The lighthouse was founded in 1816 and throughout its long service, it has played and continues to play a significant role in the history and life of the Black Sea Fleet. The lighthouse was the first to greet the ships of the squadron of Admiral F. F. Ushakov and Vice Admiral P. S. Nakhimov, returning to the port of Sevastopol after brilliant victories.

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Frigate Vesoul

A properly burning lighthouse light, as life shows, is not yet a guarantee of safe navigation. If the captain does not have enough seamanship or experience of sailing in stormy seas, and the crew is not efficient or poorly trained, then the light of the lighthouse will not help sailors in trouble. And then the lighthouse servants have to go to the aid of those in distress.

On the night of October 1, 1817, a tragedy unfolded abeam the Khersones lighthouse. At sunset, in a calm sea, the frigate Vesul, under the command of Captain 2nd Rank I. I. Stozhevsky, left Sevastopol for Odessa. We walked by dead reckoning. Soon the weather began to deteriorate. The sky was clouded with low thunderclouds. The wind, quickly increasing, turned into a fierce storm. The instruction for mariners in this case gives clear advice: “Keep a good distance from the coastline.” But the error in the calculation of the place was about 6 nautical miles (about 12 km). The frigate, strongly dodging towards the shore, rushed straight to the Chersonesos reef. Seeing the approaching lighthouse light, the commander tried to tack out to sea, but the turn failed. Then they urgently released the anchor, but it “did not pick up.” The helpless frigate was carried onto the rocks. Soon the hull hit the granite bottom. At the lighthouse, having seen this tragedy, they immediately reported to the squadron in Sevastopol. So far there was nothing more they could do to help those in distress. The sea was raging with such fury that launching the boat was out of the question.

By dawn, the storm began to subside and a whaleboat with lighthouses approached the Vesulu lying on board, which the waves continued to methodically pound against the rocks. The team led by the commander was saved, but the frigate was crushed to pieces. The quartermaster and cabin boy, who had rushed into the sea in fear before the rescuers arrived, died.

Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich, who found himself in Sevastopol at that time, wrote to the Tsar: “Many of the officers on the squadron, free from duty, hastened to help their unfortunate colleagues... hired riding horses - barges could not be sent to the open sea in such a wind - and galloped headlong to the Chersonesos lighthouse. The frigate was destroyed, and its loss was estimated at 270,630 rubles.”

The sea has tested the lighthouse itself more than once. The thousand-ton colossus of the lighthouse tower easily withstood the onslaught of hurricanes and fierce storms, but the sea did not spare the town and the buildings located on its territory. Particularly cruel trials befell the inhabitants of the Khersones lighthouse on the night of December 18, 1887. The lighthouse keeper A. Fedotov urgently telegraphed to Sevastopol: “The storm has flooded the yard and buildings, I ask you to save the employees from death.” The commander of the Sevastopol port, Rear Admiral M. N. Kumani, immediately sent people and rescue equipment to the lighthouse. Later, Fedotov testified: “During the storm on December 17, 1887, the swell from the sea was thrown over the stone elevations of the embankment, and at 11 o’clock there was a strong storm. A lake had already formed around the lighthouse... In some places the water reached 6 feet (almost 2 meters)... The stables, barns, storerooms, cellar were flooded... The water rose to the windows of the buildings. Women and children were forced to wade waist-deep into the nearest village. .. The servants, having collected bread and petroleum in reserve, took refuge in the tower to ensure proper lighting. Before this, they rescued the crew of a Turkish brig with a cargo that was smashed to the ground. 10 people drowned, and 4 were saved. A small flat-bottomed rowing boat is needed for rescue.”

After the storm, the tower and all residential and outbuildings had to be overhauled. On the sea side, to protect against the violence of the elements, a powerful stone rampart (breakwater) was erected, and at the lighthouse, the previously abolished rescue team was revived, equipping it with oared whaleboats and special equipment.

Then more than once the sea tested the inhabitants of the lighthouse. During the earthquake of September 12, 1927, one of the strongest in Crimea in history, the mighty tower of the Chersonesus lighthouse survived. The attendants noted that during the tremors they swayed like the trunks of mighty oak trees. At the same time, from the lantern structure of the lighthouse, a huge strip of fire was observed far into the sea between Sevastopol and Cape Lucullus. It seemed as if the sea was on fire there. The true reason for such an unusual phenomenon remains a mystery to this day...

