Vorontsov Palace in Alupka architecture. Virtual tour of the Vorontsov Palace

29.12.2020

Vorontsov Palace in Alupka (Crimea) is rightfully considered one of the pearls of the peninsula. Elegant and at the same time majestic building located at the foot of Mount Ai-Petri. It is surrounded by a unique park complex, and from the main staircase there is an amazing view of the Black Sea.

The palace complex fits organically into the surrounding landscape due to the fact that its location corresponds mountainous terrain. That is why the palace has such an original image. The Vorontsov Palace in Crimea and the adjacent park often became a film set. At least 17 films have received recognition from the general public.

Ticket prices for the Vorontsov Palace in 2019

Ticket prices are indicated on the official website of the complex. They depend on the selected exhibitions and excursions.

Separate expositions and exhibitions: adults - from 50 to 350 rubles, students, pensioners and teenagers 16-18 years old - from 25 to 200 rubles.
Walking tours of the park: adults - 100 rubles, students, pensioners and teenagers 16-18 years old - 70 rubles.
Excursions around the park by electric car: 800 rubles. from a group of 4-20 people.
For preferential and free category of visitors, as well as for children from 7 to 16 years old: a fee of 70 rubles is charged. for the use of audio guides.
« Single ticket» (all expositions and exhibitions): adults - 830 rubles, students, pensioners and teenagers 16-18 years old - 450 rubles.

Opening hours of the Vorontsov Palace

You can visit exhibitions, temporary and permanent exhibitions daily from 09:00 to 17:15. However, the State Rooms and South Terraces are open until 20:00 on Saturdays. Tours of the palace park are available at 11:00; 13:00 and 15:00, but only if there is a group of 15 to 20 people. There are options hiking and trips by electric car. A “single ticket” can be purchased on any day except Monday and Wednesday.

History of the Vorontsov Palace

The first owner of the palace was His Serene Highness Prince Mikhail Semenovich Vorontsov, a descendant of an ancient family known since the 14th century, a hero-order bearer who participated in many military campaigns and retired with the rank of Field Marshal, Novorossiysk and Bessarabian Governor-General, honorary member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences . After his death in 1856, the palace was owned in turn by the prince's close relatives. After the revolution, the facility was nationalized.

The period of construction of the Vorontsov Palace in Crimea dates back to the period 1828-1848. Quit-rent serfs were involved in heavy work, and hereditary stonemasons performed the relief decoration, manually. First, the Dining Building was erected, then the Central Building. Already in the forties of the 19th century, a billiard room, outbuildings, towers, guest and utility buildings, as well as a library appeared. Sappers were working hard on the ledges of the South Terrace. Thanks to them, the Vorontsov Palace in Alupka acquired a luxurious grand staircase, on the pedestals of which lions made by the Italian master Giovanni Bonnani were installed in 1948. This was the final chord in the design of the overall ensemble. palace complex.

Already in 1921, the Vorontsov Palace in Crimea, which never changed its common name, turned into a museum. During the Second World War there was no time to hide the exhibits, so many of them were taken away by the occupiers. The amounts stolen turned out to be colossal. During the Yalta Conference (February 1945), the palace temporarily became the residence of W. Churchill and his retinue. Until 1956, a government dacha was located here. Subsequently, a decision was made to reopen the museum, which is still functioning, but in a new status. In the 90s of the last century, the complex began to be called a palace and park museum-reserve.

Architecture

In the appearance of the building, elements of different eras and a successful combination of architectural styles are visible - strict English, with a neo-Gothic direction, and lush oriental, neo-Moorish. An interesting fact is that the palace began to be built according to one project (by the Italian Francesco Boffo and the Englishman Thomas Harrison), and ended according to another (by the famous British eclectic architect Edward Blore). By the way, the latter did not visit Alupka while working on the project, as he was too busy with orders from the royal family in his homeland.

