RUSS 50-01: Alupka: Vorontsov estate
The Vorontsov estate (located about midway between Yalta and Sevastopol in the Crimea) was constructed between 1828 and 1848 and is mentioned in Hadji-Murat as being built by Vorontsov Senior, Mikhail Semenovich Vorontsov (1828-48). According to Tolstoy, he spent both his own and his wife's huge riches on this palace. It served as his Crimean residence of Vorontsov, then the Governor-General of the Novorossiisk region. The architect was Edward Bloor (1789-1879) who was court architect of Queen Victoria and participated in the construction of Buckingham Palace as well as Sir Walter Scott's castle in Scotland. William Hunt continued the Alupka project and introduced some changes. The front facade is built in the 16th -- 17th-century Neo-Gothic or Tudor style (Vorontsov was brought up in England where his father served as Russian ambassador and thus liked things in the English style). Photos (unless otherwise specified): Gitta Hammarberg 1997.
This is the main entrance to the palace, where you see more of the Neo-Gothic style.
This fountain faces the Black Sea side of the Palace grounds and is reminiscent of the famous "Fountain of Tears" at Bakhchisarai that Pushkin eternalized. It is fits in with the "Oriental" traits of the palace.
The Southern facade of the palace faces the Black Sea and is built in the "Oriental" style like that of the 14th-century Alhambra Palace in Granada, Spain (possibly also linked to the Russian fascination with its own "orient," the Caucasus, where Vorontsov's son, featured in Hadji-Murat,was stationed during the construction of the palace). On the frieze of this deep niche a stylized Arabic inscription, "There is no victor but Allah," is repeated six times.
The Southern facade shown with the famous "Lion terrace" with three pairs of lions in white Carrara marble, some of which copy the lions at the tomb of Pope Clement XII in Rome, by Antonio Canova. Photo: "Alupkinskii dvorets-Muzei," brochure by A. A. Sidorova et al.
Another view of the Southern facade which sows some of the park landscaping. The park is one of the best preserved "English style" parks in Russia. The idea is to carefully construct by all manners of artifice a park that looks as "natural" as possible. It contains a famous conglomeration of fallen boulders, several waterfalls and ponds and winding paths lined with beautiful old trees.