The Chersonesos lighthouse witnessed unprecedented mass heroism of the defenders of Sevastopol in 1942 in battles in the area of ​​the lighthouse.

“The number of wounded and killed in the first days of July, especially July 2 and 3, grew incredibly quickly due to numerous counterattacks, massive bombings, artillery, mortar, machine gun and small arms fire from the enemy. Moreover, in the small territory remaining with our troops, the size approximately 5 x 3 km, where tens of thousands of defenders of Sevastopol were located, almost every enemy shell, bomb or bullet found its victim.

The commander of the medical platoon of the 20th MAB, military paramedic S.V. Pukh, wrote that they were taken out of the battlefield and collected on the 1st floor of the Chersonesos lighthouse.

Then the second, third and even the top floor of the lighthouse were occupied. On July 3, during a massive raid by enemy aircraft, a ton bomb fell near the lighthouse. As a result of the explosion, part of the lighthouse wall collapsed, burying hundreds of wounded under its rubble."

Despite systematic shelling and air bombing, the wounded and heavily damaged lighthouse, until the very last days of the heroic defense of Sevastopol, provided the way for Soviet ships and vessels breaking through the minefields into the besieged city. Already on May 9, 1944, on the day of the liberation of Sevastopol, fire broke out again on the ruins of the lighthouse.

The lighthouse tower was rebuilt in 1950-1951. The architecturally designed beautiful white reinforced concrete lighthouse tower, 36 m high, lined with Inkerman stone with a huge glazed lantern structure, proudly rises above Cape Chersonese. The range of the white light of the beacon is 16 miles.

Previously, before the advent of electricity, the light signal from this, as well as the Tarkhankut lighthouse (they were built and went into operation at the same time) was supplied using a special kerosene installation - it was like a huge primus stove. Kerosene was supplied to the burner under pressure through a nozzle; the bright flame from the combustion was far visible. That lighthouse “kerosene stove,” like an ordinary primus stove, had to be frequently cleaned of carbon deposits by the lighthouse keeper. And to rotate the lens, which intensifies and concentrates the light flux, as well as to operate the fuel pump, a weight mechanism was used: a 200-kilogram load walked right in the lighthouse shaft.

The lamp and lens are, in fact, the main visible working elements of the lighthouse. The lamp is quartz-halogen, with a power of 1,000 watts. The lens around it was made in 1957 at one of the factories in the Kharkov region, according to a special order.

The technical characteristics of the beacon are quite complex, and it produces a signal in the form of light Morse code - dots and dashes. The Chersonesos lighthouse sends the code SV, which means “Sevastopol”. The full signal takes 18 seconds, it repeats cyclically. The lighthouse goes out to work an hour before sunset, and goes out an hour after sunrise.

It turns out that a light signal is sometimes given by a lighthouse even in the daytime - if visibility at sea is less than 10 kilometers. And in normal, good weather, the watch observer on the ship, from a height of 5 meters in the wheelhouse, surveys the space around 16 nautical miles.

The Chersonesos lighthouse is just one of the objects of the Hydrographic Service of the Black Sea Fleet (a structural unit of the Russian Defense Ministry). It is served by both military and civilian people. Next to the lighthouse there is a lighthouse technical building, where maintenance personnel are on duty around the clock. At Cape Khersones, the KRM-300 radio beacon is still operating: it sends the same call sign SV on the radio at different frequencies. For what? For division, they explain to us, that is, to determine the coordinates of a ship at sea.

The Mars navigation system is also installed here, which allows the Khersones lighthouse to communicate on short waves in radio mode with lighthouses located on the Crimean capes Tarkhankut, Fiolent and Genichesk. Using signals from beacons, ships can configure and check their navigation equipment.

The equipment at the lighthouse is powered by the city network, but in case of problems, there are powerful diesel generators that can provide electricity to the entire village.

Also, the residents of the lighthouse are forced to endure a powerful sound, similar to the trumpet roar of an elephant. They say it can be heard 3 miles away. The sound is produced by a special Swedish-made device - the nautofon. During the period of fogs and storms (December - February), the residents of the village cannot be envied: sometimes this sharp, drawn-out roar has to be endured for days, day and night.

At night, the lighthouse tower is illuminated by powerful spotlights, which improves its visibility from the sea.