The main material for the construction of the Vorontsov Palace in Alupka is diabase, which is superior in strength to granite stones. The museum-reserve includes five separate buildings, courtyards, a terrace, a front and additional staircase, and a park area.

Palace inside

The official website of the Vorontsov Palace offers several interesting exhibitions for visiting. The main exposition of the complex is the State Halls, located in the Main building of the complex. Their decoration has been preserved almost in its original form. The design and decoration of the Front Office are made according to all the rules of the English style. There are portraits of the first owner, as well as his comrades who participated in the Battle of Borodino. A Chinese cabinet is capable of surprising visitors with elaborately decorated furniture and rice straw mats that occupy most of the surface of the walls. The lobby with wooden profiled ceilings, simple furniture and fireplaces decorated with diabase portals is adjacent to a vestibule in which there is an embroidered image of the Persian Shah. The Blue Living Room amazes with its sophistication and amazing stucco ornaments, once made by a serf master.

In the Winter Garden you can see climbing ficus, preserved since 1838, and rare exotic plants. There are interesting sculptures and a fountain here. The state dining room of the Vorontsov Palace in Alupka (Crimea) resembles a knight's castle. It features an original balcony for musicians and a fountain shaped like a fireplace. The State Rooms are completed by the Billiard Room with artistic canvases placed on the walls.

The next exhibition includes the one-story Shuvalov outbuilding, to which only people close to the family of M. S. Vorontsov’s daughter had access. Cozy house has several rooms, each of which is interesting in its own way. Next, you can go to the butler’s apartment, located in the Utility Building, and see how the prince’s service staff lived while receiving full board, and even a salary. Here you can also look into the Vorontsov kitchen. And finally, another exhibition of the “Southern Terraces” includes the main staircase, sculptures of lions, flowering flower beds and cascading fountains.

In addition to the main objects of the Vorontsov Palace in Alupka, temporary and permanent exhibitions are located on its territory. Among them are Russian and Western European porcelain facades, paintings by artists of different periods, including the second half of the 20th century, sculptures, graphics, etc.

Vorontsov Palace Park

The lower part of the park is characterized by the Italian regular style. Around the palace complex, mainly coniferous trees grow - spruce, fir, cedar, pine and cypress, so the area always remains green. In spring and summer, magnolias, exotic shrubs and the amazing cercis bloom in the park, the trunks of which in April are densely covered with purple-crimson flowers reminiscent of moths. The park of the Vorontsov Palace is incredibly beautiful, and walking through it is an incredible pleasure.

Vorontsov Palace - how to get there

There are several options for visiting the palace and park complex in Alupka. Two routes pass through the city - upper and lower, so you can get here from different settlements peninsulas connected by the Yuzhnoberezhny and Sevastopol highways.

From Yalta

There are two regular buses on the route Yalta - Vorontsov Palace - No. 132 from the center and No. 102 from the bus station. They stay within walking distance of the attraction - just a 10-minute walk. The stop for minibuses running between Yalta and Alupka (No. 107 and 115) is located a little further from the complex - a 15-minute walk.

From Sevastopol

You can get to the Vorontsov Palace by direct bus "Sevastopol - Alupka" or to the "Avtostanciya" stop and walk, or to the "Pitomnik" stop with a transfer to city bus No. 1A, which runs along a circular route. Exit at the “Center” stop.

From Alushta

The route Alushta - Vorontsov Palace consists of two stages. First you need to take the Crimean trolleybus No. 53 to Yalta, and then transfer to a bus or minibus(description above).

From Simferopol

From Simferopol you can get to the Yalta trolleybus station, located near the Bus Station, directly from the Simferopol airport by trolleybus No. 55 or from railway station flight No. 52. Another option involves a transfer connection in Alushta from trolleybus No. 51, going from the Simferopol railway station, or No. 54, departing from the airport, to trolleybus No. 53, going to Yalta. Next, the path to the Vorontsov Palace - how to get there is described above. You can get to Yalta faster by intercity transport.

