Sights of Gurzuf: where to go and what to see?

The southern coast of Crimea attracts tourists with beautiful places, landscapes that are good without any filters and, of course, with man-made sights. Many of them are located in Gurzuf, a village that Ayu-Dag mountain took under its wing.

Gurzuf is a small town located only 18 km from Yalta, it is included in its urban district. Artifacts found by scientists in this area give the right to speak about the settlements that were here in the third millennium BC. First, the Taurus lived in Gurzuf, then the Byzantines (who built, by the way, a fortress on the Dzenevez-Kaya rock, now known as the Gurzuf or Genoese fortress). For three centuries the village was part of the Turkish Sultanate, and in 1783 it joined the Russian Empire.

Each era has left its mark on Gurzuf, and weighty. In this village in Crimea, indeed, you can study history. Even the number of famous people who managed to relax and live here is impressive: Pushkin, Chekhov, Surikov, Bunin, Chaliapin, Kuprin, Gorky, Rachmaninov ... The list goes on.

It is no coincidence that Gurzuf is called little Italy: it is difficult to disagree with this description. It is worth remembering the Roman metro, which is rather small by European standards - there is nowhere to dig, there is a cultural layer everywhere. So in Gurzuf, every step is sights.

Namely:

• a rock with the ruins of the Genoese fortress;
• children's center with international significance "Artek";
• rocks of Adalara;
• rock of Pushkin and rock of Chaliapin;
• Gazebo of winds;
• Bear-Mountain (or Ayu-Dag).

Some objects are located in closed areas of boarding houses, but you can get there. If you book a visit through the tour desk, then you will visit the Rachel fountain, the Pushkin Museum, and beautiful parks.

If you are interested in reconstructions, to which a spiritual impulse has inspired a modern person, then you should definitely visit the Holy Dormition Cathedral. Yes, it was built in the new millennium, but it has a prototype, a temple from pre-revolutionary Russia. That temple did not survive Soviet times, and local residents, as well as patrons of the arts, built a new one as a memory of the past.

The house-museum of A.P. Chekhov (or as it is also called Chekhov's dacha and Knipper) is also a must-see. The great Russian writer did not plan to live in the Crimea, he needed Moscow, that is where Anton Pavlovich felt happy. But the doctors left no choice - they need to change the climate (the writer suffered from tuberculosis for 8 years). In Yalta, Chekhov bought a plot of land, built a two-story house, called it "White Dacha". In the last year of the 19th century, Chekhov moved to Crimea with his sister and mother. And he realized that he had made a mistake: having found out about Chekhov's southern refuge, guests constantly came to him.

He wanted shelter, a small house: and he bought, this time in Gurzuf itself, a Tatar saklya. He did not even bargain, seeing the future ownership, and then wrote enthusiastically to his sister that they now own a small cove. There were almost no guests here, only the visit of Bunin and Komissarzhevskaya is known.

Anton Pavlovich bequeathed his small but beloved refuge to his wife. Olga Leonardovna Knipper spent almost every summer here. The artists of the famous Kachalov troupe stayed here during the tour. The place was also inspired by the artists, the famous Aivazovsky, Kukryniksy, Bisti wrote here.

In the middle of the 20th century, the artist Meshkov became the owner of the dacha, and a dozen years later the once Chekhov house became the property of the Union of Artists of the USSR.

A.S. Pushkin lived in the house of the Governor-General of Novorossiya and Bessarabia Richelieu in 1820. Only three weeks in Gurzuf, but nevertheless, the poet later considered these weeks one of the happiest days in his life.

The emergence of the museum was not easy; it first appeared in the 30s of the last century. Several times he passed from hand to hand. Today, the museum celebrates all the traditional Pushkin's dates: recitation contests, music and poetry days are held here. The International Pushkin Readings are also held here, as well as the Days of Adam Mitsevich in Crimea.

In 1912, the dacha in Gurzuf was built by the artist Konstantin Korovin. The history of this house is intertwined with another "hero of Gurzuf", A. P. Chekhov. The writer invited Korovin to settle at his dacha. But he refused, the sound of the sea did not have a very good effect on the artist's health. And then Korovin built a workshop for himself, but not right on the coast, but at a distance. From the window of the workshop, by the way, Chekhov's house was visible.

And although the artist lived in Gurzuf for only 6 years, this period of his work was extremely fruitful. Many works written in those years make you stop, peer, and feel the sensory energy coming from the paintings "The Pier in Gurzuf", "Fishing Bay", "On the Seashore". Why is Korovin so interesting, a person who is not very well versed in painting will ask? Probably because he is the first Russian impressionist.

