Part 1. Kerch.
Part 2. Massandra.
Hello, friends. We continue to get acquainted with interesting (from a technical point of view) sights of the Crimea.
Today we'll talk about Gurzuf. This village is famous for many. According to history, the village acquired the strongest development thanks to the Russian industrialist P. I. Gubonin (this character deserves to be written about him separately later). There were many great people in the village, from poets / writers to politicians. What can be unusual in this place?
Well, probably the fact that in 1811 the Duke du Richelieu moved here, leaving his estate in Odessa. When I was in Odessa, I heard a strange story from the guide. It turns out that before Suvorov and Potemkin came to this region, Odessa was nothing more than a French colony. The French settled there a very long time ago, at about the same time as the Tatars came to the Crimea. They, in fact, came to the abandoned city and restored it, and the grandiose construction of Odessa is, in general, the same fairy tale as the construction of St. Petersburg by Peter. But that's not the point. It is interesting that Catherine somehow managed to squeeze this colony out painlessly, to make Richelieu governor, but then he leaves Odessa for Gurzuf. Since 1811 he has lived there permanently, but after the war in 1814 he left Gurzuf for good and went to France. A very dark story. What is remarkable about her isthat Richelieu's house becomes the first building of Gurzuf in the European style. Now this house houses the Pushkin Museum. Whether Pushkin was actually there is hard to say. In every large settlement from Kerch to Bakhchisarai there is a memory of Pushkin's visit to these places. I have nothing against Pushkin's works, but here, along the way, a fetish was made of this man. It will take several decades, maybe, and it will be forgotten just like the works of Lenin or "Malaya Zemlya". In this age of digital music, all of this is hopelessly outdated. However, back to this house. It can be stated that at present it has been significantly rebuilt. In every large settlement from Kerch to Bakhchisarai there is a memory of Pushkin's visit to these places. I have nothing against Pushkin's works, but here, along the way, a fetish was made of this man. It will take a few decades, maybe, and it will be forgotten just like the works of Lenin or "Malaya Zemlya". In this age of digital music, all of this is hopelessly outdated. However, back to this house. It can be stated that at present it has been significantly rebuilt. In every large settlement from Kerch to Bakhchisarai there is a memory of Pushkin's visit to these places. I have nothing against Pushkin's works, but here, along the way, a fetish was made of this man. It will take several decades, maybe, and it will be forgotten just like the works of Lenin or "Malaya Zemlya". In this age of digital music, all of this is hopelessly outdated. However, back to this house. It can be stated that at present it has been significantly rebuilt.
This is how the house looked in the first half of the 19th century.
Promotional video:
This is how he looks now. At the very least, his roof has been completely changed. No wonder, Crimea has survived several wars. But one old engraving has survived with interesting details.
What is this construction on the left? It looks like a gate. It is very strange that there is a gate, but no fence. And why suddenly such pillars? This is nothing more than the former entrance to the park.
In the photo, this gate has been slightly rebuilt. And it's still just a gate without a fence. Why do they have spiers with balls? Now, alas, this question cannot be answered. This fact seems to be unremarkable, if not for one detail:
Look at the old photos in this article and find electrical poles.
And what else is Gurzuf remarkable, besides this one?
Again in the old photos there are incomprehensible structures with a dome. This is a photo of the second half of the 19th century. Now there is a completely different building on this site.
What was this building? Probably, the secret of such buildings is in the old photos of Gurzuf.
Oops … what's that on the roof? As if one is the main radio transmitter, and the other is backup, if not for the domes. This is the house of that very Gubonin, which he rented to that very Chekhov (if you believe the official history). Now on this house the domes have been preserved to this day, albeit in a slightly castrated form.
Why did you suddenly need such a delicacy on a simple wooden house? If there was a prayer room, then the domes neither in number nor in appearance did not correspond to the canons. It is also difficult to call it architectural aesthetics. And the conclusion, oddly enough, is simple - it is nothing more than an ordinary engineering network that provides the house with at least lighting. A holy place, if you will. Strange as it may seem, there are a lot of such houses in Gurzuf of the 19th century.
The resort, apparently, was one of the fashionable, electric lighting was there in all the rich houses. Separately, I would like to note the hotels built by Gubonin specifically to receive tourists.
Pay attention to the variety of power plants on the roofs. There are a lot of such old photos of Gurzuf hotels on Google. Alas, not a single installation has survived to this day.
Until next time. To be continued.
P. S. A photo from 1894 of the Museum of Antiquity in Gurzuf accidentally fell into the hands.
Note the raised crosses on the stones. Either the Templars and other orders were in antiquity, or these stones are not at all antiquity, just some element scattered them and lightly sprinkled them several hundred years ago. Personally, I'm more inclined towards the latter.
Part 4. Bakhchisarai