This palace is the most elegant and unusual palace on Crimea’s southern coast. Located in a remote picturesque place, surrounded by forest and mountains, the Massandra Palace, with its fanciful architecture, is reminiscent of a fairytale castle.
With its construction beginning in 1881, it was being built for prince Semyon Vorontsov based on the blueprints of a talented architect Etienne Bouchard. Bouchard had planned an original building in the style of French castles at the time of Louis XIII. The palace was even called a ‘Little Versailles.’ The construction was stopped, however, only a year in because of the prince’s death.
Construction resumed only in 1889, when the family of Russian emperor Alexander III purchased the building. Architect Maximilian Mesmaher maintained the size and general style of the building, but he substantially changed its look with new decorations; in effect, he transformed a knight’s castle into a wonderful palace.
Though the new building was constructed for the emperor, it is missing gala halls and luxurious apartments for receptions - the palace was intended only for rest of the royal family and was divided into two parts: male and female. Its small, cozy rooms with low ceilings are decorated with marble fireplaces.
Near the Massandra Palace was planted the most beautiful, English-style landscape park. In the park, you can explore marvelous alleys mysterious caves, take in the beauty of magnificent flowerbeds, and see many kinds of exotic trees. Emperor Alexander III never really got a chance to admire the palace, as he had died a few years before it was finished.
In Soviet times, the castle was turned into a sanatorium called ‘Proletarian Health,’ used by those who were seriously ill with tuberculosis. In post-WWII years, it became officials’ summer residence: Stalin, Khrushchev, and Brezhnev all stayed here. Only in 1992, a museum dedicated to Alexander III was created on the first two floors. In its collection there are many unique items: chandeliers, a fireplace of brown marble, mahogany furniture, mirrors, and more.
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Massandra Palace

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Livadia Palace was a summer retreat of the last Russian tsar, Nicholas II, and his family in Livadiya, Crimea. The Yalta Conference was held there in 1945, when the palace housed the apartments of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and other members of the American delegation. Today the palace houses a museum, but it is sometimes used for international summits.
Formerly granted to Lambros Katsonis and later a possession of the Potocki family, the Livadia estate became a summer residence of the Russian imperial family in the 1860s, when architect Ippolito Monighetti built a large palace, a small palace, and a church there. The residence was frequented by Alexander II of Russia, while his successor Alexander III used to live (and died) in the smaller palace. It was perhaps disagreeable associations with the latter circumstance that led his son Nicholas to have both palaces demolished and replaced with a larger structure.
In 1909 Nicholas and his wife, Aleksandra, traveled to Italy, where they were captivated by Renaissance palaces shown to them by Victor Emmanuel III. Upon their return, they engaged Nikolay Krasnov, Yalta's most fashionable architect, responsible for the grand ducal residences in Koreiz, to prepare plans for a brand new imperial palace. The Czar's diary indicates that the design was much discussed in the Imperial Family; it was decided that all four façades of the palace should look different. After 17 months of construction, the new palace was inaugurated on 11 September 1911. In November Grand Duchess Olga celebrated her 16th birthday at Livadia.
After the February Revolution in 1917, Nicholas's mother, Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, fled to Livadia with some other members of the Imperial Family. They were eventually rescued by the British ship HMS Marlborough, sent by the Dowager Empress's nephew, King George V.
During the second World War, a ceremony marking the successful completion of the German Crimean Campaign (1941–1942), with the capture of Sevastopol by the German 11th Army under the command of General Erich von Manstein, and Manstein's promotion to the rank of Generalfeldmarschall (Field Marshal), was held in the garden of Livadia Palace on July 6, 1942. Participants included officers, noncoms, and soldiers who were awarded the German "Ritterkreuz" (Knight's Cross) and the "Deutsches Kreuz in Gold"( German Cross in Gold).
The palace was once used as a mental institution, and is now a historical museum. Most of the historical furnishings have been lost, but anything that has been recovered can be seen for a small fee. In August 2007 the palace was recognized as a landmark of modern history by the Seven Wonders of Ukraine project. Ukrainian pop singer Sofia Rotaru, who celebrated her 60th birthday at the palace in the company of the presidents of Russia, Ukraine, and Moldavia - the second such meeting since the Yalta Conference - funded the restoration of Livadia Palace in 2008.
Numerous academic conferences have been held at the palace. Palace staff actively publish their research. Visitors are particularly interested in the events of 1945.
The Livadia Palace is built of white Crimean granite in the Neo-Renaissance style. The edifice features an arched portico of Carrara marble, a spacious Arabic patio, an Italian patio, a Florentine tower, ornate Bramantesque windows, a "balcony-belvedere", and multiple bays with jasper vases. A gallery connects the palace with a neo-Byzantine church of the Exaltation of the Cross, built by Monighetti in 1866.
The palace contains 116 rooms, with interiors furnished in different styles. There are a Pompeian vestibule, an English billiard-room, a Neo-baroque dining room, and a Jacob-style study of maple wood, which elicited particular admiration of Nicholas II.

