Livadia Palace in the vicinity of Yalta is one of the most famous palaces of the Crimea. It belonged to Emperor Alexander II, who came here with his family every autumn. Nicholas II also liked to relax here, who built a magnificent Italian-style palazzo made of white Inkerman stone on the site of the old palace.
The most famous resort on the Southern coast of Crimea in the 19th century was Gurzuf. In 1838 Yalta was declared a city, but at that time it was a small village with 30 houses and 224 inhabitants. In 1860, the population of Yalta exceeded one thousand inhabitants, but it remained a backwater village.
Everything changed in 1866. Since this year, the royal family of Alexander II and his wife Maria Alexandrovna have established the tradition of spending every autumn in the Livadia Palace. Maria Alexandrovna was ill with tuberculosis, and doctor Botkin advised her to spend more time on the Southern coast of Crimea, in the Yalta area, where the air is most healthful.
Alexander II bought Livadia estates from the heirs of the Polish magnate Lev Potocki. The first royal palace in Livadia was small. The Holy Cross Church has been preserved from it. At the beginning of the 20th century, Tsar Nicholas ordered the construction of a new palace in Livadia. He had just returned from Italy and ordered to prepare a project of the palace in the style of the Italian Renaissance. The project was commissioned by the Crimean architect Krasnov, who built many villas on the coast. His Villa Xenia and Villa Dream have been preserved in Simeiz.
The construction of the new palace from the idea of Nicholas II to the housewarming party took only 16 months. In 1911, the royal family was already vacationing in the Crimea in the spacious new Livadia Palace. It had 58 halls and rooms for the royal family and entourage. The highlight of the palace is a cozy Italian courtyard. Livadia Palace became the official southern residence of the royal family. In St. Petersburg, their residence was the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoye Selo.
In February 1945, the Yalta Conference was held in the Livadia Palace, where the heads of the Soviet Union, the United States and Great Britain resolved issues of the post-war world order. Now the Livadia Palace is a museum and in most of the main halls of the lower floor there are expositions dedicated to the Conference of 1945.
On the second floor, in many rooms of the Livadia Palace, the interiors of the tsarist time are recreated. Here you can see how the family of Nicholas II rested in the Crimea. Also in the Livadia Palace you can visit an interactive exhibition dedicated to the Romanov Dynasty from the first tsar Mikhail to the last Nicholas II.
