Yalta

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Hotels in Yalta

Recreational Resorts

Gaspra (Haspra). The resort settlement, its symbol and sight of interest being the Gaspra Castle built in 1831-1836, the most impressive specimen of the Crimean manor Gothic, which stands in the Kharaks Park (see Monuments of Landscape Gardening of the Republican Status). In September 1901, after a grave illness the great Russian writer Leo Tolstoy came to the mansion. Here he met with Anton Chekhov, Maxim Gorky, Vladimir Korolenko, Alexander Kuprin, and many other outstanding persons. In 1922, the Yasnaya Poliana recreational complex was open in the castle and a monument to Leo Tolstoy erected. There are two more monuments of 20th-century architecture in Haspra: the Kichkine villa (1908-1911), a miniature building with the surrounding park. A manyflight staircase with grottoes for rest leading from the park to the sea blends nicely with the rocks. Another monument is a church built in 1912. At present Haspra is a famous resort, ideal for family vacations, recreation and sightseing.

Aiudah Mountain. By its shape the mountain resembles a colossal bear drinking water from the Black Sea. According to one of ancient legends, a huge bear trying to catch runaways who escaped in a boat decided to drink the sea dry. It drank for a long time, until turned into stone, into a huge mountain. The height of Aiudah above sea level is 577 m and its length is 2.5 km. The mountain is an interesting historico-archaeological monument. The remains of medieval structures of a large fortified settlement have survived here. There is also a mansion of the Rayevskys built in 1887. Aiudah State Reserve was establoished in 1974. It covers area of 527 hectares. The reserve landscape represents a picturesque mountain on the Southern Coast of the Crimea. The mountain massif is of volcanic origin and consists of valuable magma rocks. Aiudah is a natural mineralogical museum in the Southern Coast of the Crimea (18 kinds of minerals were found). Here grows 523 species of plants. Twenty-one species of plants and sixteen species of animals found in this reserve are listed in the Red Data Book of Ukraine.

Anhars'kyi Pass. The pass is situated at a height of 752 m. Here stands a memorial commemorating the completion of the construction of the Simferopol' -Alushta road in 1826. There is also a tourist lodge of the same name.

Livadia Palace and Park complex. At the end of the 10th c. a Greek settlement of Ai-Yan stood in the territory of the present-day Livadiia. The main sight in the small resort settlement is a monument of landscape architecture - the Great Livadiia Palace. This is a former summer residence of the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II. The palace was built after the design by the talented Yalta architect N. P. Krasnov in 1911 on the site of the old palace. The Livadiia Palace complex includes, along with the Great Palace, the Retinue House, the palace for the Minister of the Court, the palace church, and the Florentine courtyard. Of special interest is the White Hall of the Palace in which sittings of the Crimean Conference of heads of governments of the USSR, the USA, and Great Britain were held in February 1943.

The palace stands in a magnificent old park. Livadia Park (inset). Covers an area of 40.1 hectares. Founded in the first half of the 19th c. The architectural ensemble of the park includes the White Palace (1911), Fredericks' Palace (1916) and the Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (1864).
The park is based on a natural forest, exotics are planted mainly in its central part. The territory consists of steep mountain slopes that here and there turn into precipices with gullies, rock elevations and terraces. About 180 species and forms of trees, shrubs, and Iianas grow in the park. Its major attraction are giant sequoias and pines growing on the light-green glades. Among the oldest trees in the park mention should be made of individual specimens of holm and pyramidal oaks. Group compositions include cypresses, oaks, Himalayan, Lebanon and Atlas cedars, a grove of Sudanese pines and an olive grove. Platans are the common trees in the park and there are several varieties of pines, firs, and magnolias.
The park is decorated with fountains, the 80-metre metal fence twined with Iianas (roses, wisterias, and vines). and pavilions Rose, Turkish and Laurel.

Massandra Palace and Park complex. This is the historical centre of wine industry of the Crimea. The major place of interest in the settlement is the Masandra Palace of Emperor Alexander III, a monument of landscape architecture.

Masandra Park covers an area of 44.1 hectares. Laid out in the landscape style in the first half of the 19th c. Here grow more that 200 species of garden trees and shrubs. Along with local plants - pubescent oaks, strawberry-trees, turpentine trees, high junipers (Juniperus excelsa), Crimean pines, and butcher's-brooms - many exotics grow in the park, particularly cypresses, mammoth trees, Atlas and Himalayan cedars, bay laurels, evergreen magnolias, cryptomerias, bamboos, insignis pines, bark pines, bristlecone firs, and others.
The park consists of three sections - Upper (with the palace and park). Middle and Lower Masandra.
It is one of the most beautiful parks in the Crimea, its territory being a huge terraced amphitheatre facing the sea. There are many wonderful landscaped compositions of pines, spruces, firs, old cypresses standing near a small oval pond, as well as alleys of palms and roses.