Crimean taxi drivers and private cab drivers know very well where the Vorontsov Palace is located, so they deliver passengers not only from Yalta, but also from Foros, Gurzuf, Alushta and even Simferopol. At independent trip By car you will have to take care of the navigator in advance.

Important information Until October 2017, it was possible to get to the Vorontsov Palace by sea. Currently, the Alupka pier is closed due to its destruction

Alupka- a resort town consisting of Big Yalta, located at the foot of Mount Ai-Petri, 17 km southwest of the city of Yalta in Crimea.

Vorontsov Palace and its park complex – "highlight" Alupka landscape and the main attraction of the seaside town.

Holidays on the Black Sea in Alupka attract tourists with a mild climate without sharp seasonal fluctuations, healing sea and pine air in which one can breathe easily and freely, as well as a picturesque view of the surroundings of the Russian seaside town on the southern coast of Crimea.

A particularly mesmerizing view of Alupka opens from the sea: in the center of the panorama on the hill stands the magnificent Alupka Palace (Vorontsovsky); the buildings of coastal sanatoriums stretch out in a chain along the sea and are buried in the greenery of parks, and the battlements dominate over them majestic mountain Ai-Petri.

Ai-Petrinsky mountain range- one of the highest in Crimea. Like a shield it covers Alupka from the cold northern winds, and the largest number of sunny days a year (compared to Black Sea resorts Caucasus) make this town on the Black Sea coast a wonderful resort - second after Yalta in South coast Crimea.

History of Alupka.

The history of Alupka begins in the 6th-5th centuries BC, when the first Tauri settlement was founded on these blessed lands. Archaeologists found the remains of fortifications and a large burial ground on Mount Krestovaya. In the 10th century, Alupka belonged to the Khazars, in the 14th century it passed into the possession of the Genoese, who built a port and fortifications here, and later became a Tatar village. After the annexation of Crimea to Russia, these lands saw new owners: aristocrats and royal nobles. In the 20s of the 19th century, Alupka became the estate of the Governor-General of the Novorossiysk Territory, Count Mikhail Semenovich Vorontsov, who decided to build a palace here. Until the 80s of the 19th century, Alupka was still a small village. The local population was mainly engaged in gardening and viticulture.

At the end of the 19th century, Alupka began to rapidly develop as a resort due to the fact that Russian “luminaries of medicine” recognized the healing properties of the local climate for the treatment of bronchopulmonary diseases and the healing of the entire body. In Alupka, dachas of aristocrats, shops, boarding houses, hotels, a post office and a telegraph appeared, and roads were built. In 1902, back in Tsarist Russia in Alupka, the first sanatorium for children began operating on voluntary donations.

During the years of Soviet power in Alupka, the construction of sanatoriums proceeded at a rapid pace, of which there were already more than twenty by 1940.

Alupka received city status in 1938.

is a narrow strip of large and small pebbles, 4 km long along coastline. There are a total of 6 beaches and 23 beaches at sanatoriums. The main beach is a free city beach, which is located under Vorontsovsky Park. To the beach " Cote d'Azur", which is located near the bus station, you can drive up by car (there is paid parking).

Mild climate, dry air of Alupka with the aroma of pine, the Black Sea - the best place for the treatment of lung diseases. Here is the first children's sanatorium in Europe for the treatment of bone tuberculosis (founder Professor A.A. Bobrov). In 1982, a wine tasting room with 240 seats, Massandra, opened in Alupka.

Vorontsov Palace in Alupka.

Vorontsov Palace(Alupka) - this is the former summer Crimean residence Governor General of the Novorossiysk Territory Count Mikhail Semenovich Vorontsov. Today is Alupka Palace and Park Museum-Reserve. It fits perfectly into the amazing landscape with a mountain range, evergreen vegetation and several narrow streets of the town, rising uphill from sea coast. It is built from diabase, a material that is twice as strong as granite and is mined on the Crimean Peninsula. The gray-green color of the stone creates a unified architectural composition of the Vorontsov Palace with nature.