Livadia Palace

The Yusupov Palace is a palace located in the town of Koreiz, near Yalta in Crimea. It was built for Prince Felix Yusupov-Soumorokov-Elston, father of Prince Felix Yusupov (1887-1967) in 1909 by an architect responsible for the imperial Livadia Palace in nearby Yalta. The palace, whose style may be described as Renaissance Revival and Roman Revival, boasts a romantic park with exotic plants and a wine cellar founded by Prince Lev Galitzine in the 19th century. After the Russian Revolution of 1917, the palace was nationalized and served as Joseph Stalin's favorite dacha during the Yalta Conference and at other times.

Yusupov Palace

Dulber is a palace in Koreiz, near Yalta in Crimea. The palace of Grand Duke Peter Nicolaievich of Russia, known as Dulber (dülber is Crimean Tatar for "beautiful", originally from Persian, del-bar, "heart-stealing", "beloved, beautiful")), is an asymmetrical architectural extravanganza with crenellated walls, silver domes, and more than 100 rooms, inspired by the Mameluk architecture of 15th-century Cairo. This palace was built between 1895 and 1897.

Dulber Palace

This architectural monument to Romanticism is one of the shiniest pearls in the necklace that is Crimea. Created by people in tandem with nature, the Vorontsov Palace has amazed guests with its original look for almost two centuries.
The Palace was build in the middle of the 19th century as summer residence of Russian statesman, Prince Mikhail Vorontsov, who was the governor-general of Russia’s south. It was built from the local stone diabase, famous for its hardness. The palace was designed by Queen Victoria’s court architect Edward Blore, who had already shown his talent in designing London’s Buckingham Palace and Scotland’s Walter Scott Castle.
As planned, the buildings of the palace complex correspond with the mountain peaks. This creates an illusion that the palace’s towers and edges follow the outline of Ai-Petri, harmoniously blending with the landscape. Each of the buildings that make up the architectural ensemble embodies a certain historic style; one can trace the development of the medieval architecture just by looking at the Vorontsov Palace!
The northern facade is created in the Tudor style, based on English Gothic architecture, and is reminiscent of British artistocrats’ menacing castles of the 16th century. And the southern facade, turned to the Black Sea, illustrates the Moresque style, looking festive and lavishly decorated. The Lion Terrace spreads out in front of the palace, from which a grand staircase descents. It is guarded by six white marble lions, which were created by Italian sculptor Bonnani.
The interior of the Vorontsov Palace amazes no less than its exterior. The main rooms have their own styles. They are filled with oak and redwood furniture, are decorated with fanciful carving and molding, and their walls are decorated with works of famous English, French, and Italian artists. But the palace’s main decoration is the beautiful Winter Garden with statues of the Vorontsov family and copies of ancient artists’ sculptures.
The Prince’s descendants remained the owners of the palace until 1917. After the revolution and the establishment of Soviet authority in Crimea, the Vorontsov Palace was turned into a museum, receiving its first visitors in 1921. Its collection consists of furniture, decorations, utensils, books, and paintings. The World War II period was the most difficult in the history of the museum: the Nazis took a lot of valuable works to Germany.
There is one more historic event connected with World War II. Having arrived in Yalta for the 1945 Allies’ conference (USSR, UK and USA), where the destiny of the post-war world was defined, the English delegation lead by Winston Churchill stayed here.
The Vorontsov Park near the palace draws special attention. It is a fine example of landscape art. On a territory of 40 hectares, its creators gathered picturesque alleys and glades, unique lake and waterfall systems, exotic trees and plants that stay green all year round.
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