Livadia Palace description and photos - Crimea: Livadia (Topic)

Livadia Palace description and photos - Crimea: Livadia. Detailed information about the attraction. Description, photos and a map showing the nearest significant objects.

Photo and description

Livadia Palace is located in the village of Livadia in the Yalta region of Crimea, 3 km from Yalta. This luxurious white-stone building, surrounded by a landscape park, is one of the main attractions of the region.

The Potocki Palace

Once there was a small estate with a Crimean Tatar village and orchards that belonged to Ф. Reveliotti , commander of the Balaklava battalion. In 1834 it was bought by Count Lev Pototsky and renamed in the Greek manner to Livadia (in Greek it is "meadow" or "lawn"). The ramified and wealthy Potocki family possessed vast estates in the south of the Russian Empire and were distinguished by a passion for building palaces. They owned palaces in Lvov, Uman, Tulchin. The founder of Livadia is the son of Severin Potocki, a figure in the Ministry of Education and an acquaintance of Pushkin from his Chisinau exile. Thus, the famous Jan Pototsky, the author of the "Manuscript found in Zaragoza", is the uncle of the first owner of Livadia.

Lev Severinovich Pototsky himself was a diplomat, began his career at the Russian mission in Italy, for a long time was a Russian envoy in Lisbon, then made various diplomatic missions. He was an admirer of ancient culture, brought from Naples a rich collection of Pompeian antiquities. According to the recollections of contemporaries, his palace in Livadia most of all resembled a museum. The park was decorated with sculptures, its pearl was an antique marble sarcophagus.

Flower gardens and greenhouses also attracted attention: Pototsky was a member of the Agricultural Society of Southern Russia, and understood the arrangement of gardens. The layout of the park, which was laid out under the Pototskys, turned out to be so well thought out and successful that it has not fundamentally changed since then. A park with exotic and native plants was created by the gardener Depplinger. He began his career in the Nikitsky Botanical Garden under its famous second director N. Gartvis and was engaged in landscape gardening there. According to contemporaries, the basis of the park consisted of local oaks and ash trees, as well as exotic Lebanese cedars and cypresses; flowering ornamental shrubs are also mentioned: magnolias and clematis.

Tsarskaya dacha

In 1861, when Pototsky died in St. Petersburg, his heirs sold Livadia to the treasury for the royal dacha. Alexander II presented this estate to Empress Maria Alexandrovna . For many years Livadia became the Crimean residence of the Russian emperor: people rested here almost every year. Maria Alexandrovna really liked this place, and she enthusiastically took up the reconstruction: she herself chose an architect (I.A.Monighetti), and approved the plans and facades of the buildings.

The Grand Palace was significantly expanded and redesigned. The former home chapel of the Potocki Catholics became a separate church (this is one of the few buildings that has survived to our time). Then they built another church - and Maria Alexandrovna herself chose a place for it.

A separate Small Palace was built for the heirs, reminiscent of Bakhchisarai ("in the Tatar taste" - as the architect himself called this Eastern eclecticism), as well as numerous garden pavilions and office premises. The marble for decoration was ordered in Carrara, and the furniture - from the best Parisian craftsmen.

The gardener Clement Haeckel , also chosen by the empress, was now in charge of the park and gardens: before that he worked in her personal estate. The Empress loved roses and was distinguished by poor health: Haeckel planted conifers so that she was always surrounded by healing air, and significantly expanded the rose garden. Pergolas, entwined with climbing roses, have become a decoration of the garden.

The first time the royal family officially came here in August 1867. On this occasion, a grandiose folk festival with horse races was organized in Yalta and the surrounding area, regimental bands and attractions.

Life on the estate was "home", court etiquette was almost not observed. Here they walked, swam, and rested. The Emperor also brought here his favorite favorite - Princess Ekaterina Yurievskaya . His last Crimean summer, after the death of the Empress in the spring of 1880, Alexander II spent here with Princess Yuryevskaya already as a morganatic wife.

Residence of Alexander III

The next emperor continued to regard Livadia as his residence and often came here. He did not get along with Princess Yuryevskaya and his children - and she eventually left Russia.

Now, after the assassination of Alexander II, terrorists were feared here and the estate was carefully guarded, but holidays still happened. For example, in 1891 the Emperor and Empress solemnly celebrated a silver wedding here.

