Alupka

Alupka (Ukrainian and Russian Алупка; Crimean Tatar Alupka ) is a city in the Ukraine in the subtropical southern coast of the Crimean peninsula in the Black Sea with 8,600 inhabitants, around 17 km from Yalta. The air here is very clean and pleasant, as many pine trees growing outside of the village. Therefore, the sanatoriums of Alupka specialize in the treatment of respiratory diseases. In Alupka and its surrounding area, there are along the coast to the two dozen state sanatoria, rest houses, inns and hotels, where to spend during the summer thousands of people, many also from Russia and Belarus, their holidays. Part of the sanatoriums is the year in operation. By public transport Alupka can only be reached by bus from Yalta. In Simferopol ( around 50 km) there is the connection to the rail network and an international airport.

History of the town of Alupka

Alupka is originally an ancient Greek settlement, where the name derives from the ancient Greek Alupka Alepu ( German " Fuchs "). Probably at the site of today's Alupka many foxes have been sighted. After the Greeks Alupka was Byzantine. The first written mention Alupkas was because in the year 960 in a document of the Byzantine Emperor Romanos II After Alupka was Tatar. After the Russian conquest of the Crimea in 1783 Alupka belonged to the Country Estate of Prince Potemkin, the Governor-General of New Russia and lover of Empress Catherine the Great was. In 1798 lived in Alupka 211 people, mainly peasants government.

Vorontsov Palace

From 1828 to 1846 was the Prince Mikhail Vorontsov, Governor-General of New Russia, to build the castle as his residence. Architect and planner of the romantic castle was the Englishman Edward Blore, who was one of the architects of Buckingham Palace in London. Was realized, the construction of the English architect William Gunt. While the castle was built by the sea side ( south view ) ago in the Moorish style, it has from the mountain side (north view) an English neo-Gothic style. The castle is surrounded by a huge English landscape park, which was designed by the German landscape architect Karl Kebach. The creation of the park lasted for several decades, since the climatic conditions and the stony soil made ​​work difficult. During the Yalta Conference in 1945 Winston Churchill lived in the castle. An anecdote has it that Churchill wanted to buy one of the four white lions of the stairs of the south portal of the castle, but this Joseph Stalin refused strictly.

The mountain Ai-Petri

Alupka is located on the southern slope of the 1234 m high mountain Ai-Petri (Ukrainian and Russian Ай Петри on German Saint Peter ), which is part of the Crimean mountains. The mountain owes its bizarre appearance of his emergence as a coral reef in the Jurassic sea before about 180 million years ago, which was raised with the whole Crimean Mountains. Since 1987 up to the mountain a three-kilometer long cable car, from which one has a wonderful view of the south coast of the Crimea and the Black Sea. In summer you can on the hiking and cycling, and skiing in winter.

Sons and daughters of the town

• Yevgeny Valeryevich Aldonin, Russian football player
• Amet - Khan Sultan, a Soviet test pilot

Alupka: South View of the Vorontsov Palace

Alupka: Coastal

Aj-Petri Mount and Castle Park