Yalta port and embankment

Yalta, Crimean tat. Yalta is a resort and port on the southern coast of Crimea.

The city of Yalta and the so-called Big Yalta, which is the urban district of Yalta (Yalta City Council), differ. The territory is more than 70 km long, with the administrative center in Yalta. Large Yalta occupies part of the southern coast of Crimea from Foros in the west to Krasnokamenka in the east, includes two cities (Yalta and Alupka) and many villages. According to the most common version, the name of the city comes from Greek. γιαλος (yalos) - "coast", but there are hypotheses that the name of the city is of Turkic origin[8]. The first mention of Yalta, dating from 1154, is found in the Arab historian Al-Idrisiya. Galita, Kaulita or Jalita, he calls Kuman (Polovets) city on the Black Sea coast. From the Crimean Tatar Yalyd is translated as "Among all the resources of Yalta, recreational play the most important role." An important therapeutic and climatic resource of Greater Yalta are reserves: Yalta mountain and forest (area of 14.5 thousand hectares), Cape Martyan (area of 240 hectares), Crimean natural. Great importance of monuments of landscape art of state and local importance (415 hectares), local parks and squares (1472 hectares). The largest parks of Yalta are Massandrovsky, Livadia, Miskhorsky, Alupkinsky. Yalta is located approximately on the same geographical latitude with the famous Italian cities of Ravenna and Genoa. The sun shines here on average 2,250 hours a year - about the same as in Nice, Cannes, San Remo and other Mediterranean resorts, and more than in Sochi and Kislovodsk. The climate of Yalta is Mediterranean to an altitude of 200 m above sea level; above this level, average January temperatures fall below 2 ° and vegetation gradually loses its subtropical character.[9] It is characterized by mild and rainy winter, cool spring, hot and long summer and long warm autumn. The most important role is played by the combination of warm, ice-free sea and the Crimean mountains, which rise by a wall in the path of cold winds. The average July temperature is +24.1 °C, the average January temperature is +4.0 °C, in frosty winters, with the invasion of a cold Arctic cyclone or Siberian anticyclone, the temperature can decrease to negative values. Often even in January there are really warm, sunny days, when the thermometer shows +20 ° C. January 2006 was abnormally cold for Yalta: the temperature dropped to -10.2 ° C. The beaches of Yalta, created by nature, were gradually destroyed due to severe landslides. It was only towards the middle of the 20th century that people began to stop landslides and create beautiful, comfortable beaches. Retaining walls were erected to balance the load of the slopes; trenches were dug in the seabed, which were covered with stone. Floating cranes were installed hundred-ton boons, between which lay millions of cubic meters of rubble. Having polished it, the sea completed the work of the builders. Artificial beaches are being created even in places that were recently considered completely unsuitable for swimming. Now on both sides of Yalta, from the west and from the east, the place of uncomfortable landslide cliffs was occupied by tidy beaches.

Yalta beach during the holiday season (photo July 2007)

As of the autumn of 2014, almost all the beaches are deep-sea, pebble, not quite comfortable for bathing young children, but with very clean water. As a rule, the support for them is a concrete embankment, into which concrete breakwaters are poured. There are also beaches of sanatoriums and boarding houses, which are also open to everyone today. “Therapeutic beach”, “Sunny beach”, the beach “name of Maurice Torez”, the beach of the hotel “Yalta”, the beach of the sanatorium “Mountain”, the beach of the sanatorium “Ai-Petri”. The beach of the hotel "Levant" in the Seaside Park, which is located near the mineral spring "Buvet". The beaches of Yalta are separated by boons. A separate place is also occupied by tiny beaches formed from protrusions on the embankment. In small areas, it is not possible to provide a high level of service, but wherever possible, pebbles are poured, and in the “high” season, they are all usually crowded with vacationers. Almost all the beaches of Yalta have a high level of service, equipped with toilets, showers, many outlets, cafes and even massage rooms. Almost everywhere offered water rides, rent sunbeds, umbrellas and even water transport. At the same time, the beaches of the Crimea have many disadvantages - frequent insecurity, the presence of garbage, too high occupancy of vacationers (that is, the lack of the beaches themselves). In all these parameters, the beaches of Yalta are inferior to European and many others.[14] The length of the beaches of Great Yalta is 59 km, their area is 600 thousand m2 [15]. The prestigious world award "Blue Flag" in Yalta in different years received: "Massandrovsk beach" - the most comfortable and clean beach, the first in the CIS owner of this award beach hotel "Yalta-Intourist", as well as the beach sanatorium "Livadia". "Massandrovskiy beach" in 2012 received the award "Blue Flag" for the third time All on the territory of the Yalta reserve grows about 2000 species of plants. The slopes of Yalta are covered with juniper-oak forests and shrubs of a moderately subtropical nature. The abundance of both native and foreign species of evergreen plants makes forests attractive at all times of the year. The basis of them are ordinary pine (grows on yail) and Crimean pine (grows below), but along with them there are: juniper, oak, Steven maple, oak fluffy, rock oak, aspen, beech, cedar, robe, birch bark, kizil, yew, ash, pear and many other trees and shrubs. Exotic plants also include those so familiar to the SBC: cypress, magnolia, wisteria, fan palm, igloo, Lankaran acacia, noble laurel, ash, mackerel, fir, plane, fig, pomegranate, agave, prick. The flora of the mountainous Crimea has 672 species and 472 genera, common with the flora of the island of Corsica. Mediterranean species include high juniper, Crimean pine, fluffy oak, wild pistachios, small-fruited strawberry and many others. Many of the Mediterranean plants have feralized and spread on their own. In Yalta, beautiful forests, tracts, gorges in the upper reaches of the rivers (Uch-Kosh, Kizil-Kaya, etc.)[18]

