Parks of Crimea

Millions of tourists visit the palace and city parks of Crimea every year. For two centuries, several magnificent landscape parks have been created under the southern sun of Crimea. In this review on the online travel-guide Geomerid you can read about the parks of Crimea:

1.   Nikitsky Botanical Garden
2.   Vorontsov Park
3.   Livadia Park
4.   Foros Park
5.   Simeiz Park

Nikitsky Botanical Garden (Yalta)

Nikitsky Botanical Garden in Yalta is the oldest park in Crimea and one of the most visited attractions of the Southern Coast of Crimea. Initially it was created as a place for growing planting material, but nowadays it has become one of the most beautiful Botanical Gardens in Russia.

Monument to the goddess Flora in front of a domed pine tree in the Nikitsky Botanical Garden in Yalta

The oldest tree in Crimea is pistachio (more than 1000 years old) in the Nikitsky Botanical Garden

The Nikitsky Botanical Garden was founded in 1812 by the botanist Christian Steven. He enthusiastically took up the work of breeding ornamental trees and plants that can be acclimatized in Crimea. He also began the selection of grapes for the development of the winemaking industry in Crimea, and 10 years later created the largest grape collection in Russia. Nikitsky Botanical Garden has become one of the leading scientific centers in Russia. Before that, the Botanical Garden was located only in St. Petersburg, but the cold climate of the northern capital allowed southern plants to be grown only in greenhouses.

Nowadays, the Nikitsky Botanical Garden in Yalta occupies an area of 40 hectares, where more than 19 thousand different plants and trees grow. There are also greenhouses, although most plants and trees grow outdoors. In some places, the Nikitsky Botanical Garden has the layout of a landscape park, where flowers and trees from all continents grow and bloom.

Read more about Nikitsky Botanical Garden

Vorontsov Park (Yalta)

Vorontsov Park, which surrounds the Vorontsov Palace in Alupka, is one of the most beautiful landscape parks in Crimea. The territory of the park is 40 hectares. The upper part is located on a flat area around the palace, and the lower part descends in terraces along the mountain slope to the Black Sea coast.

Terraces of the Lower Vorontsov Park with a regular layout that cascade down from the palace to the sea

Huge plane trees in the landscape part of Vorontsov Park in Alupka

Prince Vorontsov commissioned the creation of a park around his palace in the Crimea to the famous German gardener Karl Kebach. He was a hereditary gardener and botanist by education, so he was able to implement Vorontsov`s idea of creating a park where human reason and order triumph over the unbridled elements and chaos. The very difficult relief of the mountain slope allowed to create very beautiful landscapes.

In most parks of Crimea, gardeners tried to plant traditional plants and trees for Crimea: pines, juniper and other drought-resistant plants. However, in Vorontsov Park, the count decided to collect exotic plants and trees from almost all continents. Now there are more than 200 species of trees and plants growing here.

Livadia Park (Yalta)

Livadia Park was founded near the royal Livadia Palace in the middle of the 19th century. It has an area of 47 hectares and descends in terraces to the sea on the slope of Mount Mogabi. Livadia Park is considered one of the most beautiful landscape parks in Crimea. Here begins a Sunny path 7 km long, along which the Romanov royal family loved to walk along the seashore.

The green lawn of Livadia Park in front of the palace

The beginning of the Sunny Path, where the Romanov family loved to walk when they lived in the Livadia Palace

The first magnificent park in Crimea, where hundreds of exotic plants and trees were planted, was Vorontsov Park in Alupka. Considering that Livadia Park was created for the royal family, the gardeners also decided to plant exotic trees of more than 400 species here. There are Lebanese cedar, Himalayan cedar, giant sequoia from America and many other trees and plants from different continents.

In Livadia Park there are many fountains, as well as gazebos, which became favorite places for various members of the royal family to relax. An 80-meter pergola has also been created here, which is a canopy covered with grapes. It was made in park so that members of royal family could walk in the cool on hot sunny days.

Foros Park (Foros)

Foros Park is one of the best parks in Crimea. It occupies an area of 70 hectares at the foot of the rocky Mountain Chelebi. This is the only place in Crimea where the rocks come so close to the seashore. The mountains close Foros from the northern winds, and this creates a favorable climate for growing the most exotic plants and trees.

Lebanese cedars in front of the Kuznetsov Palace in the center of Foros Park

Exotic trees in Foros Park

Kuznetsov created a beautiful Foros Park around his palace. Architect Julius Clever created a terraced park with an area of 70 hectares. The lower decorative part of the park is located on 30 hectares, and the upper nature protection zone has been made on 40 hectares. Since Kuznetsov was ill with tuberculosis, Clever planted more than 200 species of coniferous trees in the Foros Park. Pines, cedars, firs, cypresses and other coniferous trees from all over the world are collected here.

The most beautiful part of Foros Park is called Paradise. It is a cascade of small ponds, where the most beautiful rare species of plants and trees are planted. They create the most beautiful landscapes of different climatic zones. This part of the Foros Park is located on the slope of the mountain above the Kuznetsov Palace. From the palace, alleys descend to the Beaches of Foros, where there are always a lot of vacationers in summer.

Simeiz Park (Simeiz)

The Simeiz Park is located in the central part of the Simeiz resort, to the east of the Panea Rock. It descends the mountain slope from the Cypress Alley to the Simeiz Beach. The curved trunks of junipers, pines and other drought-resistant trees look here very beautiful.

Huge cedars in Simeiz Park near the embankment

Junipers in Simeiz Park

If you look at the city from the Diva Rock now, you can see that all its buildings are covered with greenery of park areas. However, photos from the beginning of the 20th century show that there are practically no trees on a vast area of land near the Panea rock. The Maltsev brothers, who owned land in Simeiz, sold plots for the construction of summer villas. Near the rock of Panea, they decided to plant a park on 10 hectares.

Pine and juniper trees have perfectly taken root on the arid slopes of Simeiz, and now trees grow throughout the central part of the resort. The upper part of the park overlooks the flat surface where the cottages were located. At the entrance to the Simeiz Park, the Maltsevs built a small summer pavilion.