On the southern coast of the Crimea, not far from Yalta, is a small village of Massandra. In the place where today's Massandra is located, in ancient times there was a Greek settlement. Then the Greeks left these places, fleeing from the Turkish invasion, and the village with the Greek name Marsinda was abandoned until the Crimea was included in the then Russian Empire. Our ancestors altered the difficultly pronounced Greek word and began to call this area Massandra.
Attractions Massandra
The history of the famous Massandra Palace began in the nineteenth century, when Count Vorontsov owned the village. For his family in the Upper Massandra began the construction of a summer house. However, later the building passed to Emperor Alexander III, for whom a beautiful palace was built in the romantic style. After the death of the emperor, his son Nikolai decided to finish the palace in memory of his father. Under the power of the Soviets, the Massandra Palace in the Crimea was a closed state dacha for the party elite. And only at the end of the twentieth century the beautiful halls of the three-story palace were opened for excursions and surveys. Today Alexander's Massandra Palace, in which the museum is open, is known far beyond the borders of the Crimea.
In the Lower Massandra there is a park - a unique monument of landscape art created in the English landscape style. In Massandra Park, which covers an area of more than 80 hectares, visitors can admire many kinds of exotic plants. The age of some trees growing here is 500-700 years old. Crimean cedars and junipers, cypresses, pine and boxwood fill the air with curative phytoncides. During walks along the curiously winding paths you can admire the beautiful views of the sea coast.
The mountainous terrain of the Southern coast of Crimea is planted with vineyards. And the whole history of Massandra is very closely connected with winemaking. Back in the XIX century, Prince Golitsyn built a winery in Massandra. Seven tunnels of the main cellar fan out under the ground from the central gallery. The building, in which there are cellars for storing wine, has an amazing feature: the temperature in its premises is maintained throughout the year, optimal for aging dessert and table wines - within 10-12 ° C. Today the collection of wines stored in the cellars of Massandra is considered to be the largest in the world. In the tasting room of Massandra you can try especially valuable vintage wines, white Muscat "Livadia", white Muscat "Red Stone" and many others.
The village of Massandra is located in protected areas: for example, to the north of it there are Crimean and Yalta mountain forest reserves. To the southeast of the village is located the world-famous Nikitsky Botanical Garden , and further - another reserve "Cape Martyan", a real corner of the virgin nature.
In 1811, Emperor Alexander I decided to create a "state garden" in order to breed unknown plants in these places. So the botanical garden was laid, later called Nikitsky. Today the park consists of four parts: Primorsky, Upper, Lower Parks and Montedor. In the Upper Park there is a beautiful rose garden. Sequoias, cedars, cypresses, fir trees were planted here even during the laying of the park. Between the Upper and Lower Parks a unique tree grows - a tulip pistachio, which is approximately 1500 years old. In the Lower Park is to see the magnolia large-scale, century-old olive groves, cedar Lebanese and other unusual exotic plants. Between them are laid trails, stone stairs and bridges, which connect fountains, pools and grottos. There is a unique palm alley, a famous fountain of tears.
In honor of the centenary of the botanical garden, the Primorsky Park was laid, where the most heat-loving plants from all over the world grow. And on the 150th anniversary of the garden was founded the park of Monteador, located on the cape with the same name.
Between Massandra and the embankment with the beaches of Yalta is Massandra beach - a real center of the beach culture of the Crimea. The conditions of rest in Massandra can satisfy even the most refined taste.