The peculiarity of the Crimean flora is also its saturation with alien species of plants and in the continuous vegetation of many plants, when the last flowers of autumn immediately follow spring. In winter, in the juniper forests, squirrel blooms, in January gallantus blooms, in February snowdrops, then almonds, purple, apricot and peach trees bloom. ... 18] Southern coastal forests play an extremely important soil protection and water protection role, and therefore are declared protected. A natural remnant (relic) of more ancient Mediterranean vegetation is located at Cape Martyan. This juniper grove, since 1973 is a reserve called "Cape Martyan". The abundance of greenery distinguishes the city of Yalta, especially its old part, which from a bird's eye view seems a solid green park with interspersed houses. [18] In the Red Book of Russia listed 164 species of plants of the Crimea and in particular Yalta. Among them are such types of SUBK as: high juniper, hyoid, small-fruited strawberry, berry yew, two-flowered tulip, narrow-leaf crocus, Kuznetsov cyclamen, thin-leaf peon and others. Like the Red Book, lists of rare and endangered ecosystems requiring special protection are being compiled today. [18] The fauna of the southern coast of Crimea has an island character and is characterized by its proximity to the Mediterranean type. There are no large animals on the southern coast of Crimea. Predominant (for the Crimea) representatives of the animal world: the Crimean noble deer, deer, mountain sheep mouflon, stone marten, badger, squirrel-teleutka (imported in 1947), wild boar, marten, weasel, fox, hare, hedgehog, shrew, bat. Reptiles are few in number - no one is larger than a legless yellow-pouser. There are only two types of water - ordinary and water. Occasionally there are also other reptiles - yellow-bellied crawl, leopard crawl, Crimean copper gecko, but they are not poisonous. The southern coast is characterized by a small weak nocturnal lizard from the family of geckos - "Danilevsky gaekko" (Gymnodactylus Danilewskii Str.). She lives in small numbers in cracked walls, cellars and basements. From amphibians stand out - green toad, wood and edible frogs, newt. [18][18] 19] Invertebrates are mainly represented by Mediterranean forms. There are many cicadas, praying mantises, mosquitoes, skolopendras, Crimean scorpions, endemic Crimean buzzards. Sometimes you can meet a large oleander burglar. In the conditions of the Yalta climate, many pests also live, such as: apple fertilizer, silkworms, various weevils. To the pests of vineyards belong: a grape flatnose, a thundering leafworm, a Crimean wingless grasshopper and others. Birds are relatively small, mountain oatmeal is common, swifts, urban swallows nest on the slopes, bluebirds, pincers, kings, mountain oatmeal and falcons are common; colonies of large cormorants are found on the seaside rocks, less often klush and gulls. There are vultures. Due to the relatively high concentration of hydrogen sulfide in the deep waters of the Black Sea, all sea life is mainly concentrated in the upper layers of water. In summer, jellyfish accumulate near the coast, such as aurelia aurita, rhisostoma pulmo and others. There are 180 species of fish in the Black Sea, of which about 40 are commercial. Off the coast of Yalta are caught: hamsu, mullet, gobies, stacker, flounder, pelamide, barabula and others. Occasionally there are sea roosters. Catran sharks are found in the Black Sea, but they do not attack people. From mammals off the coast, you can see dolphins that belong to toothed whales. They live in the open sea, walk in schools, avoid shallow water, do not like muddy water. Of the aquatic inhabitants can also be noted freshwater crab, kept under stones in some rivers of the Crimea (for example, Uchan-su). They also live under rocks by the sea. Dolphin fishing has been banned in the Black Sea since 1966. [20] In the Black Sea also grows more than 200 species of various algae - brown, red, green, blue-green. The environmental situation of Yalta is characterized by a number of problems.

