Gurzuf park in Crimea.

Gurzuf is a very nice small town in Crimea, located on the southern coast of Crimea. The town is cozy, with narrow cobbled streets, small houses and a variety of greenery. To be honest, I love this town very much, especially when you come out of season and there are few tourists here. No wonder he was so loved by many outstanding creative personalities, artists, poets, singers and architects. Here you can find creative inspiration in every corner.

Ayu-Dag Ayu-Dag

Gurzuf is located next to Artek, the All-Russian Children’s Center, located at the foot of the Ayu-Dag mountain. The history of this village goes back to ancient times, as far as the 3rd millennium BC, as evidenced by excavations. But I will not write about this, I have not studied it in detail, and now we are talking about something else. If you are interested please read it.

Gurzuf park Gurzuf park

On the territory of the village there is a park, a very beautiful place, a monument of landscape art. It was founded in 1803 by the governor of New Russia, Duke Richelieu, covers an area of ​​12 hectares and contains a huge variety of flora, many sculptures and a special style of architecture. Entrance to the park is paid and now only with a guided tour. We were lucky in our time to walk freely here.

This territory was resold many times to different owners, until the park was in the reliable hands of P.I. Gubonin, thanks to whom this place has become truly magnificent.

Plants here are both local and brought from afar. Many species of southern plants, since the climate here is magnificent for such plants. Also on the territory of the park there are many plant sculptures — bushes with a curly haircut.

Sculptures in the park are a special theme. They differ here not only in style, but also in era. Starting from the sculptures of the 19th century, as well as busts of prominent personalities, and ending with the sculpture of V.I. Lenin in full growth in an enlarged size.

About sculptures of prominent personalities: the park presents sculptures and sculptural busts of Pushkin, Mayakovsky, Chaliapin, Chekhov, Gorky, Adam Mickiewicz, Lesia Ukrainka.

We will pay special attention to the Night fountain. It occupies a central position in the park. Created at the end of the 19th century. P.I. Gubonin at one of the exhibitions, which was held in Austria, saw a fountain. This fountain so sunk into his soul that he wanted to build a similar one in the park. He turned to the creator of the fountain and bought the model from him. So this work of art appeared here. The copy is said to be superior to the original.

On the territory of the park there are two sanatoriums «Gurzufsky» and «Pushkino» and the park is constantly available for those who live in these sanatoriums. But with a visit, the difficulties are as follows: two parts of the park (between two sanatoriums) are separated by a fence.

In the second sanatorium, in one of the buildings, there is the Republican Pushkin Museum, where the poet lived during his vacation in Gurzuf. In fact, you need to go to the park at the Gurzufsky sanatorium, and then go on an excursion to the second sanatorium to visit the museum.

And as a beautiful finale, I will quote the lines that A.S. Pushkin dedicated Gurzuf:

“Magic land, eye joy! Everything is alive there: hills, forests,

Amber and yahont of grapes, sheltering beauty of the valleys,

And jets and poplars cool …

All the feeling of a traveler beckons,

When, at one o’clock in the morning, serene, in the mountains, along the coastal road,

His usual horse runs and green moisture

Before him, it shines and rustles around the cliffs of Ayudag … «

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Read also in our magazine about #Crimea

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Mount Klementieva. Stunning views of Koktebel and a unique location

Sufi mosque Juma-Jami. Crimea, Evpatoria

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Anakopia citadel in Abkhazia

Many come to New Athos in Abkhazia, visit a monastery, a former railway platform and an artificial waterfall, well, even the New Athos cave. But New Athos has an incredibly rich history and in the early Middle Ages it was called Anakopia (anakop is a ledge in Abkhazian, the New Athos mountains, if you look at them from the air, resemble a ledge). Did you know that this very Anakopia in that very early Middle Ages was the capital of Abkhazia!

View from the observation point at the entrance to the territory of the Anakopia fortress View from the observation point at the entrance to the territory of the Anakopia fortress

If he passes through the New Athos cave (or climbs) along the road above, then you will arrive at the entrance to the territory of the Anakopia fortress. You still need to get to the fortress itself, it is located on the top of Anakopia Mountain. It was formed in the 5th century AD, built of hewn stone. A wide and comfortable path leads to the very top.

