Gurzuf attractions: where to go and what to see?

The southern coast of Crimea attracts tourists with beautiful places, landscapes that are good without any filters and, of course, man-made sights. Many of them are in Gurzuf, a village that Ayu-Dag Mountain took under its wing.

Gurzuf is a small town located just 18 km from Yalta, it is included in its urban district. Artifacts found by scientists in this area give the right to talk about the settlements that were here in the third millennium BC. At first Tauris lived in Gurzuf, then the Byzantines (who built, by the way, a fortress on the cliff of Dzhenevez-Kaya, now known as Gurzuf or Genoese fortress). For three centuries, the village was part of the Turkish Sultanate, and in 1783 he joined the Russian Empire.

Each era left its mark in Gurzuf, and significant. Indeed, one can study history in this village in Crimea. Even the number of famous people who managed to relax and live here is impressive: Pushkin, Chekhov, Surikov, Bunin, Chaliapin, Kuprin, Gorky, Rakhmaninov ... The list goes on.

It is no coincidence that Gurzuf is called little Italy: it is difficult to disagree with the description. It is worth recalling the Roman metro, quite small by European standards - there is nowhere to dig, everywhere the cultural layer. So in Gurzuf, no matter the step, then the sights.

Namely:

• rock with the ruins of the Genoese fortress;
• children's center with international significance "Artek";
• cliffs of Adalara;
• Pushkin rock and Chaliapin rock;
• Arbor of the winds;
• Bear Mountain (or Ayu-Dag).

Some facilities are located in enclosed areas of boarding houses, but you can get there. If you book a visit through the tour desk, then you will visit the Rachel Fountain, the Pushkin Museum, and beautiful parks.

If you are interested in reconstruction, for which a modern impulse was inspired by a spiritual impulse, then you should definitely visit the Holy Assumption Cathedral. Yes, it was built already in the new millennium, but it has a prototype, a temple from pre-revolutionary Russia. That temple did not survive the Soviet times, and local residents, as well as patrons of art, built a new one, as a memory of the past.

The house-museum of A.P. Chekhov (or as Chekhov's cottage and Knipper is also called it) is also a must. The great Russian writer did not plan to live in Crimea, he needed Moscow, this is where Anton Pavlovich felt happy. But doctors did not leave a choice - it is necessary to change the climate (the writer was ill with tuberculosis for 8 years). In Yalta, Chekhov bought a plot of land, built a two-story house, called it "White Cottage". In the last year of the XIX century, Chekhov with his sister and mother moved to the Crimea. And he realized that he had made a mistake: having learned about Chekhov’s southern refuge, guests were constantly visiting him.

He wanted shelter, a small house: and he bought, this time in Gurzuf itself, a Tatar hakak. He did not even bargain when he saw the future possession, then he wrote enthusiastically to his sister that they now owned a small bay. There were almost no guests here, only the visit of Bunin and Komissarzhevskaya was known.

Anton Pavlovich bequeathed his wife to his small but beloved refuge. Almost every summer Olga Leonardovna Knipper spent here. Artists of the famous Kachalov troupe stayed here during the tour. The place was also inspired by artists, the famous Aivazovsky, Kukryniksy, Bisti wrote here.

In the middle of the 20th century, the artist Meshkov became the owner of the cottage, and after a dozen years the once Chekhov’s house became the property of the Union of Artists of the USSR.

In the house of the Governor General of New Russia and Bessarabia, Richelieu lived in 1820, A.S. Pushkin. Only three weeks in Gurzuf, but nonetheless later the poet considered these weeks to be one of the happiest days in life.

The appearance of the museum was not simple, it first appeared in the 30s of the last century. Several times he changed hands. Today, the museum celebrates all the traditional Pushkin dates: there are contests for readers, days of music and poetry. International Pushkin Readings are held here, as well as the Days of Adam Mitsevich in Crimea.

In 1912, the cottage in Gurzuf was built by the artist Konstantin Korovin. The history of this house is intertwined with another “hero of Gurzuf,” A.P. Chekhov. The writer invited Korovin to settle in his country house. But he refused, the noise of the sea did not very well affect the artist’s health. And then Korovin built himself a workshop, but not right on the shore, but at a distance. Incidentally, Chekhov’s house was visible from the workshop window.

And although the artist lived in Gurzuf for only 6 years, this period of his work was extremely fruitful. Many of the works written in those years make you stop, peer, and feel the energy coming from the paintings “Marina in Gurzuf”, “Fishing Bay”, “On the Seaside”. Why is Korovin so interesting, asks a person who is not very well versed in painting? Probably the fact that this is the first Russian impressionist.