Photos of the Vorontsov Palace.

The palace was designed by the English architect Edward Blore. Construction took place from 1828 to 1848. The finishing process lasted until 1852. The architecture of the palace is unique. It consists of a combination of different styles:

The North Front is late English Gothic;
The Western Facade is European medieval castle, fortress 8-12 centuries;
Southern - elements of India and the East. Huge dome of the South facade with Arabic inscriptions, open towards the Black Sea, has a romantic appearance. The “Lion Terrace” with gradually wary “kings” of animals adorns the magnificent staircase leading to the entrance to the castle from the park. Three pairs of lions made of Carrara white marble were made in the workshop of the Florentine sculptor Bonnani, but the most famous (lower) is “Sleeping Lion”.

The palace ensemble consists of 5 buildings, open and closed courtyards, terraces. The Vorontsov Palace looks both stern and elegant, stable and romantic. The western part of the palace (the so-called Shuvalovsky Proezd) appears to tourists as a stone-paved street of a medieval city with old fortress walls with powerful towers and narrow loophole windows. The southern facade is famous for its high portal with a deep niche, on the frieze of which the saying “There is no winner but Allah” is inscribed in Arabic script.

Eastern and Western architecture are united by the palace's carved stone decorations, battlements and Gothic chimneys, as well as soaring domes in the form of mosque minarets and thin turrets on the sides. All this splendor is complemented by the natural pattern of Mount Ai-Petri.

Each of the 150 rooms included in the palace ensemble is unique: “The Calico Room”, “The Blue Living Room”, “The State Dining Room”, “ Winter Garden", "Chinese cabinet", "Billiard room", "Lobby". The luxury and love of the owners for their home is visible everywhere. The special pride of the Alupka Palace is its luxurious fireplaces in the Gothic style, made of marbled limestone and polished diabase stone.
"Great Dining Room"- the most majestic hall of the Vorontsov Palace. Its interior is made in the style of knight's castles. Tourists are impressed by: a decorative marble fountain with a balcony for musicians rising above it; walls decorated with wood carvings; candelabra made of Ural malachite. High ceilings, doors made of bog oak, simple furniture and oak panels add solemnity to the hall.
"Blue Living Room"- This is a bright, elegant room with a stucco openwork pattern of leaves and flowers covering the blue walls and ceiling. It has Turkish furnishings and luxurious fabrics.
"Winter Garden"– a combination of marble sculpture with rare evergreens. Copies of antique sculptures and portraits of the Vorontsov family, made in marble, make up the main interior of the Winter Garden.

Winter garden in the Vorontsov Palace Photo.

5 terraces of the Vorontsov Palace park- These are stylized five stages of medieval gardens with flower beds and trimmed plants. The Upper Terrace has many marble vases, fountains, benches among rose gardens, and the Lower Terrace is distinguished by an abundance of wall fountains.

In 1921, the Vorontsov Palace became a museum. Since 1990, it has been the Alupka Palace and Park Museum-Reserve. Excursions and exhibitions are held here, including the Vorontsov Family Gallery. In 2007, a new exhibition “The House of Count A.P.” was opened here. Shuvalov."

Alupka Park. Vorontsovsky Park.

Palace Park covers an area of more than 40 hectares. It rises from the sea itself, and the coastal highway divides it into Upper and Lower. About 200 species of trees and shrubs grow here. From December 1824 to April 1851 it was created by the German botanist and gardener Karl Antonovich Kebach.

Vorontsov Palace located in Alupka (Crimea) at the foot of Mount Ai-Petri.

Constructed from diabase, which was mined nearby. Currently, the palace houses a museum. At the Vorontsov Palace there is a park - a monument to landscape art. From December 1824 to April 1851, Vorontsovsky Park in Alupka was created by a talented German gardener-botanist, head gardener South Bank Crimea - Karl Antonovich Kebakh.