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• "Lighthouse" film by Pavel Tretyakov film competition "City by the Sea"

Panorama of the Chersonesos lighthouse

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Description of fire, sign

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CHERSONESS LIGHTHOUSE

It is installed on the cape of the same name in the southwestern part of the Crimean peninsula, 6 miles from Sevastopol and provides navigation on the approaches to it, fencing off a dangerous reef extending to the west of the cape. One of the oldest lighthouses built by Russia on the shores of the Black Sea.
By the end of the 70s of the 18th century, Russia was firmly entrenched on the shores of the Black and Azov Seas. The ships of the Azov-Don flotilla made long voyages to various parts of the coast. To ensure their navigation, temporary primitive lighthouses and signs were built. From the documents of the Russian naval commander Admiral F.F. Ushakov it is known that in the 1790s such a lighthouse existed on Cape Chersonesos. In the “Journal of the Black Sea Fleet’s voyage in search of the Turkish fleet,” there is, in particular, the following entry, dated July 10-15, 1791: “... all day long the wind was calm, variable from different directions, during which, while maneuvering with the fleet, at night I walked around the Chersonesos cape... At 1/2 past eight o'clock in the afternoon, bearing from me, the Chersonesos lighthouse.”
It is difficult to say whether this lighthouse was shining, since no description of it has been found. Most likely, Ushakov refers to some distinctive navigation sign placed at the tip of a cape as a lighthouse. This assumption is confirmed by the “Notes on the Black Sea...” presented by Captain Count Heyden to the Admiralty Board in 1806. In them he reports that on the Black Sea there are lighthouses only at the Strait of Constantinople and at the Danube mouth. “Even... the beautiful port of Sevastopol is fenced only with milestones.”
In May 1803, the Admiralty Board, having heard a report from the office of the chief commander of the Black Sea Fleet on the state of the navigation fence on the Russian Black Sea coast, decided to build “a night lighthouse and guardhouses for servants” on the Chersonesos Cape.

Lighthouse Chersonesos. Rice. 1850

The lighthouse was built according to the design and under the supervision of an experienced lighthouseman, director of lighthouses of the Baltic Sea L.V. Spafariev, who was specially sent to the Black Sea Fleet. The installation site was chosen by the commander of the Sevastopol port, Captain 1st Rank P. M. Rozhkov (later a prominent figure in the Russian fleet, admiral).
Construction was completed in 1816, and the lighthouse opened regular lighting on June 16, 1817. It was a stone conical tower 36 m high, topped with a wooden lantern of a regular decagonal shape, 3.3 m high and 4.6 m in diameter. On November 11, 1829, the wooden lantern was replaced with an iron one. The lighting system, consisting of 16 Argand oil lamps with reflectors, provided a fire visibility range of up to 16 miles. At first, the lighthouse shone with a constant white light, but in 1824 it was made “revolving,” i.e., flashing, in order to distinguish it from the lights of the Inkerman lighthouses built in 1821 (see the essay “Inkerman Beacon Lighthouses”).
Three outbuildings were built near the tower: for the caretaker, crew and storerooms. In 1837, a rescue station was established.
Initially, the lighthouse was serviced by a non-commissioned officer and six privates of the Sevastopol crew. In addition to ensuring the normal operation of the lighting apparatus, they were responsible for conducting meteorological observations, monitoring the migration of birds, sea conditions and passing ships. Since 1850, chief officers of the Corps of Navigators who were unfit for health reasons to serve on warships began to be appointed to the position of caretaker. Since 1866, all service personnel became civilian employees.

