Vorontsov Palace in Alupka is called one of the most beautiful palaces of the Crimea. Perhaps it can even be called The Most beautiful palace of the Crimea. It combines elements of English Gothic and Moorish style. There is a magnificent Vorontsov Park around the palace, which complements the beauty of the palace.
Governor-General of Novorossiya Mikhail Vorontsov began the construction of his palace in the Crimea in 1824. In those years, the Russian nobles knew about the beauty of the Southern coast of Crimea, but infrastructure for recreation and travel did not yet exist. Vorontsov Palace became the first aristocratic palace on the Southern Coast of Crimea. After him, other palaces and villas began to be built outside of Yalta. Among them is the royal Livadia Palace, where the royal family has been coming every autumn since 1866.
In the Middle Ages, the largest cities in the Crimea were Kafa (modern Feodosia), Sudak and Balaklava. They belonged to the Genoese. Bakhchisarai, the capital of the Crimean Khanate, was located in central Crimea. There were only small villages on the southern coast of Crimea. The first resort where travelers began to come was not Yalta, but Gurzuf.
In 1820, Alexander Pushkin visited Crimea with the family of General Rayevsky. They lived in Gurzuf, in the house of the Duke de Richelieu, who was Governor-General of Novorossiya in the period from 1804 to 1815. He built his house in Gurzuf in 1811 and until the 1830s it was the only European building on the Southern coast of Crimea.
The magnificent Vorontsov Palace in Yalta began to be built in 1824, and was completed only in 1851. Such a long period is due to the scale of construction, as well as the fact that it was built from local diabase stone, which is twice stronger as granite and very difficult to process. The palace was built by the serf masters-stonemasons of Vorontsov.
Count Vorontsov was a passionate admirer of all things English, so the Vorontsov Palace was built in the style of gothic medieval castle, and the interiors of the rooms are made in the traditional English style. He commissioned the design of the palace to the English architect Edward Blore, who had never been to the Crimea, but received a detailed description of the terrain. He prepared a project of a 15th-century Tudor castle with elements of the Moorish style. The palace perfectly fits into the surrounding landscape.
The southern facade of the palace overlooks the sea. In the center there is a semicircular portal with the style of the Moorish Alhambra Palace. A staircase descends from this portal, which was called the Lion Terrace. On its sides there are famous sculptures of waking lions.
The Vorontsov Palace is open to the public. Gothic English interiors have remained unchanged from the 19th century to the present day. This became possible, since in 1921 the Vorontsov Palace was made a museum. During the German occupation of Crimea in 1942-44, Hitler promised to present the palace to Field Marshal Manstein for the capture of Sevastopol, and he protected "his" property. Due to the hasty retreat in 1944, the Germans did not have time to blow it up, although they took out many valuables.