Under Alexander III , all buildings had to be repaired. Both palaces began to crack from the very foundation. By order of the emperor, his beloved Small Palace was completely rebuilt, at the same time the murals of Holy Cross Church were renewed and a belfry was installed next to it.

It was in Livadia that Alexander III died in 1894. He was buried in the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross, and literally the next day, the heir's bride, the future Empress Alexandra Feodorovna , accepted Orthodoxy there.

During these years, Livadia, while no members of the imperial family remained in it, it was open for free inspection by everyone.

Construction of a new Grand Palace

Nicholas II believed that he spent the best years of his childhood here, in Livadia. The beginning of the new, XX century, he also preferred to meet not in Winter, but in Crimea. But in 1910. the emperor almost ceased to be here: state affairs demanded his constant presence in the capital. Meanwhile, the Grand Palace finally got damp and began to fall apart: in 1909 it was demolished in order to build a new one.

The New Grand Palace is now the main attraction of Livadia. This is the last imperial palace built in Russia. N.P. Krasnov became the architect. He was a good friend of the royal family - he was invited to breakfast, taught the Grand Duchesses to draw. Krasnov planned to build the palace in the Italian style, which would have pleased the first owner of the estate, Pototsky. For example, the lobby of the palace copies the premises of the Venetian Palace of the Doges.

Two and a half million rubles were allocated for the construction of the building, and about six million were allocated for the modernization of the estate. The new palace under construction was consecrated in 1910, and a silver plaque with engraving was laid in the foundation: blessing, date and names of everyone involved in the construction - from Minister V. Fredericks to architect N. Krasnov.

The palace was equipped with all technical innovations . Its own power station, telephone exchange, electric refrigerators, plumbing, mechanisms for feeding food from basements to kitchens, an underground tunnel from the palace to a detached pantry, garages for cars. This is a huge complex of various buildings, which has almost completely survived to this day.

In Soviet times

During the revolution the decoration of the palace was damaged: the palace was occupied first by the allied German troops, then by the White Guards, then by the Red Army. Furniture, decoration, personal belongings - everything was looted. But the building itself was not damaged and here in 1925 the sanatorium for peasants was opened. However, not only peasants visited him, but also well-known writers - for example, V. Mayakovsky and M. Gorky .

The Livadia complex was badly damaged during the Great Patriotic War. Retreating from the Crimea, the Germans blew up many buildings on the peninsula. In Livadia, the Small Palace and the Svitsky Corps were blown up , the Grand Palace was preserved, but badly damaged.

By February 1945, it was urgently repaired. The Yalta Conference was held here, at which the leaders of the “Big Three” (USSR, USA and Great Britain) discussed the problems of the post-war world. In the Italian courtyard of the Livadia Palace, a famous photograph was taken of the leaders of states sitting at a fountain against the background of a marble gallery. The American delegation headed by F. Roosevelt was also settled here.

After the war, Livadia was used as a state dacha , and then again became a sanatorium . A museum dedicated to the Yalta conference was opened in the White Hall. The park and palace were used for filming . Here "Dog in the Manger" with Boyarsky and Terekhova, "The Gadfly" 1955, "Anna Karenina" 1967

Palace-Museum

Since 1994, Livadia has again been working as a museum . An exposition dedicated to the last Romanovs has opened: the richly decorated interiors have been restored. Here you can see marble and wood finishes, exquisite furniture from the Siebrecht factory, wall paintings and much more. The offices of the emperor and the empress, bedrooms, dining rooms, living rooms, princesses' classroom.

The museum contains interesting relics . For example, a Persian carpet with the image of Nicholas I - a gift from the Persian Khan, watercolor portraits of the Empress by the artist Samokish-Sudkovskaya, amateur photographs taken by the Grand Duchesses.

The Italian and Arabic courtyards, the Holy Cross Church, as well as the memorial offices of F. Roosevelt and W. Churchill were also opened.

Interesting facts :

- In 1867, American journalist Samuel Clemens visited Livadia and liked it very much. We know him as Mark Twain, author of Tom Sawyer.

- The White Hall of the Livadia Palace is still sometimes used for international negotiations.

- In 2011, the Livadia Palace celebrated its 100th anniversary. For the anniversary, the great-granddaughter of Emperor Alexander II and Prince. Yuryevskaya.

We also recommend reading Church of St. John the Baptist of the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery description and photos - Russia - North-West: Vologda Oblast

Topic: Livadia Palace description and photos - Crimea: Livadia.