Palace architecture

The Vorontsov Palace was built according to new (compared to classicism) architectural and construction principles. An important architectural feature was the location of the palace in accordance with the mountain topography, thanks to which the palace blended very organically into the surrounding landscape and acquired its original artistic and expressive image.

The palace was built in the spirit of English architecture, and the construction contains elements of various eras, from early forms to the 16th century. The arrangement of elements starts from the western gate - the further from the gate, the later the style of construction.

The English style is organically combined with the neo-Moorish style. For example, Gothic chimneys resemble mosque minarets. The southern entrance is decorated with oriental splendor. A horseshoe-shaped arch, a two-tiered vault, plaster carvings in a niche where a Tudor flower pattern and a lotus motif are intertwined, culminate in the Arabic inscription repeated six times across the frieze: “And there is no victor except Allah.”

History of construction

The palace was built from 1828 to 1848 as summer residence a prominent statesman of Russia, Governor-General of the Novorossiysk Territory, Count M. S. Vorontsov.

The palace was built according to the design of the English architect Edward Blore. The architect did not come to Alupka, but he was well aware of the terrain. In addition, the foundations and the first masonry of the deep portal niche of the central building were already ready (the palace began to be built according to another project - by architects Francesco Boffo and Thomas Harrison).

In the construction of the palace, the labor of quitrent serfs from the Vladimir and Moscow provinces was mainly used. Hereditary masons and stone cutters who had experience in the construction and relief decoration of white stone cathedrals were involved in the construction. All work was done by hand, using primitive tools.

The construction of the palace began with the dining building (1830-1834). The central building was erected in 1831-1837. In 1841-1842, a billiard room was added to the dining room. In 1838-1844, the guest building, the eastern wings, all the towers of the palace, the pentagon of utility buildings were built, and the Main Courtyard was designed. The last building to be built was the library building (1842 - 1846).

The largest volume of earthworks was carried out from 1840 to 1848 with the help of soldiers of the sapper battalion, who built the terraces of the park in front of the southern facade of the palace.

In the summer of 1848, sculptural figures of lions were installed on the central staircase leading to the main entrance, made in the workshop of the Italian sculptor Giovanni Bonnani. The Lion's Terrace completed the construction and decoration of the palace and park ensemble.

History of the palace after construction

Before the October Revolution, the Vorontsov Palace belonged to three generations of the Vorontsov family.

After the advent of Soviet power, the Vorontsov Palace was nationalized.

In mid-1921, the Vorontsov Palace opened as a museum.

In 1941, the Great Patriotic War began. There was no time to evacuate the museum exhibits from Alupka, as well as from many other museums in Crimea. Twice the museum was threatened with destruction, and both times it was saved by the museum’s senior researcher S.G. Shchekoldin. The occupiers took away many artistic values, including 537 works of painting and graphics, and only most The paintings were found after the war and returned to the palace. This is written in detail in the book written based on Shchekoldin’s memoirs, “What Lions Are Silent About.”

From 4 to 11 February 1945, during the Yalta Conference, the Vorontsov Palace became the residence of the British delegation led by Winston Churchill.

From 1945 to 1955 it was used as a state summer house.

In 1956, by decision of the government, a museum began to function in the palace again.

Since 1990 - Alupka Palace and Park Museum-Reserve.

Palace interiors

The ceremonial interiors of the palace have almost completely preserved their original decoration. Each of the rooms is individual, has its own unique flavor, reflected in the names: Chinese Cabinet, Calico Room, Winter Garden, Blue Living Room. The decoration of the State Dining Room is reminiscent of the decoration of the knights' halls in medieval castles. It is decorated with rich wood carvings and four monumental panels by the famous French artist Hubert Robert (1733-1808).

Alupka Park

A masterpiece of landscape art - Alupka Park. Its creator, gardener-botanist Karl Antonovich Kebach (1799-1851), was involved in planning and planting plants in the park for more than a quarter of a century. The park, being a park-monument of national importance, is included in the exhibition part of the museum territory, which totals 361,913 m².

