Swallow's nest

Swallow's nest is sewn on the sheer Aurora Rock of the Ai-Todor cape. The building resembles a medieval knight's castle. It became a kind of emblem of the southern coast of Crimea. The image of “Swallow’s Nest” was carried around the world by millions of postcards and pictures. Swallow’s nest in its current form was built in 1912 by the architect A. V. Sherwood, the son of the famous architect V. O. Sherwood, the author of the project of the Historical Museum on Red Square in Moscow. The miniature castle suffered a strong, 6-7-point earthquake in 1927. It was almost not damaged, except for the sharp spires that fell into the sea and a piece of rock from under the lower balcony. In the 30s there was a reading room of the holiday house "Pearl". Then the room recognized as an emergency was closed. For decades, Swallow's Nest remained inaccessible to visitors. Reconstruction did not begin until 1968. We settled on the project, which provided for the dismantling of only a small part of the building, submerging a monolithic reinforced concrete slab under the base and enclosing the entire structure with anti-seismic belts. "Swallow's Nest" sheltered among the string of sanatoriums, which as it were shaded and decorated. In contrast to the old buildings looks sanatorium "Parus", the most modern architectural performance health resort of the South Bank, built in 1965. It was based on the project of the sanatorium "Chernomorye", awarded a silver medal at the World Exhibition in Brussels in 1958 and two years later embodied in the health resort under the same name in Livadia. On the territory of the "Sail" is hanging over the abyss site "Captain Bridge". Everyone who has been here seems to fall into the realm of sea and stone and is ready for hours to admire the coast. Below, at the foot, froze rock Sail, which gave the sanatorium its name. At the "Swallow's Nest" stretched sanatorium "Pearl". Its buildings stand on either side of the road running from the highway to Swallow's Nest. At different times, prominent military leaders S.M.Budenny, I.E.Yakir, Y.B.Gamarnik, I.S.Konev, K.K. Rokossovsky, V.I. Chuikov, A.A.Grechko, I.I. Yakubovsky, S.S. Biryuzov, K.S.Moskalenko, I.H.Bagrayan, P.K.Kosheva, S.G.G.Gorshkov rested here. Behind the "Swallow's Nest" stands the Ai-Todor lighthouse, founded in 1835 by the commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Vice-Admiral M.P. Lazarev and sung in lyrical verses of many poets. But even before that, Ai-Todor as a geographical landmark was listed on the oldest known Italian manuscript maps - Portolan of the Genoese Visconti in 1318 - and then invariably was applied to most maps of the XV-XVI centuries. Immediately after the middle spur of Cape Ai-Todor - sanatorium "Dnepr" (until 1956 it was called "Charax" - after the name of the Grand Duke's estate located here, which in turn inherited the name of the ancient Roman fortification). Pavel Tychina, who vacationed here before the war, has a poem “In Harax”, which sounds like a hymn to the Crimean nature. This is not by chance: the sanatorium is drowning in a luxurious park. Kharak Park was founded in the second half of the XIX century and occupies 17.5 hectares. This monument of landscape art is protected by the state. The park is one of the warmest places on the South Bank, so even thermophilic foreigners feel good here. In the park there are 200 species of garden forms of trees and shrubs: yew berry column shaped and variegated buxus, cypress Lusitan and Alexandria leaf, phillirea, osmanthus, winterflower.