Swallow's nest description and photos - Crimea: Yalta
Swallow's nest description and photos - Crimea: Yalta. Detailed information about the attraction. Description, photos and a map showing the nearest significant objects. Photo and description"Swallow's Nest" was built on a steep cliff Ai-Todor Cape . The structure resembles a medieval knight's castle like the Portuguese Belem Tower or the Villa Miramare near Trieste, Italy. "Swallow's Nest" has become a kind of emblem of the Southern coast of Crimea. The first ownersThe estate on Aurora Rock has been known since the 70s of the XIX century. We do not know the name of the first owner. According to legend, he was a general, and called his dacha "The Castle of Love". From here, young people with a broken heart jumped into the sea, and he himself amused himself by jumping off a cliff on a horse. Not out of love, but for the sake of excitement. The first reliable owner of the rock and the structure on it is the Livadian doctor Adalbert Karlovich Tobin . After his death in 1902, the dacha passed to his wife, and from her to a certain Rakhmanova , about whom no reliable information was found either. Perhaps it was Olga Vladimirovna Rakhmanova, actress, founder of the School of Performing Arts in Odessa. Other sources call her the "Moscow merchant's wife". The merchants Rakhmanovs really lived in Moscow. The most famous of them - Georgy Karpovich - at the beginning of the 20th century was no longer a merchant, but an assistant professor at the Faculty of History and Philology, and moved in the most cultural circles of Moscow. In Moscow and the Moscow region, several estates and dachas that belonged to the Rakhmanovs have survived, but nothing is known about their Crimean possessions. Anyway, here, on a rock, by the beginning of the 20th century there was already a romantic wooden house. It was already called "Swallow's Nest", drew and photographed. A unique color photograph of S. Proskudin-Gorsky, 1904 has survived. Two paintings by the famous artist L. Lagorio (1901 and 1903), depicting this place, have survived. The Steingel Family In 1910 the castle passed into the hands of the Steingel family. The family of Barons Steingel appeared in Russia since the 18th century. One of the branches of this family belonged to the Decembrist, a member of the Northern Society - Vladimir Ivanovich Steingel . Here again a mystery awaits us. Several Steingels lived in Russia at that time, and several of them are named as the owner of "Swallow's Nest". According to some sources, it was Vladimir Rudolfovich Shteingel , son of a famous railroad builder. Vladimir Rudolfovich was engaged in agriculture and animal husbandry, raised sheep and pigs on his Kuban estate, built a huge distillery equipped with the latest technology. The products of his estate "Khutorok" participated in the 1900 World Exhibition in Paris and received several awards. After the revolution, he managed to emigrate and he died in Paris. Other, more reliable sources call us Pavel Leonardovich Shteingel , a cousin of Vladimir Rudolfovich. He was an oil industrial engineer in Vladikavkaz. We know about him that after the revolution he went to the White Guard, fought and died in exile in France, just like Vladimir Ivanovich. Most likely, he was the owner of "Swallow's Nest" until 1914. and it was with him that the famous castle was built, which has been admired for several generations. The Sherwood FamilyThe mysteries continue. We know the name of the architect - Sherwood. This is also a famous family, and also associated with the Decembrists. One of the Sherwoods was the author of the denunciation of the Decembrists, and for this he received an addition to his surname - "Faithful". Among the people, he immediately became "Bad", and the Sherwoods did not often communicate with the Sherwoods-Faithful. The author of "Swallow's Nest" is often called Vladimir Osipovich Sherwood , the very one who built the Historical museum in Moscow. He also owns a monument to the heroes of Plevna. Sometimes the construction of the Crimean castle is attributed to his son Leonid Vladimirovich, who after the revolution became a Soviet sculptor. It is famous for the monuments to A. Radishchev, and I. Mechkin, a bust of I. Stalin and a book of memoirs "The Way of the Sculptor." Another representative of the Sherwood dynasty of architects - Sergey Vladimirovich - became famous mainly for his cathedrals built in the neo-Russian style. For example, he owns the Kazan Cathedral in Shamordino. The third brother - Vladimir Vladimirovich - was actively involved in the restructuring of Zaryadye, built tenement houses and merchant mansions. He is the author of the building that currently houses the presidential administration. But, most likely, "Swallow's Nest" belongs to Alexander Vladimirovich , the fourth brother. About himself and his other creations, nothing else is known. Even the name did not remain in official documents. We just know a plaque left over from Soviet times on the house. "AND. V. Sherwood ". Probably, in those days when the sign was installed, there was more information. All that is known about him is the years of his life: 