View of the Chersonese Cape and the lighthouse from the sea. Rice. 1850

With the beginning of the Crimean War (1853-1856), guards, signalmen and telegraph operators were additionally stationed at the lighthouse. At the head of this team of 12 people was an officer. An observation post was deployed to monitor the appearance of enemy ships at sea and the passage of all ships. The lighthouse was initially switched to a special mode of operation, and when the Anglo-French fleet approached the shores of the Crimea, it stopped lighting completely. The lighting apparatus was removed and carefully covered. Thanks to these measures, after the end of the war the lighthouse was quickly restored. All that was required was repair of the lighting apparatus, which was done at the Sevastopol Admiralty of the Russian Shipping and Trade Society. During repairs, the lighthouse was illuminated by a temporary portable apparatus mounted on a wooden platform.
A few years after the lighthouse began operating, the shore where it was installed had to be reinforced with a stone wall, “to resist the rush of the waves, which in strong winds rise so high that through the wall they reach the building itself, dragging stones with it...”.
In 1861, the breakwater around the lighthouse was washed away, the service premises were filled with water to a height of 1.5 m, and the lantern was damaged. During the renovation, a new diopter lighting device was installed in the lantern. On this occasion, the Hydrographic Department published the following notice to seafarers: “... on the southwestern coast of the Tauride Peninsula on Cape Chersonesos, instead of the previous rotating catoptric apparatus, a new rotating catodioptric, olophtal apparatus of the 1st category was installed. White fire is visible between the points N0 65° through N, W and S to SO 35°22" (from 144°38" to 65° - Author) and appears every minute in the form of a strong flash. The height of the fire from the base is 104.5 feet, above sea level 108 feet. The mathematical horizon of illumination is 12 miles. The lighthouse tower is round, white, and the lantern on it is also white.”
In 1873, to protect the lighthouse from the sea, a new massive stone enclosing wall was built, encircling all the buildings from the sea side, and on both sides of the lighthouse yard on the shore of the cape, a “riprap” was made to reflect waves and protect the entire tip of the low-lying cape from flooding.
In 1887, the elements again tested the lighthouse. During a storm on December 16 and 17, the foundation of the wall fence, built in 1873, was washed away in several places, and the rock ripraps in front of the wall and near the shore were destroyed. On December 18, the lighthouse keeper A. Fedotov telegraphed to Sevastopol: “The storm flooded the yard and buildings, I ask you to save the employees from death.”
The next day he reported: “During the storm on December 17, 1887, the swell from the sea was thrown over the stone elevations of the embankment... and at 11 o’clock there was a strong storm. A lake had already formed around the lighthouse... In some places the water reached 6 feet... The stable, barn, storerooms, cellar were flooded... The water rose to the windows of the buildings. Women and children were sent waist-deep fording to the nearest village... The servants, having collected bread and petroleum in reserve, linen, took refuge in the tower to ensure proper lighting. Before this, they rescued the crew of a Turkish brig with a cargo that was smashed to the ground. 10 people drowned, and 4 were saved. After being rescued, they swam on horseback to the lighthouse. A small flat-bottomed rowing boat is needed for rescue.”
The commander of the Sevastopol port, Rear Admiral M. N. Kumani, urgently sent people and rescue equipment to the lighthouse on carts. Help came on time.
After the storm, the tower and other buildings had to be completely repaired. In addition, an additional shaft was built from local stone on the south side of the tower.
In 1888, “Russian petroleum” - kerosene - began to be used in lighting lamps instead of oil, and in 1910 the lamp was replaced with a kerosene burner. In 1900, a new type of French-made Barbier-Benard siren was installed for fog signals. In 1902, a second floor was built over the residential building, which significantly improved the living conditions of the lighthouse workers.
In 1900-1905, A. S. Popov conducted experiments on radio communications at the lighthouse. Soon after this, wireless telegraphy began to be used on ships of the Black Sea Fleet. Subsequently, samples of new equipment were repeatedly tested at the lighthouse. So, in 1933, a domestic RM radio beacon with a rotating radiation pattern was tested here (a conventional radio receiver and a stopwatch were used to determine the direction). The test results showed the possibility of determining the direction from the ship to the radio beacon with an accuracy of 2°.
During the First World War, the lighthouse was turned on only by special order of the head of the raid guards. To ensure secrecy, the light source was placed in a red cylinder made from spare bent red glass, thus creating a red light while maintaining the same characteristics.
In 1939, the lighthouse was equipped with the first example of the domestic circular radio beacon RMS-2 with a range of 50 miles and a Triton-type nautofon.
On June 22, 1941, in accordance with the documents in force in the event of the outbreak of war, the city of Sevastopol was darkened, all the lights of the navigation equipment were extinguished, but the Khersones and Inkerman lighthouses were working - communication with them was suddenly interrupted, and they did not receive the command to extinguish the lights. We had to urgently send motorcyclists with the appropriate order.
The enemy perfectly understood the importance of the lighthouse for the ships based in the main base of the Black Sea Fleet, and from the first days of the war, they rained down an avalanche of shells and bombs on it, but the lighthouse continued to operate. Our ships needed his fire. The destroyed lantern was restored again and again by the lighthouses and shone in a manipulated mode, showing the way to the sailors.