Transport load on the main highways of Yalta in the summer in the daytime is 900-1600 units per hour. In winter, boiler houses are major sources of emissions into the atmosphere, since the process of their concentration and modernization of treatment systems is slow. Only in Yalta there are more than 200 of them: along the coast and in low places, the city of Alupka, Simeiz, Foros, Koreiz, Gaspra, there is a 3-7-fold excess of the MPC. Maximum concentrations of carbon monoxide on Simferopol highways reach 6 MPCs, on Yalta highways - 3.5 MPCs, which may be due to the use of low-quality fuel. In connection with the unsatisfactory solution of the issues of protection of atmospheric air, water supply and sewerage, the sanitary and epidemiological service of the Crimea was rejected in 1998 from the approval of 36 of the 308 projects considered for the allocation of land plots for the construction of facilities (11.7%), 64 construction projects out of 395 submitted (16.2%)[22] The share of emissions from vehicles, which is in Yalta (as in Simferopol) up to 90% of the total amount. [23]According to experts on December 23, 2011, the average concentration of benzapyrene in Yalta is almost twice the norm, which makes it possible to rank Yalta among cities with poor ecology[24] In mid-March 2012, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development allocated UAH 10 million for the modernization of the Yalta sewerage and preventing the discharge of untreated sewage into the Black Sea. Despite this, Yalta treatment plants as of July 2013 are in very poor condition. In this regard, sewage periodically enters the water near the beaches adjacent to the port zone, including Massandra Beach. In April 2012, the problem of poor garbage collection from the streets of Yalta was raised. Since the authorities do not ensure the proper level of cleaning of the streets, the Yalta residents had to clean up their own garbage for several Saturdays[26] In September 2012, the issue of conducting subbotniks returned. Yalta residents will begin cleaning the city on Saturdays starting from October 2012 until the city is put in order. On the outskirts of the city and on the Polikurovsky hill, as well as on Mount Koshka, near Simeiz, Cape Ai-Todor, Ayu-Dag and other places, archaeologists have found the remains of settlements of Taurians - indigenous inhabitants of the Crimea. The findings relate to approximately VI-V centuries BC. e. Taurus engaged in piracy, fishing, hoe farming, hunting and herding, leading a semi-settled lifestyle.

According to legend, Yalta itself was founded by Greek navigators, who saw the shore (Yalos) after long wanderings and called the settlement Yalita (coastal). Later on this coast settled Venetian merchants, then Genoese. In documents and maps of the XIV century, Yalta is called Yalita, Kallita, Hyalita and Etalita[28][29][31][32]. In the summer of 1475, the territory of Crimea, including Yalta, was captured by the Ottoman Turks. The southern coast (as well as a number of other lands of the Crimea) became directly part of the Ottoman Empire[28][31][32], the foothills and steppe part were assigned to the vassal of the Sublime Porte - the Crimean Khanate. In the second half of the XV century Yalta was destroyed by an earthquake. Only 70 years later, the area was re-inhabited by Greeks and Armenians. Most likely, since then, the settlement and fixed the modern name. According to another version, the etymology of the word takes its name from the ancient Turkic “yal”-rest, and “tau” (dag)-mountain. Literally translated as “resting mountain”, “sleeping mountain”. The third version of the etymology of the word "yalta" from the Turkic "Yal" - rest. "It" - do it. It was called at the beginning of Yalita. By the time the Crimea became part of the Russian Empire in April 1783, as a result of the resettlement of the Christian population of the Crimea to the Azov region in 1778 and the mass emigration of Crimean Tatars to Turkey, Yalta was practically depopulated and was a small fishing village. In 1823, Count M. S. Vorontsov, being the Governor-General of the Novorossiysk Territory, which then included the Crimea, distributed 200 dessiatines of land in Yalta with the condition of construction on this land and cultivation of gardens and vineyards. On the South Bank, the new owners of the land by the hands of serfs erected luxurious palaces, villas, mansions, laid industrial gardens and vineyards, magnificent parks that still adorn the South Coast: Massandrovskiy, Alupkinsky, Gurzufsky, Livadia and others. The district needed a center, and the choice fell on Yalta, despite the fact that at that time it was a very tiny village. This choice dictated the nature of the area, sufficient at that time the amount of fresh water and a convenient bay. In 1838, the Yalta district was formed, by a decree of April 15, 1838, Yalta received the status of a city, but then there were only 30 courtyards and 130 residents. In 1837, the gravel road built by order of Count Vorontsov connected Yalta with Alushta and Simferopol, and in 1848 a road was built through the Baydar Gate to Sevastopol. Yalta did not have a seaport at that time. They say, built in the late 1830s, destroyed the storm. Steamboats stopped on the road and communicated with the shore with the help of boats approaching the wooden pier - it stood at anchor. A few years later, a full-fledged seaport and pier were built in Yalta, sea communication was gradually established. [30][32]