Museum expositions

Currently, in the Alupka Museum there are several permanent exhibitions. Nine state rooms introduce you to the life of the first owners of the palace and the character of the palace interiors of the 30-40s of the 19th century. In the former guest building there is a permanent exhibition “Vorontsov Family Gallery”. “The Gift of Professor V.N.” is exhibited in separate rooms. Golubev" (Russian and Soviet avant-garde), painting by Ya. A. Basov "Poetry of Landscape", art exhibitions "Ukrainian Painting", "Inhaling the Scent of Roses" (flowers in painting). In the park pavilion “Tea House” there are exhibitions “Maps Crimean peninsula", "Vorontsov and Russian admirals", "Sea battles" of the 18th-19th centuries.

In 2007, a new museum exhibition “The House of Count A.P. Shuvalov” was opened in the Shuvalov wing. It is based on previously unexhibited furnishings and personal belongings of the Vorontsovs, Shuvalovs, Vorontsovs-Dashkovs. The interiors of the house display works of art that reflect the stylistic features of the residential premises of palaces of the mid-18th century.

The collection of the Alupka Palace and Park Museum-Reserve consists of almost 27 thousand exhibits of the main fund, and the memorial library of M. S. Vorontsov contains more than 10 thousand books.

One of the museum’s paintings, “Portrait of Prince Grigory Potemkin” by Levitsky, was donated to him by Baron Falz-Fein.

Vorontsov Palace in cinema

The territory of the palace and the adjacent park is often used for filming. Among the most famous works:

1961 - " Scarlet Sails»
1964 - “An Ordinary Miracle”
1964 - “Hamlet”
1972 - “Stoves and benches”
1976 - “Heavenly Swallows”
1986 - “The Journey of Pan Blobs”
2003 - “Crazy Day, or The Marriage of Figaro”
2008 - “Sappho”
2009 - “Hamlet. XXI Century"
2014 - “Belovodye. The Secret of the Lost Country”
2015 - “Belovodye. Source of knowledge"

Vorontsov palaces in other cities

Vorontsov Palace in Odessa
Vorontsov Palace in St. Petersburg
Vorontsov Palace in Tiflis
Vorontsov Palace in Simferopol

The palace was built in 1826-1846 for Count M. S. Vorontsov, one of the largest Russian figures of the first half of the 19th century century.

In our time, he would be called a top manager. Vorontsov was educated in England, where his father was the Russian ambassador in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. This partly explains that the palace was built in the style of English architecture. In 1823, he was appointed governor-general of the Novorossiysk region.

For the construction of the palace and device big park Vorontsov buys land from the population of Alupka. In 10 years (from 1824 to 1833) they acquired land in 158 persons. Lands were bought for next to nothing, the local population was forced out to the mountains, onto rocky soil.

The design of the Vorontsov Palace in Alupka was made by the English architect Eduard Blore. Initially, construction of the palace began according to the designs of architects Thomas Harrison and Francesco Boffo. It is to them that the palace owes its portal niche. The construction was supervised by the Englishman William Gunt.

Based on the surviving plans and watercolors (the watercolor is on display), one can judge Blore's original plan and the changes made by Gunt. Blore designed the palace as a light pavilion with more pronounced oriental features than was subsequently implemented by Gunt.

Gunt made a number of small changes to the layout interior spaces main building. Instead of an open billiard room, he built a glazed winter garden - a light building surrounded by an open gallery, adjacent to the dining wing from the west, was rebuilt into a more monumental and ponderous building. He changed the shape of the western towers, the layout of outbuildings and service wings.

From 1828 to 1830, a design for the palace was drawn up and materials were prepared. But the real construction began with the laying of the first stones only in March 1830.

