Alupka Palace Museum in the Crimea

On the southern coast of the Crimean peninsula is a small, lush town of Alupka. Above it rises the majestic mountain Ai-Petri, crowned by a crown of stone teeth, which became a symbol of the peninsula.

This amazing city of palaces, amazing landscapes, numerous legends has a centuries-old history. Its main attraction, undoubtedly, is Alupkinsky (Vorontsovsky) palace. Today it is a popular monument among the guests of the city, a museum-reserve, which was founded in 1990. It includes the Vorontsov Palace Museum, the Alupka Park-monument and the palace of Alexander III. On the vast territory there are numerous monuments of culture, architecture and garden art.

History of the palace

Alupka Palace in the Crimea was built as the residence of Count Vorontsov, an important statesman of Russia of the XIX century. The project was developed by the architect from England Edward Blore. He managed to create an amazing in beauty and originality of the architectural solution construction.

The construction of the palace lasted twenty years and was completed in 1848. Finishing work continued until 1852. In 1824, on this earth the botanist from Germany KA Kebach began to create Vorontsovsky park on an area of 30 hectares. The main works were completed in 1851.

Architecture

The peculiarity of this structure is the combination of several different styles. The northern facade is designed in the style of English late Gothic. Western is a European medieval castle. Southern combines elements of eastern architecture. A huge dome over it with inscribed Arabic inscriptions, open towards the Black Sea, is distinguished by romanticism.

The staircase leading to the palace from the side of the park is decorated with the "Lion Terrace", on which there are sculptures of three pairs of lions made of Carrara white marble. They were made in the workshop of Bonnani - the famous Florentine sculptor. The most famous of them is the lower one - "The Sleeping Lion".

Alupka Palace consists of five buildings, terraces, closed and open courtyards. He simultaneously looks elegant and harsh, romantic and solemn. The western part of the building (Shuvalovsky Passage) is a stone-paved street of a medieval city, which has old fortress walls with powerful towers and narrow window-loopholes.

Interiors

Alupka Palace, photo of which we have placed in this article, has 150 rooms. Each of them is unique and has an exquisite interior. Special pride of the owners of the Alupkinsky Palace has always been luxurious fireplaces, made in the style of Gothic from polished diabase and marble limestone.

Alupka Palace has many luxurious and richly decorated rooms, but the "Grand Dining Room", according to experts and visitors, is the most magnificent hall of the palace. Its interior is executed in the style of knight castles. Visitors admire the marble decorative fountain with a balcony for musicians above it. The walls are decorated with elaborate wood carvings. Candelabras are made of Ural malachite . Solemnity to this hall is added with doors from oak, strict classical furniture and very high ceilings.

Blue Living Room

This is a very elegant and bright hall, decorated with a molded pattern of flowers and leaves, which covers the gentle, blue ceiling and walls. It contains Turkish furnishings and fabulous fabrics.

Winter Garden

In this room strikes a harmonious combination of rare evergreens with sculptural compositions. Here are portraits of the Vorontsov family.

Alupka Palace in our days

Three generations of the Vorontsov family owned a magnificent palace. In 1921, it was nationalized and declared a museum. Today, its collection is more than eleven thousand exhibits: sculptures and paintings, objects of applied art. Alupka Palace Museum has a magnificent collection of paintings of Russian painters of the XIX century, as well as European masters of the XVI-XIX centuries, a collection of graphics, porcelain sets of work of Russian masters.

Today, everyone can visit the Alupka Palace. Excursions are held daily. As a rule, they begin with the front courtyard, located at the northern facade of the main building. Attention of tourists are attracted by two towers of rectangular shape, which outwardly resemble knight castles. In 1841, one of them was fitted with a clock with a fight, which still work today.

Inside the palace, tourists first get to the opening section of the museum, where documents, ancient lithographs and drawings are presented that introduce the history of the palace. Then the group goes to the "Parade Cabinet", which is furnished with English furniture, exquisite bronze sculptures and paintings of the early XIX century. This is a kind of military gallery of participants in the war with Napoleon (1812). Here you can see portraits of the work of D. G. Levitsky, V. A. Trepinin, V. L. Borovikovsky.

Light and light Calico room decorated with canvases by IK Aivazovsky, NG Chernetsov, SF Shchedrin. Alupka Palace was famous for its huge library. It consisted of more than twenty-five thousand books published in various European languages.

Exhibitions

Now in the Alupkinsky Museum there are several permanent expositions. Nine interesting halls introduce visitors to the life of the Vorontsovs, present interiors of the XIX century. In the Guest building there is an exhibition "Family Gallery Vorontsov." In other halls are exhibited:

• Painting by Y. A. Basov "Poetry of the landscape";
• Russian and Soviet avant-garde "The gift of Professor VN. Golubev ";
• Art exhibition "Breathing roses aroma".

In the Tea House you can visit the exhibitions "Sea battles", "Vorontsovs and Russian admirals".

Alupkinsky Palace Park

This magnificent work of landscape art surrounds the Vorontsov Palace and is one of the largest in the south of the peninsula. It covers an area of about forty hectares. The park was laid even before the palace, in 1820, the famous gardener Karl Kebach.

The territory is divided into three zones: central, lower and upper, executed in different styles. Luxurious oleander and cypress alleys are famous for the middle part, which resembles a tropical island. They are connected by stairs that lead down to the sea.

The lower park is known for its Aivazovsky rock, which stands out even among the large blocks that rise at the edge of the Black Sea. It is for sure not known whether this rock is associated with a great artist, but there is a version that one of his sketches on which Vorontsov's palace is depicted is written by the master on this site.

If you happen to visit Alupka Park, you will definitely see "Great Chaos" - a place littered with huge blocks of local rock, diabase, from which the famous palace was built. "Great Chaos" arose after the release of magma and, I must admit, it gives a special charm to the park.

Today's Vorontsov park is the result of works of several generations of gardeners. The local flora is represented here: Crimean pine, oak, laurel. With them, there are representatives of subtropics: sweet edible chestnut and cork oak. More than two hundred species of plants grow in the park. This variety was grown thanks to a significant difference in altitude and abundance of water.

The park is crossed by hundreds of narrow paths, and sometimes it seems that you find yourself in a fairy-tale forest, because every time, even passing along a familiar route, you discover something new and interesting.