Balaklava

Balaklava Picture Gallery

For informational assistance and distant interpreter call: +38-050-688-31-95
Ukraine Country Code: +38 (must be dialed from outside Ukraine)
Balaklava City Code: 0692 (must be dialed from other regions of Ukraine or when using a cell phone)
Telephone numbers shown below are local numbers and can be dialed as shown when in the local area.

Apartments in Balaklava. Inexpensive and luxurious apartments directly from the owner! You can rent your apartment beforehand and make sure it is waiting for you when you arrive. Additional services (laundry, breakfast foods, wake up service, interpreter-assistant, taxi services) available. Call +38-050-6883195 or write to us to make a reservation in advance.

Hotels  Call +38-050-6883195 or write to us to make a reservation.

Eating Out in Balaklava Learn more about places to eat in Balaklava.

About Balaklava

Balaklava town and Balaklava Bay are spread out in a beautiful setting between mountains and sea, about 15km to the South-East of Sevastopol. It was first mentioned by the ancient Greek; then by Byzantine historians, under the name of Symbolon-Limne - the Harbour of Symbols (omens). The fact was reffered to by Strabo, Pliny the Elder, Polyen, Ptolemy, Flavius. Modern archeologists discovered an early Tauri settlement (about the 8th century B.C.) near the Balaklava Bay.

Myths, old legends, testimonials of scolars, historians and poets overwhelm everyone who gets to know the stories from the ancient history of this place. Some associate the Balaklava Bay with the wanderings of Odysseus and identify this place with the legendary Temple of Diana where Tauri priestess Iphigenia performed her bloody rite.

The myth of Iphigenia has found its reflection in the works of literature and art of many countries that were created through centuries. Worldly known tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, immortal lines of Lucretius and Ovid were dedicated to it.

The subsequent history of Balaklava is closely associated with the Genoese. The majestic remains of their fortress Cembalo are still resting on the Eastern Cape that overshadows the entrance to the bay. From 1340 to 1357 the Genoese founded their colony here. They built a town of St. Nicholas on a top of a rock. Located there were a counsul's castle, a town hall and a small church. The Lower Town or fortress of St. George was surrounded with a fortress wall and defensive towers.

In 1475, Turks captured the Genoese colonoes in the Crimea including Cembalo which they gave a new name - Balyk-Yuve (Fish's Nest). In 1787, Russian queen Catherine the Great (Catherine II) visited Balaklava.

During the siege of Sevastopol in Crimean War of 1853-1856, Balaklava became the base of the British Army. Having fortified it with the double row of redoubts and artillery battaries, the British built an embarkment in the town, established hotels, and even built the first railway in Crimea, to link their base with the front-line positions near Sevastopol.

Near Balaklava, a battle of the Allies against the Russian Army took place in October 1854. That was to become a black day in the glorious military history of England. On that day, the British troops lost 500 horsemen. Among the fallen was a relative of Sir Winston Churchill, a member of the family of Dukes of Marlborough. In 1856, a monument was set up on the site of the battle. It has been preserved to this day.

In the vicinity of Balaklava, on Cape Fiolent, remains of the oldest Crimean Monastery of St. George can be found. The monastery was visited by the great Russian poet A.S.Pushkin in 1820.

There are more than 50 monuments to military glory around and in Balaklava. They bear testimonials of courage of the Soviet soldiers in the stern years of World War II. Balaklava fought 250 days side by side with Sevastopol, which was the hottest point of the Soviet-German Southern front. Abandoned in July 1942, it was liberated by the Soviet troops on April 18th, 1944.
Today the town's unforgetable history and amazing beauty attract many visitors. 

Balaklava picture gallery