At that time, the lighthouse was headed by Andrei Ilyich Dudar, Frolov, Shevelev, the Chudimovs, Alisov, and Redkin worked with him. M. F. Dudar and Pasha Goroshko conducted observations at the weather station. Gradually, all the lighthouse workers left to defend the city, and only A.I. Dudar and senior technician Shevelev remained at the lighthouse. During the bombing and shelling, they removed the equipment and hid themselves, but as soon as the shelling stopped, they restored fire again, ensuring the entry and exit of our ships from besieged Sevastopol.
In June 1942, the lighthouse was attacked by more than 60 enemy aircraft. All residential and service premises were destroyed, holes appeared in the tower, lighting equipment was broken, acetylene cylinders exploded and caused a fire. Then the lighthouses began
use portable lanterns, lighting them first on one platform of the tower, then on another, ensuring navigational safety of the navigation of our ships and submarines.
“Look, what the Krauts wanted, to destroy the guiding star,” Andrei Ilyich insisted, “we will shine for our sailors even from hell!”
In June alone, 11 transport flights, 33 warship flights and 77 submarine flights were made to Sevastopol, and the Chersonesos lighthouse showed them all the way.

Lighthouse Chersonesos

A. I. Dudar later wrote about these days in his memoirs:
“On June 30, an order was received to ensure the operation of the lighthouse for the evacuation of Sevastopol. We installed another acetylene lamp downstairs on the warehouse building, but it was soon destroyed. Then a new one was strengthened on the ruins of the tower. On the night of July 3, a whole series of shells hit the lighthouse, but it had already done its job and was no longer needed.”
Cape Chersonese became the last piece of Sevastopol land that the city’s defenders continued to defend. The commander of the Water District Security and the commander of the Air Force of the Sevastopol Defense Region moved their command post here, and temporary berths for submarines were equipped here. The enemy concentrated fire of rare density on a small area of ​​the cape. And many years later, traces of war were visible on the cape.
Until the last days of defense, Maria Fedorovna Dudar and Pasha Goroshko conducted observations and supplied the pilots and artillerymen with weather data. On July 4, fascist tanks burst into the lighthouse territory. And then here P. Goroshko’s husband, assistant to the NKVD commissioner, junior political instructor P. M. Silaev, accomplished his last feat. He told the Germans that he could tell them where the underground airfield was and provide other important information. The Nazis brought him and his wife to the headquarters located nearby. The grenades thrown by Silaev, which he hid in his leather jacket, killed all the fascists in the building. Heroes also died. After the war, one of the streets of Sevastopol was named after Pavel Silaev, and a bronze monument to the hero was erected on Cape Chersonesos.
The head of the lighthouse Dudar, even wounded in both legs, did not leave his post. He continued to keep watch until the last ship left Sevastopol. Only after this he dismantled the lighting equipment and buried it in a cache not far from the lighthouse town. He had nothing left to evacuate from the city and he ended up in captivity, where he remained until the liberation of Sevastopol.
On November 5, 1944, the surviving residents of the city and a small garrison of the main base of the Black Sea Fleet greeted the ships of the Black Sea Fleet, decorated with colorful flags, returning to the liberated Sevastopol. From the ships the ruins of the once beautiful city - the glory of the Russian fleet - were visible; the beautiful slender tower of the Chersonesos lighthouse, well known to every Black Sea sailor, was not in its usual place. It was destroyed to the ground, but the lighthouse had already returned to its permanent watch - on the monolithic stones disfigured by explosions that remained from the tower, an acetylene installation stood on crutches-supports. And soon a triangular wooden tower with a lantern on top shot up in its usual place.

