Cape Fiolent Balaclava

Fiolent is a cape on the Heraclean Peninsula on the southwestern coast of the Crimea, in the Balaklava district of Sevastopol. Here begins the Main (Southern) ridge of the Crimean mountains, which ends with Cape Ilya near Feodosia. Located 15 kilometers from the center of Sevastopol towards Yalta. August 20, 1996 on the territory of the Cape was created landscape reserve of national importance Cape Fiolent, an area of 31.7 hectares.

Fiolent is composed of rocks of volcanic origin, the remnants of the action of an ancient volcano that operated here in Middle Jurassic time (152-163 million years ago). On both sides of the cape in the coastal cliff, lava flows and layers of tuff are visible. The ancient volcano is significantly destroyed by the sea, from above it is covered with limestone, but there are interspersed minerals (jasper, carnelian, chalcedony and others), thanks to which the name Jasper Beach east of the cape got. In addition to the name Fiolent Cape was also known under the names Partenium, Felenc Burun, Manastyr Burun, Cape St. George.

The most ancient name of the cape is Partenium (or Cape Virgo) of Greek origin and is associated with the ancient Greek myth of Iphigenia[4], which was carried here by Artemis to become a priestess in the temple of the Virgin. This myth was used by poets and writers Euripides, Aeschylus, Johann Goethe, Alexander Pushkin, Lesya Ukrainka, composer Christoph Gluck, artists Ivan Aivazovsky and Valentin Serov. Fiolent was also called Cape St. George, since according to legend, the saint appeared to the Greek sailors in distress on the rock of the Holy Appearance near the cape, and the surviving sailors in 891 founded the St. George Monastery on the rocks east of the cape. To him the cape owes another name - Manastyr-Burun (from the Crimean Tatar manastır - monastery, burun - cape). The name Fiolent (Felent, Feolent) first appears on Russian maps in 1790. There are several versions of the origin of the modern name. According to the first of them, “Phiolent” is the Greek expression “God’s country”. According to another, the name dates back to the time of the rule of the Genoese and comes from the Italian word violente - "furious" (near the cape frequent sea unrest). C Crimean tat. Felenk Burun, Felenko Burun - letters. "tiger cape." Another theory derives the name from the Turkish[6] word felenk (scatter for launching ships into the water). Russian historian, Crimean local historian Alexander Berthier-Delagard believed that the name can be translated from Turkish as “Tiger Cape”, since on the cliff of the shore alternate stripes of yellowish limestone and dark trachite, which resembles a tiger skin. Experts for many years argue about the correct spelling of the name of the cape – Fiolent or Feolent [7]. Some argue that the name Feolent consists of the word “Feo”, which means “God”, and the word “ribbon” (land), which means “earth, land”. In this version, the word acquires the meaning of “divine land”. Cartographer Fyodor Cherny in 1790 indicates the name of the cape as “Fealent”. At this time, monks still lived in the monastery, who took tonsure before the annexation of Crimea to Russia. Naturally, they, like no other, knew the medieval toponymy of the surroundings. And, of course, the monastery itself was called differently, a rock in the sea and a high cape, located 1.5 kilometers west of the monastery. Four years later, in 1794, the monks left Crimea, wishing to remain in the bosom of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Along with them, knowledge of the correct names of the area around could disappear. Peter Pallas, who traveled to these places in 1793-1794, no longer mentions a single local name, and to designate the cape uses a commonly accepted place name in the scientific environment of Europe, which came from antiquity - "Cape Parthenim". Military cartographers of the first half of the XIX century write the name of the cape in its modern version “Feolent”. So did the author of the first atlas of the Black Sea Monganari in 1836, indicating “M. Feolent”. It is in this writing that this cape is mentioned in the first lot of the Crimea (authors Butakov and Shestakov). At the same time, on the map of the south-western Crimea, which was compiled by the famous scientist-Crimean historian P.I. Köppen in 1836, we see another version of the word, "Fiolent." According to legend, it was at Cape Fiolent that the Apostle Andrew the First-Called set foot on the Crimean land, who arrived here to preach the Gospel.