Panorama "Defense of Sevastopol 1854-1855" is the main museum dedicated to the events of the Defense of Sevastopol during the Crimean War of Russia with a coalition of European states. It was opened in 1905 for the 50th anniversary of the defense of the city. The main exhibit of this memorial is a giant painting by Francois Roubaud.
The building of the Panorama "Defense of Sevastopol" is located in the center of the Historical Boulevard, which was created on the site of the Fourth Bastion. This place and Malakhov Mound were the main centers of defense of the city. Around the panorama building, you can see the places of artillery batteries. There is a monument to military engineer Eduard Totleben lower down the hill.
The idea of creating a battle panorama belongs to the artist Francois Roubaud, the founder of Russian panoramic art. The artist began work on the panorama in 1901, and finished it in 1904. The size of the painting canvas is 14 meters in height and 115 meters in length. It is installed in a circular room. Part of the exposition at the bottom of the canvas are real guns and uniforms of soldiers. This allows visitors to better feel the atmosphere when Russian soldiers defended the city for 330 days.
The canvas of the Defense of Sevastopol Panorama depicts the storming of Malakhov Mound on June 6, 1855. On this day, 173 thousand soldiers of the English-French army stormed the Malakhov Mound, which was defended by 75 thousand soldiers of the Russian army. This powerful assault was repulsed.
During the storming of the city by German troops in 1942, several bombs hit the panorama building and the canvas caught fire. Soviet soldiers cut the canvas into pieces that could be saved. They were loaded it into the last ship that left Sevastopol. At first, the canvas was stored in Novorossiysk, but with the approach of German troops, it was sent to Novosibirsk. In 1943, the canvas was brought to the Tretyakov Gallery, and its specialists appreciated the possibility of restoration.
Of the canvas with a total area of 1,610 meters, only 1,116 meters were preserved. However, the damage was so significant that they decided to paint a new canvas based on the preserved fragments. By 1954, during the celebration of the centenary of the Defense of Sevastopol, the Panorama building reopened its doors to visitors. The panorama of Francois Roubaud was recreated, although new subjects appeared in some places of the painting. In addition to the panorama, visitors can see a museum exhibition dedicated to the events of the Crimean War.