Chersonesos lighthouse at night

On May 12, 1947, the lighthouse was again received by Andrei Ilyich Dudar, who had begun to recover from battle wounds and illnesses. Here, at this lighthouse, in 1893 he was born into a family of hereditary lighthouse workers, grew up and in 1939 replaced his deceased father. This was his home lighthouse, and he considered it his duty to restore it to its former form.
On September 21, 1951, the construction of the new Chersonesos lighthouse was completed, and the 36-meter slender tower made of white Inkerman stone again sparkled in the southern sun. A polyzonal lighting device, delivered from the Pacific lighthouse Askold, was installed in the tower lantern, providing a range of up to 16 miles.
In subsequent years, the lighthouse was rebuilt, landscaped, and its technical equipment was improved. Gasification of the town was carried out, living quarters and a new wave protection wall were built.
In 1973, the RMO-64 radar transponder beacon was installed at the lighthouse; in 1975, an electronic radio beacon time system was put into operation, regulating the operation of a group of radio beacons.
In March 1949, during a severe storm, the lighthouse area was flooded, and movement around the town was only possible by boat. On the night of January 5-6, 1966, the water level in the lighthouse territory rose by 0.5-0.7 m. The same disaster overtook the lighthouse during the storm of November 6, 1987. And although storms and floods caused some damage to equipment and living quarters, they did not affect the normal operation of the lighthouse. Every night its fire reliably showed the sailors the way to Sevastopol Bay.
Currently, a whole lighthouse village has grown up on the once deserted Cape of Chersonesos. In its center rise two two-story 16-apartment residential buildings with loggias. There is a well-maintained beach by the sea, a sauna, and playgrounds for children. A telephone and water supply are connected to the lighthouse.

The Khersones lighthouse was built in 1816 on a cape near the entrance to Sevastopol Bay. Despite its considerable age, the structure is still functioning properly and is located on the territory of a military unit. For this reason, you can get to know the lighthouse better only by coordinating an excursion with the commander of the Black Sea Fleet.

The birth of the “eye” of Cape Chersonesos

Before 1783, there were several attempts to build a lighthouse on the site of a modern military facility. However, the structures in those days looked more like a large fire, surrounded on all sides by stone slabs.

In 1789, a so-called temporary shelter appeared at the same place, which illuminated the path for Russian sailors and helped them get to the Sevastopol shores. By 1814, the Black Sea Fleet had become sufficiently strengthened, and its command decided to build two strategically important objects - the Tarkhankut and Chersonesos lighthouses.

The project of the Chersonesos lighthouse involved the construction of a cone-shaped structure with walls 2 meters thick at the foot. As the structure rises, the thickness of the walls decreases and already at the peak of the lighthouse reaches 1 meter. This allowed the Khersones lighthouse to survive powerful storms and hurricanes and the strongest earthquake that occurred in 1827, which destroyed many historical monuments of the Crimean peninsula.

However, the lighthouse still could not withstand the onslaught of the Nazis during the Second World War - in 1944 it was completely destroyed. The reconstruction of the building was carried out in 1950. The Chersonesos lighthouse was completely restored and put into service with the Black Sea Fleet.

Note to tourists

You can take photos and videos inside the lighthouse. There is no guide on site.

You can visit the Khersones lighthouse all year round, 24 hours a day. The nearest food outlets are in Sevastopol. You can also stay overnight in a hotel or hostel.

How to get to the Khersones lighthouse?

You can visit the Chersonesos lighthouse when you reach the southwestern shore of Sevastopol Bay. Access to the structure is limited and permission is required. The entrance is free.

2. Those who have been reading me for a long time know that the Khersones lighthouse is one of my favorite places in Crimea.
The number of times he appeared in my posts, not many places appeared. Perhaps Fiolent or Ai-Petri...
I've been near the lighthouse dozens of times, but I still haven't been able to get inside...

3. The Chersonesos lighthouse is familiar and recognizable to many. It is located at the entrance to Sevastopol Bay, in its southwestern part, on the tip of Cape Chersonesos protruding far into the sea (not to be confused with the Chersonesos nature reserve, which is located directly in the city of Sevastopol).
The first information about a lighthouse in these places appeared in 1789, 6 years after Russian warships first entered Akhtiyar Bay.
The development of a naval military base and the foundation of the city of Sevastopol required, among other things, the organization of navigation facilities. One of which became the Chersonesos lighthouse.

4. Construction of the Khersones lighthouse began in 1816 together with the Tarkhankut lighthouse. The choice of location and construction was supervised by Leonty Spafarev, director of lighthouses in the most developed water area of ​​the Russian Empire in this regard - the Gulf of Finland.