1869-1919. Judging by the first date, he was the third brother - the sculptor Leonid Vladimirovich was younger. And judging by the second date, most likely, he died in the revolutionary turmoil. In any case, we know one thing - in the 1910s, the most famous building of Crimea was built on the rock. The castle was created in the neo-Gothic style, fashionable at the beginning of the 20th century. Its closest analogies are the Shekhtel mansion of Savva Morozov, the Bazhenov Vladimir Church in the village of Bykovo, or the Apraksins estate in Uspensky. Even in Crimea, the Gothic style was in vogue - this is how the not-preserved Ascension Church in Koreiz was built. Swallow's Nest has everything that distinguishes Gothic architecture: lancet windows, crenellated "castle" walls, and finally a magnificent three-tiered tower topped with spiers. It is completely miniature: only twelve meters high, ten wide and twenty long. But its location is so good, and the view from the sea is so advantageous that it seems much more significant. In 1914, Steingel sold the mansion. Usually the purchase is attributed to a certain merchant Shelaputin who seems to have opened a restaurant here. But this is a confusion - such a merchant really was in the Crimea and really kept a restaurant. But it was not "Swallow's Nest", but "White Swallow" on Ai-Todor. But here there is a completely reliable Rokhmanova. Information about this was recently found by local ethnographers in the Yalta archives. It was Maria Sergeevna Kyuleva, nee Rokhmanova . It was she who owned the dacha until 1921, until the estate was nationalized. Under her, the interior was completed (it remained poor, but interesting) and a garden was laid out near the house. Oddly enough, even such a beautiful and original dacha was somewhat similar to our modern ones: the owner did not run electricity, and all the plumbing facilities were not in this building, but in the neighboring one. Soviet time In 1921 the estate was nationalized. At this moment, Rokhmanova had not lived there for a long time. The house was abandoned. At one time there was a restaurant here. From 11 to 12 September 1927, the Crimea suffered a catastrophe: an earthquake happened. Such phenomena on the Black Sea coast are not so rare. But this was unprecedented in the force and scale of the destruction: after all, over the past fifty calm years, the southern coast managed to set up palaces, estates, set up parks and improve the embankments. Knowing this, they tried to build firmly in Crimea - for example, the Vorontsov Palace in Alupka survived in 1927, but the palace of the Bukhara Emir, in which the Oriental Museum was located, suffered greatly. Crimea shook both in the 19th century and in the 20th: in 1802, in 1838, in 1875, 1908 ... The last earthquake hit Yalta in 1919. But the earthquake of 1927 was the most powerful. In the evening of September 11, animals got worried. In completely calm weather, the sea swayed. And almost immediately after midnight tremors began. There was panic in Yalta. The dogs howled, the walls of houses collapsed. The sea retreated and again washed ashore in a destructive wave. The most terrible thing seemed to be the “burning sea”: flashes visible for many kilometers and pillars of fire. Until now, researchers do not know the exact reason for this phenomenon - either methane was burning, or hydrogen sulfide, but it looked creepy. In Yalta, two thirds of all buildings were destroyed. The "Swallow's Nest" miraculously survived, but also actually turned into ruins. A deep crack broke the rock, part of it collapsed into the sea. The cogged tower of the castle collapsed. The whole world collected money for the restoration of Crimea. Postcards with types of destruction were issued, including the "Swallow's Nest". It was rebuilt and a sanatorium library was built there. The repair lasted only until the post-war period. Then the building was closed again as an emergency. The new restoration began in 1967. It was difficult: it is impossible to drive normal construction equipment onto an unstable rock. Still, the castle was almost completely rebuilt. The restoration was supervised by two engineer-architects - Vladimir Timofeev and Irakli Tatiev . After the restoration, an expensive restaurant was reopened here. The restaurant was closed already in the 21st century. Now there are exhibition halls here. This is a very complex structure: it is still rather unstable, the rock continues to collapse, so it periodically requires restoration. They renovated it in 2002, and in 2013 they began to strengthen not the castle, and the rock itself. The temptation to jump into the sea from a height still haunts some people. But now it has been turned into a sport: in 2011, international competitions in acrobatic diving were held here. Many films were shot here. There are shots with the lock in Govorukhin's "Ten Little Indians", in "Myo my Mio" and "The Academy of Mrs. Klyaksa". Somewhere under this rock lived Ichthyander from the "Amphibian Man". In 2011, Yuri Kara filmed his "Hamlet of the XXI century" here: his Ophelia jumps into the sea from this cliff. Notes
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