The Kerch embankment is located between the terminals of seaports. From the north it is bounded by the pier of the Kerch cargo port, and from the south there are berths of the Kerch fishing port. In the 19th century, the embankment was arranged in the form of a promenade with pavilions. Now it looks much more modest, but in the evening, people come here to walk along the seashore.
The Kerch embankment overlooks the Kerch Strait, which connects the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea. Its length is 1 kilometer. In Soviet times, the concrete slabs of the Kerch Embankment were the city beach. Photos have been preserved of how dozens and even hundreds of people came here in the summer, who swam in the Kerch Strait directly from the concrete slabs of the embankment. Now the beach in the city center has been preserved only near the fishing port of Kerch. It is called Utinka Beach. People walk along the rest of the embankment, but do not swim.
In the 19th century, the Kerch Embankment was first called Alexandrovskaya, Bosporskaya, and then it was called Seaside Boulevard. It was built at about the same time as Sevastopol Seaside Boulevard. Even the pavilions on the seashore in Kerch and Sevastopol were similar. Sevastopol Seaside Boulevard has been preserved to this day and looks even more elegant. Alas, the Kerch embankment now looks much more modest.
The southern part of the Kerch embankment is called Alumni Alley. Then the embankment runs along the Amusement Park. Closer to the port, the facades of houses overlook the embankment. There are no historical houses on the Kerch Embankment, and they used to decorate it very much. As for the southern part of the embankment, despite the reconstruction that was made several years ago, a radical restructuring of the Embankment is necessary, as in other resorts of Crimea.
There are several monuments on the Kerch Embankment, as well as the Rotunda pavilion. In the southern part there is a monument to a schoolboy with a broom. It is dedicated to the long tradition of schoolchildren and students of Kerch to hold clean-up days in the city. There is a monument to Marine paratroopers and a monument to Sappers.
In 1999, a monument to Alexander Pushkin was erected on the Kerch Embankment, in honor of the 200th anniversary of the poet`s birth. Pushkin was in Kerch on August 15, 1820, when he decided to make a trip to Crimea with the Rayevsky family. The crossing by sailing ship from Tamansky to the Kerch Peninsula took 8 hours, and Pushkin arrived in Kerch in the evening. Later he wrote that he dreamed of seeing the Tomb of King Mithridates and the ancient Panticapaeum, but "he saw only traces of streets, a half–overgrown moat, old bricks - and only...".