Miskhor, resort. The warmest place on the Southern Coast of the Crimea. Its main sight, the Miskhors'kyi Park, is a monument of landscape gardening. The Sanatoria Miskhor, along with a number of other recreational resorts of the town, are extremely popular among tourists. Beautiful park, gorgeous nature, nice beaches and comfort of the resort buildings attract tourists to Miskhor all the year round.

Miskhor Park covers an area of 23 hectares. Laid out in the late 18th c. Here grow about 100 species and garden forms of exotic trees and shrubs, including Aleppo, yellow and big-cone pines, Arizona and Guadeloupe cypresses, oleanders, and bamboos. There is a colour-music fountain in the park.
A bronze sculptural group Mermaid on the shore represents a water nymph appearing from the sea with a child in her hands, and on the sea-front stands the fountain The Girl Arzy and the Thief Ali Baba.
These sculptures are associated with the legend about the abduction of beautiful Arzy by Ali Baba who sold her to the harem of the Turkish sultan. The Mermaid sculpture and the fountain were executed in the early 20th century after the design by the well-known Estonian sculptor, Academician of St. Petersburg Academy of Fine Arts A. G. Adamson.

Oreanda: park, beach line and hotels. The settlement has preserved its inimitable romantic beauty and peace so rare on the seacoast. Among the architectural structures of interest is a semi-rotunda built as a park pavilion on the rock by order of Governor-General M. S. Vorontsov in 1843.
In 1885, on the site of the burnt-out palace the Intercession Church was built, which was decorated with rich mosaics by the Venetian master Antonio Salviatti.
Oreanda has a number of interesting objects of nature as well. Krestova detached mountain is a monument of nature. Here competitions in rock climbing are held. Many times it was visited by the famous mountaineer Mikhail Khergiani, and his outstanding sports achievements are commemorated in the memorial plaque mounted on the rock. From the Oreanda Park runs the Kurchatov trail named after the great physicist, an ardent populariser of hiking.

Park of the Ut'os and Karasan Sanatoria: Covers an area of 23 hectares. Founded in 1812-1814 in the landscape style. The park consists of two sections: one belonging to the Ut'os Sanatorium (5 hectares) and that of the Karasan Sanatorium (18 hectares).
The section at the Karasan Sanatorium is famous for its old palace of the Rayevskys built in the Moresque style in a dense grove of stone pines in 1887.
Here grows a great number of exotic kinds of trees, groves of stone, Aleppo, and grey-leaf pines; horizontal and pyramidal cypresses; palms; Atlas, Lebanon and Himalayan cedars. The age of the majority of trees is more than 100 years. Several specimens of the turpentine tree, listed in the Red Data Book of Ukraine, have survived of the natural forests.
The composition of the section in the territory of the Ut'os Sanatorium agrees with the architectural planning solution of the Karasan Park. Here grow more than 250 kinds and forms of shrubby species. Mention should be made of valuable trees the age of which is 200 years and more: common yews, box-trees, platens, cedars, cypresses, and bay trees.

Poliana Skazok (Glade of Tales). It is an open-air museum of folk decorative art comprising more than 200 sculptures of wood, ornamental stone, plexiglass, copper, aluminum, moss, and other materials. Among the exhibits, there are the Thirty Knights from A. Pushkin's poem Ruslan and Ludmila, The Slav Settlement landscape-sculptural complex, The Twelve Months sculptural composition based on motifs of S. Y Marshak's fairy tale, characters from Ukrainian, Russian, Armenian, Georgian folk tales and legends, from the fairy tales by brothers Grimm and Charles Perrault, W. Disney's animated cartoon film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and R. Kipling's The Jungle Book.

Yalta's Mountainous Forest The nature preserve was established in 1998. Its area is 14,230 hectares.
The relief of the preserve is mountainous, split up with numerous deep ravines and canyon-like valleys of small rivers. Very impressive are the conglomerations called "chaos" that appeared because of earthquakes and landslips, and whimsical rock formations among which the rocks Taraktash and Stavri-Kaia are notable for their fantastic outlines. The flora of the preserve comprises 1,363 species, many of which are listed in the Red Data Book of Ukraine. The diversity of natural conditions and vegetation cover are favourable to the rich fauna of the preserve.
There are many interesting objects of nature in the territory of the preserve: the Uchansu waterfall 98 m high; the Baidaro-Kastropol's'ka Wall; the Kuchuk-Koi stone chaos; the Nikits'ka Cleft; detached mountains, including Pyliaky Mountain, and lphigenia and lsar rocks; the Pendikiul' tract; and numerous caves.

Uchansu Waterfall. The highest waterfall in the Crimea, its height being 98 m. It is especially spectacular after heavy rains and in spring, when snow melts in the mountains, while in a dry summer it practically dries up. However, high age-old pines, which grow around the waterfall, are always beautiful, like the entire surroundings and healing mountain air full of their redolent smell.

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