Yalta 2013
We cruised from Sevastopol to Yalta. Yalta, like all of Crimea, although internationally recognized as part of Ukraine, has been under Russian control since 2014. The two special things we saw were Lividia Palace and Alexander Nevsky Cathedral.
Yalta is a resort community with a long history. Yalta is located on the site of a Greek colony named Lalita. After 1475 it was under the rule of the Crimean Khanate. Russia annexed Crimea, including Yalta, in 1783, which ignited the Russo-Turkish war. In the 19th century it was a fashionable resort for rich and powerful Russians, Russia being very short of warm places to vacation. That included Tsar Alexander III, Nicholas II, Leo Tolstoy, and Anton Chekhov. It was a popular holiday destination during the Soviet Union when foreign travel was very restricted. And then in 1945 it became famous when the Yalta Conference between the Soviet Union, the United States, and Great Britain was held in Lividia Palace. After the fall of the Soviet Union it came upon hard times because foreign travel was more generally available. Most of the tourists are now from countries of the former Soviet Union.
Yalta was a summer retreat of the last Russian tsar, Nicholas II The Livadia Palace is built of white Crimean granite in the Neo-Renaissance style. The edifice features an arched portico of Carrara marble, a spacious Arabic patio, an Italian patio, a Florentine tower, ornate Bramantesque windows, a “balcony-belvedere”, and multiple bays with jasper vases. A gallery connects the palace with a neo-Byzantine church of the Exaltation of the Cross, built by Monighetti in 1866. The palace contains 116 rooms, with interiors furnished in different styles.
It was difficult to get photos of the rooms in Livadia Palace without we the tourists, and most in of the rooms we saw were used for the Yalta Conference in 1945, so I will show some pretty details.
The impressive Alexander Nevsky Cathedral was built in 1902.
Waterfronts tend to be very popular and active places, and Yalta was no exception. There were amusements, people fishing, people just enjoying the view.
One of my favorite views was of the Swallow’s Nest. We saw it going from Sevastopol to Yalta, from the bus in Yalta, and from Yalta to Kherson. It was not easy to photograph, but so much fun to look at! It is a small “decorative castle” built in 1911-12 on the Crimean peninsula. On the left from the sea, on the right from the bus in Yalta.
References:
Yalta on Wikipedia
Yalta Conference 1945
Lividia Palace
Alexander Nevsky
Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Yalta
Swallow’s Nest
More in this series:
Khan’s Palace 2013
Sevastopol 2013
Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia, Istanbul 2013
Shopping and dining in Istanbul, 2013
Topkapi Palace, Istanbul 2013
The Trees of Topkapi Palace, 2013
Bosporus Sightseeing Cruise, Istanbul 2013
Transfiguration Cathedral Seriously Damaged, Odesa, Ukraine
Derussification of Ukraine, 2014
More from around Odesa, Ukraine
Odesa, Ukraine