5. The lighthouse tower was a 36-meter hollow stone cone with two-meter walls at the base. Towards the level of the lighthouse room, the thickness of the walls decreased to one meter. As operating experience has shown, the safety margin of the structure made it possible to successfully withstand colossal alternating wind loads, impacts of storm waves and even seismic shocks. The lighthouse survived the most serious Crimean earthquake of the 19th-20th centuries, which occurred in 1927.

6. Back in the 19th century. houses were built near the tower for the lighthouse servants. At first, the servants huddled in just a few rooms, but later a small residential lighthouse town appeared, which, however, more than once suffered from storms and storms.
Nowadays, one of the premises is equipped as a lighthouse and technical room. It contains all the necessary radio equipment, as well as an automatic system that controls the beacon

7. At the very beginning, in 1816, the light source at the lighthouse was fifteen Argand lamps with a cotton wick soaked in rapeseed oil. The burner, protected by a glass cap open on top, resembled the kerosene lamp we are used to (although the latter, however, was invented only 37 years later). The lamps were placed at the focus of polished parabolic mirrors.
Later, the lighting apparatus was modernized to provide flashing mode of operation. Mirrors and lamps were placed on a round float lowered into a bowl of mercury. A complex gear mechanism, the principle of which is similar to the operation of a watch with weights, gave the float uniform rotation at a given speed.
At the end of the 19th century. the mirror illuminator was dismantled. Instead, they installed a light-optical apparatus based on Fresnel lenses, consisting of concentric rings of small thickness adjacent to each other, having a prism-shaped cross-section.
After the war, the lighting system was again modernized and the flashing mode of operation was no longer ensured by the rotation of the optical apparatus, but by periodically turning the lamp on and off.
Today, there is no longer a need for the constant presence of a caretaker in the lighthouse room on the tower, manually lighting the lighthouse and monitoring that the light does not go out.
All this is controlled by an automatic system in the service building near the lighthouse.

8. The caretaker at the appointed time only has to turn the beacon switch knob.

9. But it's time to go inside the tower. After all, the most interesting thing is ahead

10. Despite the signs with the year 1816, the tower itself is not 200 years old.
During the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945), the tower was almost completely destroyed and rebuilt in 1950-1951. made of reinforced concrete, lined with Inkerman white stone.

11. How is the lighthouse tower constructed?
As I already said, it has a height of 36 meters. The lower part is a hollow cone with a spiral staircase and four tiers of skylights to illuminate the staircase.
In the upper part there is a lighthouse room (with a round window and a fence along the contour), which initially housed the lighthouse ignition system, and also housed the keeper at night. At the very top there is a cap in which the lamp is located. The canopy has 360-degree glazing so that the light of the lighthouse can be seen from everywhere.

12. Lighthouse room under a light dome. The ceiling is low and there is absolutely no room to turn around. A small table, an emergency phone and a small porthole window

13. And now - the holy of holies - a lighthouse lamp appears in the hatch burning in the night

14. Today, a system with a quartz-halogen lamp with a power of 1 kW, installed during the post-war reconstruction of the lighthouse in 1951, is used.
The flashing mode of operation is ensured not by rotating the optical apparatus, but by periodically turning the lamp on and off. Moreover, the alternation of pulse durations ensures the transmission of the “SV” - Sevastopol signal in Morse code.
In addition, the KRM-300 circular radio beacon operates on the cape, transmitting the same “SV” signal to a range of up to 150 miles (280 km). In addition to it, there is equipment for a more accurate Mayak-75 navigation system, the operating principle of which is based on measuring the time between the signals of the master and slave stations and calculating the distance to them. The Mayak-75 station operates in conjunction with similar ones located on capes Tarkhankut, Fiolent and near Genichesk.

15. The moment of ignition of the lamp. Then it’s physically impossible to look at her

16. View of the lighthouse town from the lighthouse tower.
The town also did not appear immediately. At first, the service personnel huddled in tiny, poorly heated houses - 20 people in 4 rooms.
In the early 1870s, the first two-story building was built to accommodate lower ranks. True, this building was severely damaged by the storm of 1876.
After the storm, a breakwater was erected around the lighthouse, protecting the tower and the lighthouse town from the sea.
Today there are several two-story buildings in which people live, who in one way or another ensure or have ensured the functioning of the lighthouse and its equipment.

17. At night, the lighthouse offers a beautiful view of the open sea.
By the way, the light of the lighthouse on a clear night can be seen from about 16 miles (30 kilometers) away.