The palace was built from diorite - a beautiful greenish-gray stone of volcanic origin. It was taken from a natural placer on the territory of Alupka. And at present, piles of diorite have been preserved in Alupka Park in abundant quantities - the so-called stone “chaos”. To obtain building blocks, multi-ton shapeless blocks of diorite were taken, requiring large physical and time expenditures. Everything was done by hand using the tools of that time. Diorite itself is a very durable and hard stone. Now I can’t even believe that the huge straight blocks for the walls were carved by hand. Complex ornaments and decorations were carved from the same stone, entire domes and battlements were carved on the walls. Carefully polished diorite was used to decorate interior spaces.

Oddly enough, the construction of the Vorontsov Palace did not begin with the famous northern facade of the central building. The dining building was built first, and in parallel with it, from 1830 to 1834, the Shuvalovsky building was built, later transformed by Gunt into a billiard hall. Initially it was intended for guests and Vorontsov's son-in-law Shuvalov.

After the construction of the western wing, work was carried out to the east. The central building, despite all the complexity of implementing architectural plans, was planned to be completed by the arrival of the imperial family in Crimea in 1837. “With extraordinary effort and expense,” it was reported at the time, “this house was completed before the arrival of the imperial family. It would be better to say that it was prepared: for some things, and especially decorations, both internal and external, were made only temporarily and then had to be remade or completely destroyed.” The interior and exterior decoration of the main building lasted another four years after the emperor’s visit to Crimea.

In 1838, the clock tower and eastern wings were built. The winter garden was completed at the same time, but finally flourished with the appearance of the lion's terrace after 1841. The utility and library buildings were built from 1841 to 1846.

All construction work and interior decoration The palace was carried out not by foreigners, but by simple Russian and Ukrainian craftsmen, mainly Vorontsov’s serfs. Vladimir stonemasons, who have long been famous for their art of erecting white stone cathedrals and carving complex ornamental patterns on stone, worked especially hard here.

From almost all of Vorontsov's estates - from the northern regions and Ukrainian lands - serfs were forcibly driven to Crimea. Many came here voluntarily in the hope of earning money. By the beginning of the 19th century, the serfs of Vorontsov’s northern estates were transferred to cash rent instead of corvee. In search of work, they traveled on foot from central Russia to Crimea. But their hopes were in vain. For their work they received an insignificant amount, from which they had to pay quitrent. There was not enough money for bread. Working until exhaustion, people lived from hand to mouth.

During the construction of the Vorontsov Palace, epidemics broke out twice in 1833 and 1837, killing thousands of builders.

Due to the lack of archival data, it is difficult to establish the exact number of serfs who built the palace over the course of 18 years, but there is no doubt that several thousand people worked here.

Unfortunately, very few names of the builders have reached us. It is known that serfs from the Vladimir province worked here: stonemason Dmitry Borovkov, gardener Maxim Ivanov, stone cutter Ermolai Ivanov, who created the Trilby fountain and one of the cascade fountains at the southern entrance to the palace.

After Vorontsov's death, the palace belonged to his son, then to distant relatives of the Vorontsovs - the Vorontsov-Dashkovs, wealthy Russian nobles. After the events of 1917, the palace became “people's” and was nationalized. In 1921, a historical and everyday life museum was opened here, supplemented with objects of art and everyday life from other palaces and aristocratic estates of the Southern Coast of Crimea.

During the Second World War, the resort could have lost its main attraction, Alupka. Soldiers German army they wanted to blow up the palace, but didn’t have time. In the spring of 1945, the British delegation settled in the palace to participate in the Yalta Conference. The museum opens in 1956 fine arts, which two years later became an architectural and artistic palace-museum that is still active to this day.

Currently, the museum occupies the central, Shuvalovsky, dining, utility and library buildings of the palace complex. You can visit the following exhibitions and expositions: state halls and Southern terraces, exhibitions “The Gift of Professor V.N. Golubev”, “Paris Archive”, “Cabinet of Count I.I. Vorontsov-Dashkov”, “Office of the commandant of the state dacha”, “Ukrainian painting”, “House of Count A.P. Shuvalov" "Flowers in Painting" and "Vorontsov Kitchen".