On the way you can meet minks. These small animals run from mink to mink and if they stop for a long time and do not make sounds, they allow themselves to be photographed.

The first on the way is the old tower. It can be seen that they tried to reconstruct it, they came up with the idea to put the remaining parts of the internal structures on metal sleepers like this. The bridge to the tower, although it looks fragile, is quite reliable.

Ceiling in the tower of the Anakopia fortress Ceiling in the tower of the Anakopia fortress

We rise further along the path and along the way we see a lot of old walls

From here there is a stunning view of the sea and coastal houses:

Simply beauty!

Further, the road goes higher and higher, and along the way, more and more remains of the old walls and more and more beautiful views open up:

And having risen to the top, we see these ancient walls. Above the fortress rises a tower, seemingly modern.

The tower is really modern, it is a reconstruction of an old destroyed tower, from which only one wall remained. In 2008, the new tower opened its doors to tourists.

From its top, a stunning view of New Athos, river valleys, the sea and the New Athos #monastery opens up. You can read about ithere.

Panorama of the view from the top of the Anakopia Tower Panorama of the view from the top of the Anakopia Tower

Also consider from above the fortress itself:

In the fortress there is an ancient Christian temple of the 7th century AD in a dilapidated state. From the walls that remain, one can judge its size and shape.

Inside the ancient temple, monks from New Athos built a chapel at the beginning of the 20th century. The chapel contains a copy of the icon of the Iberian Mother of God, which is considered the protector of the mountain and the fortress.

There is a legend that when in the VI century the enemies attacked the fortress, then after a while the enemy suddenly had a stomach ailment and in a few days this unknown disease struck more than 30 thousand people.

On the territory of the fortress there is an inexhaustible well. A legendary place for which thousands of pilgrims come here. Again, when the enemies attacked the fortress, this spring allowed the warriors in the fortress to quench their thirst. And this source is still active! In general, it is considered a “miracle”, because the fortress is located on a mountain, and the source has not dried up for so many centuries and is still full of water.

Let’s take a walk around the fortress:

Chat with a local:

Many more interesting things in our Zen:

Medieval church of the 10th century. Let’s see what’s left of her.

Bogatyrsky caves. Wild caves in the Krasnodar Territory

Mount Klementieva. Stunning views of Koktebel and a unique location

Suspension bridge over the mountain river Belaya in Adygea

Gorges «Wolf» and «Bear Gates». Interesting one day itinerary

winter park

But what happened, you don’t even know, right? Now it is one of the most modern parks, which is known far beyond the borders of Krasnodar, the region and even our country. Southern trees, alleys, infrastructure, sculptures, art objects, fish in ponds, sports grounds and one of the most modern stadiums in our country.

And in 2004, this place was like this:

It’s sometimes useful to rummage through your own photo archive and find footage from old times.

Then we were very young in photography, and when our first full-fledged “reflex camera” fell into our hands, we wanted to shoot literally everything. So we went to the surrounding places (we live relatively not far from the park, within walking distance). And there were fields here, because then there was the outskirts of the city and who knew that a giant microdistrict with transport infrastructure, shops, schools and kindergartens, restaurants and the best park would soon grow here — the center of attraction for the inhabitants of our city.

Wheat here grew in well-groomed fields, and there were apparently different owners on abandoned poppies. During the flowering of poppies, almost all photographers and photography enthusiasts of our city gathered here to capture themselves — the bride — customers against the bright red background of poppies and the blue sky. I know what I’m saying, I shot more than one wedding couple in those fields in 2005-2006.

Many more interesting things in our Zen:

Night illumination of the park «Krasnodar»

Winter park Krasnodar in daylight

Waterfall in the city of Krasnodar

Krasnodar park.

Our Krasnodar safari park is undoubtedly very good, large and it is pleasant to come there time after time to walk with a child, no matter how old he is. And I say this not because I live in Krasnodar and everything is closer and more pleasant. Our safari park is truly unique.

For more than 10 years we have been going here with my son once a year — every two years, and every time he changes for the better, grows and increases, the conditions for keeping animals, the diversity of species and many other indicators improve.

The park is located on the «Sunny Island», this is not the center of Krasnodar, but you can get there from the center both by your own car and by a huge amount of public transport.