To feel the atmosphere of the beginning of the 20th century, to make out the furniture, decoration, and furnishings of the artist's dacha is a pleasant, interesting experience. The artist named the dacha Salammbo. And today you can come to Villa Salammbo, a year-round holiday home with 70 beds. There are rooms with balconies in the villa, from where a gorgeous view of the Gurzuf Bay and the very Ayu-Dag mountain opens.

The southern coast of Crimea is ideal for families with children. Subtropics, Mediterranean climate, most of the rainfall in autumn and winter. The season changes dramatically: it was just winter or autumn, and suddenly - summer. If children are susceptible to lung disease, they should visit here.

Although, if you come here in the spring, there is something to see. For example, the most beautiful snowdrops and crocuses bloom on the slopes of Ayu-Dag Mountain. The height of the mountain is not very high - 577 m. Once the mountain was supposed to turn into a volcano, but now it can be considered a natural mineralogical museum.

The city park is another place in Gurzuf, not visiting which is tantamount to a crime for a tourist. It is a monument of gardening art, founded at the beginning of the 19th century by the aforementioned Duke of Richelieu. The park covers an area of ​​12 hectares, the main thing is that there are more than 110 species and forms of shrubs and trees on this territory. Here you can see the local Crimean pine, small-fruited strawberries, and dull-leaved pistachios.

From the imported plants, you can admire the large-flowered magnolia, the evergreen pyramidal cypress, the Lebanese cedar, and the European olive. A notable botany lesson for both children and adults will turn out on such a walk.

And next to the southern gate of the park there is a gallery, another amazing phenomenon for a tourist. There are sculptures of famous people who have visited Gurzuf at different times. Adam Mitskevi, Fyodor Chaliapin, Vladimir Mayakovsky appear before the guests of the park. Here you can also see the famous Pushkin cypress, the tree is already 200 years old, and it is mentioned in Pushkin's letter to Delvig: the classic writes that he became attached to the tree with a feeling similar to friendship.

It is unthinkable to imagine a resort town without an embankment. Crowds of tourists arriving here, for obvious reasons, choose this route first of all. First, you want to see the sea, breathe in the sea air, feel with your feet this sand soaked with sunny happiness of carelessness.

The embankment in Gurzuf is unique in that it is lined with marble tiles, which sparkle in the sun with pink and white highlights. In the evening, when the southern city seems to be covered with darkness in an instant, the embankment is especially charming and romantic. The tourists are welcomed by the play of the lights of the clubs, the oblique arrows of the lanterns - you can walk here until the morning. By the way, the embankment bears the name of A.S. Pushkin, although more often it is called simply Gurzuf.

Traditional resort trade is carried out here as it should - magnets, shells, various souvenirs and swimwear are actively sold here. Numerous children's attractions are located under the cypress trees, so the kids will definitely have no time to be bored.

Restaurants, coffee shops, cafes - everything for tourists who drop in here for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Here you can feel nostalgic by buying cotton candy from Soviet childhood for your children (and for yourself too). You can also enjoy local boiled crayfish here.

There are several beach areas in Gurzuf: they differ in area and infrastructure. There are very narrow coastal strips, but even here you can see natural wonders - for example, the tsunami cloud wall approaching Ayu-Dag.

The beaches have numeral names, although many call them their usual old ones. For example, Kometa is a spacious general-purpose beach with changing rooms, sun loungers and umbrellas for rent. There are also some public beaches with a wide foreshore, busy in season: there are many paid sun loungers and bedding. But the entrance to the sea is convenient, shallow, the pebbles are small.

The beaches of Charm and Jaco 2007 are especially distinguished by tourists: order, civilized rest, even VIP zones. You can get to the sanatorium beaches only with passes, although there are craftsmen who can get here too.

The rest can be completely entrusted to the tour desk, you can partially plan it yourself. If you are resting in Gurzuf, you will probably want to take a walk in its environs. For example, many people want to see the same legendary camp Artek. Once upon a time, the Suuk-Su land estate was located on its territory, where the Soviet intelligentsia rested. Evenings with dancing, roulette games - a bohemian holiday. The palace was destroyed, but then it was restored and given to Artek. Today there is a museum of cosmonautics, a library and, of course, a museum of the history of Artek.

It makes sense, no doubt, to go for a walk to the Nikitsky Botanical Garden, which is 9 km from Gurzuf. A green labyrinth, an exhibition of butterflies, an exhibition of orchids - and this is only a small part of the program that awaits every guest of the park. You will need at least three hours to call the walk complete.

Finally, you can always go to Yalta, Alupka, Sevastopol, which in one way or another are not so far from Gurzuf. Crimea still attracts tourists. You should not compare this vacation with a European one, because each place is interesting in its own way, historically attracts in its own way, has that atmosphere that invites you to come back here again.

For where to go in Gurzuf, see the next video.