It is a pleasant, interesting experience to penetrate the atmosphere of the beginning of the 20th century, to make out furniture, decoration, the atmosphere of the artist's summer house. The artist called the summer residence Salambo. And today you can come to the villa "Salambo", a year-round holiday home with 70 beds. There are rooms in the villa with balconies, which offer a gorgeous view of the Gurzuf Bay and the very Ayu-Dag mountain.

The southern coast of Crimea is ideal for families with children. Subtropics, Mediterranean climate, most of the rainfall in autumn and winter. The season changes dramatically: it was just winter or autumn, and suddenly - summer. If children are prone to pulmonary disease, they should be here.

Although, if you come here in the spring, there is something to see. For example, beautiful snowdrops and crocuses bloom on the slopes of Ayu-Dag Mountain. The height of the mountain is not very big - 577 m. Once the mountain was supposed to turn into a volcano, but now it can be considered a natural mineralogical museum.

The city park is another place in Gurzuf, not visiting which amounts to a crime for a tourist. It is a monument of landscape gardening art; it was founded at the beginning of the 19th century by the duke of Richelieu already mentioned above. The park covers an area of ​​12 hectares, most importantly, there are more than 110 species and forms of shrubs and trees in this territory. Here you can see the local Crimean pine, small-fruited strawberries, dumb pistachio.

From the introduced plants you can admire the large-flowered magnolia, the evergreen pyramidal cypress, Lebanese cedar, and European olive. A notable lesson in botany for both children and adults will turn out on such a walk.

And next to the southern gates of the park is a gallery, another amazing phenomenon for tourists. Here are sculptures of famous people who at different times visited Gurzuf. Adam Miscavi, Fedor Chaliapin, Vladimir Mayakovsky appear before the guests of the park. Here you can also see the famous Pushkin cypress, a tree for 200 years, and it is mentioned in a letter to Pushkin to Delvig: the classic writes that he attached himself to the tree with a feeling similar to friendship.

It is inconceivable to imagine a resort town without a promenade. Crowds of tourists arriving here, for obvious reasons, the first thing to do is choose this route. First you want to see the sea, breathe in the sea air, feel with your feet this sand saturated with sunny happiness of carefree.

The seafront in Gurzuf is so unique in that it is laid out with marble tiles, which sparkles in the sun with pink and white highlights. In the evening, when the southern city seems to be covered in darkness in an instant, the promenade is especially charming and romantic. The tourist welcomes the modulation of club lights, the oblique arrows of lanterns - you can go for a walk here until the morning. By the way, the embankment bears the name of A.S. Pushkin, although more often it is called simply Gurzuf.

The traditional resort trade is conducted here, as it should - magnets, sinks, various souvenirs and swimwear are actively sold here. Numerous children's attractions are located under cypresses, so the kids will definitely have no time to be bored.

Restaurants, coffee houses, cafes are all for tourists who drop by here for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Here you can nostalgia by buying children (and yourself too) cotton candy from Soviet childhood. You can also enjoy local boiled crayfish here.

There are several beach sites in Gurzuf: they are different in size and infrastructure. There are very narrow coastal stripes, but here you can see the wonders of nature - for example, the tsunami cloud wall approaching on Ayu-Dag.

The beaches are numbered, although many call them familiar former. For example, Comet is a spacious general-purpose beach with locker rooms, sunbeds and umbrellas for rent. There are also separate public beaches with a wide coastal strip, loaded in season: there are many paid sun loungers and bedding. But the entrance to the sea is comfortable gentle, pebbles are shallow.

Beaches Sharm and Zhako 2007 are distinguished by tourists especially: order, civilized relaxation, even VIP zones. You can get to the sanatorium beaches only by passes, although there are craftsmen who can get here too.

Rest can be completely entrusted to the tour desk, you can partially plan it yourself. If you relax in Gurzuf, you will probably want to take a walk in its surroundings. For example, many people want to see the very legendary Artek camp. Once upon a time, Suuk-Su land was located on its territory, where the Soviet intelligentsia rested. Evenings with dancing, roulette games - bohemian relaxation. The palace was destroyed, but then it was restored and given to Artek. Today there is a cosmonautics museum, a library and, of course, the Artek Museum of History.

It makes sense, without a doubt, to go for a walk in the Nikitsky Botanical Garden, which is 9 km from Gurzuf. A green labyrinth, an exhibition of butterflies, an exhibition of orchids - and this is only a small part of the program that awaits any guest of the park. You will need at least three hours to call the walk complete.

Finally, you can always go to Yalta, Alupka, Sevastopol, which in one way or another are not so far from Gurzuf. Crimea still attracts tourists. You should not compare this holiday with a European one, because each place is interesting in its own way, historically attractive in its own way, has the atmosphere that invites you to come back here again.

See where to go in Gurzuf in the next video.