabin pines; greece, spanish, caucasian, numidian firs; atlas cedars, deodars, cedars of Lebanon, arizonian cypresses, large-fruited cypresses, palms, magnolias, platans.

The most notable place is in the middle of the park - it is Russian place with beautifully arranged on different levels man-made and good placed lakes. They are connected with each other by the streams into the common cascade, together with the peculiar vegetation it adds the place the unique originality.

Ancient landslides at the foot of the mountains piled up chaotic conglomerations of rock blocks and debris that make up a part of the park landscape composition. The park is based on the natural forest in which high junipers (Juniperus exce/sa), turpentine trees, pubescent oaks, ashes, and maple trees grew.

The park is divided into three sections. The lower seaside section is separated from the middle part by a garden road and stretches from Tykha Bay in the east to the former hippodrome in the west. In the middle part of the park, there is The Paradise, a favourite place of holiday-makers, with six miniature lakes built on different levels and joined into a single cascade with miniature waterfalls, making up one of the most picturesque park compositions. Above The Paradise, a forest park ascends the slope.

A mansion (1891) has been preserved in the territory of the park and now it is one of the buildings of the Foros Sanatorium.

Baidaro-Kastropil's'ka stina (Baidaro-Kastropil's'ka Wall). The monument of nature on the slopes of which there is one of the highest sanctuaries of small-fruit strawberry tree (Arbutus andrachne). Marbelised limestone here is almost devoid of topsoil and trees grow in rock clefts.

Baidars'ki Vorota, pereval (Baidars'ki Gate, Pass) (inset). The height of the pass above sea level is 527 m.
There are two monuments of architecture: the Baidars'ki Gate built on the pass in 1848, the year of the completion of the construction of the first road Yalta - Sevastopol', and the Foros Church erected on a sheer cliff in 1892, whose frescos were painted by the artists K. Y. Makovsky and A. I. Korzukhin.