18. Lighthouse tower at night

19. This is what the 36-meter tower looks like from the sea

20. One of dozens of sunsets I spent on the shore under the lighthouse

21. Evening Chersonese lighthouse

With the development of modern technologies, including in maritime navigation, optical beacons no longer play such a significant role, inferior to radio beacons and satellite systems. But they stand, still stand, like time-beaten sea wolves, towers blinking in the night on the shores of seas and bays.

The Chersonesos lighthouse is located almost at the very entrance to the Sevastopol Bay, in its southwestern part. Geographically, the lighthouse is located on the westernmost outskirts of the city of Sevastopol, on the very cliff of Cape Chersonese.

Geographical coordinates of the Chersonesus lighthouse on the map of Crimea GPS N 44.583308, E 33.378867.

The location for the construction of the lighthouse was not chosen by chance. Until 1783, several attempts were made to build structures in these places that vaguely resemble modern lighthouses. In those days, the structure looked more like a large fire, closed on three sides by stone walls.

Already in 1789 at the site of the future Chersonesos lighthouse A temporary shelter appeared that helped Russian sailors get to Sevastopol. At that time, navigation on the Black Sea significantly revived. The Turks lost complete control over the Azov and Black Seas, and the construction and fortification of the city of Sevastopol required more building materials.
In addition to the expansion of Sevastopol, the Black Sea Fleet is also being significantly strengthened, which has entailed the development of maritime infrastructure. So in 1814, the supreme headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet decided to build two lighthouses in especially dangerous places on the Crimean peninsula, on the Tarkhankut and Khersones capes.

People from the Gulf of Finland are invited to select a location and build lighthouses. Leontia Spafareva, commander of the lighthouses at that time in the Gulf of Finland. It is under the leadership of Leonty Spafarev that the design of lighthouses is underway. Both lighthouses were approved according to the same design and construction began in 1816. That is why the Chersonesos and Tarkhankut lighthouses are called twin brothers.
The Chersonesos lighthouse was designed as a cone with walls two meters thick at the base, and as the lighthouse grows, the walls become smaller, already at the top point having a thickness of about one meter. The height of the Chersonesos lighthouse from the base to the spire is 36 meters.
It was this design of the lighthouse that allowed it to recently celebrate its 200th anniversary. The lighthouse survived the strongest storms, storms and hurricanes, and even the most powerful earthquake in Crimea in 500 years in 1827, which destroyed many historical objects in Crimea, including the collapse of the foundation of the most famous palace in Crimea -.

During the Russian-Turkish period and the First World War, the Chersonesos lighthouse was practically not damaged. There was minor damage to the optics, but the building survived everything. But during the Second World War in 1942, the lighthouse was destroyed. It was near the lighthouse that the last battles for the defense of Sevastopol were fought. The Nazis shot the defenders with almost direct fire from all guns. The Luftwaffe also dropped bombs from the air. The lighthouse received serious damage but survived. And already in 1944, during the liberation of Crimea, in the battles for the liberation of Sevastopol, the Chersonesos lighthouse took on the fire. Several accurate hits to the base of the lighthouse lead to the death of the remaining structure.
In 1950, the reconstruction of the lighthouse began according to old drawings, the Chersonesos lighthouse was partially rebuilt from old stone, Inkerman stone was partially used. In mid-1951, the lighthouse was completely restored to its original form. Already in the fall of the same year, the lighthouse received new optics and began combat duty.

Now the Chersonesos lighthouse equipped with modern equipment. On the territory of the lighthouse there is a military unit, which is not only responsible for the safety of navigation in the Black Sea, but also performs many everyday and everyday work to maintain the territory and serviceability of the Chersonesos lighthouse.
Getting to the Khersones lighthouse is very simple: from the center of Sevastopol you need to take bus No. 77 or No. 105 and get off at the final stop; You will find yourself in the Cossack Bay area, not far from the Museum Historical and Memorial Complex “35th Coastal Battery”; from here you need to walk about 10-15 minutes along the sea and you are at your destination. You will most likely not be allowed into the territory of the Khersones lighthouse, but it is quite possible to get relatively close to it.
The Chersonesos lighthouse is one of the brightest and one of the favorite places of city guests.

Chersonesos lighthouse on the map of Crimea