After the end of the Crimean War, the city turned into a popular resort and grew rapidly. Professor S. P. Botkin and especially Dr. V. N. Dmitriev, who lived in Yalta for many years, gave clear medical recommendations and justifications in connection with the healing properties of the local climate. It was for these reasons that the Livadia and Massandra palaces were built by order of Emperor Alexander III. The emperor was ill a lot, so in the 1890s he lived for months in the Small Livadia Palace, where he died in October 1894. Private construction was also under way. In Koreiz appeared the palace of Prince Yusupov, one of the rich of Russia, in Simeiz - Count D. A. Milyutin, Gurzuf became owned by the secret adviser P. I. Gubonin, in Miskhor was erected Naryshkin's dacha "Sofievka", in Gaspra - "Romantic Alexandria" Prince Golitsyn, Lower Oreanda liked Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich. In 1886, on the orders of Emperor Alexander III, a new project was developed for the construction of a powerful stone mole and a coastal embankment. The first phase of construction was completed in 1890, the second in 1903. The second important project of the 1880s was the Embankment of Yalta.In 1888-1898, a new water pipeline was built. The construction of sewerage began in 1886.

In September 1890, Prince Vladimir Trubetskoy applied to the city government for the construction of a garden gazebo in the Greek style with access to Pushkin Boulevard. The author of the project of the gazebo was the famous architect Nikolai Krasnov. In 2008, a complete restoration of the gazebo was carried out in Yalta, under the leadership of Yalta architect A. A. Tkachenko. By the end of the XIX century, Yalta turned into a fairly famous resort. The “prestige” in the eyes of the landlords and bureaucratic public was also promoted by the fact that, since the 1860s, the nearest suburb of Yalta – Livadia became the southern residence of the royal family. In 1870 in the Russian Empire was carried out urban reform, as a result of which began to form all-estate city institutions of local self-government - city Dumas and councils. In the autumn of 1871, the first elections to the city Duma were held in Yalta. Voice Dumas the first city head elected a chamberlain, a real state councillor Sergei Pavlovich Galakhov. For health reasons, he often left the city for treatment and in April 1872 filed an application for the abdication of the title of Yalta mayor. However, most of the 15 mayors of the city Duma voted for the continuation of his service, but soon his duties still temporarily began to perform Christopher Lebesi. In October 1872, the city head was elected twenty-nine-year-old titular adviser Vladimir Antonovich Rybitsky. In 1879, as Yalta mayor, he was replaced by Baron Andrei Ludwigovich von Wrangel (1824-1897), brother of General V. L. Wrangel. V. A. Rybitsky, who for 43 years was a vowel of the Yalta City Duma and at the end of the XIX century, together with his second wife Elena Ivanovna (née Aivazovskaya) for services to society, was listed as a noble estate, two more terms served as mayor of Yalta - already in the XX century: from December 20, 1907 to 1914. After him, the mayor was Ivan Antonovich Dumbadze. Since 1900, the first newspaper “Yalta Listok” begins to cover urban life, 25 years after the publication of the first issue of the newspaper “Crimean Listok”. In 1904, 55 workers worked at 4 small factory enterprises, 620 in 59 craft enterprises. In the same year, a power plant was built (the power of its engines in 1910 was 700 horsepower). Back in 1870, an enochemical laboratory began to work at the Magarach wine cellar. Under the leadership of well-known winemakers A. P. Serbulenko, A. E. Salomon, S. F. Okhremenko and M. A. Khovrenko, standards of high-quality Russian dessert wines were created [40]. On the eve of the First World War, a tobacco factory, two lime mills, three plants of artificial mineral water and ice came into operation. Transport service was carried out by the agency of the Russian Society of Shipping and Trade. The local fleet consisted of two small steam boats. There was a postal and telegraph office. Every year in the large agricultural farms of Yalta and its environs came many farm laborers and "seasoners". In 1900, 3,610 workers were registered in the city.

By 1915, paid resort institutions worked in the city: 5 charitable sanatoriums for 169 beds, a clinical children's colony, a shelter for 24 places for patients with tuberculosis, 3 private sanatoriums, 14 hotels for 800 rooms, more than 5 boarding houses. In 1916, the Yalta Clinical Tuberculosis Institute was opened. In Yalta, doctors F. T. Shtangeev worked, the author of the capital work “Treatment of pulmonary consumption in Yalta”, for which he was awarded the degree of doctor of medicine. By the beginning of the XX century, many representatives of the Russian nobility had dachas and palaces in Yalta and the Yalta region, including members of the imperial family and monarchs themselves. In May 1893, Yalta was removed from the line of Jewish settlement. By 1913, the city stretched from Livadia to Massandra, and the population exceeded 30 thousand people. The city was divided into three parts: the middle - between the rivers Derekoyk and Wuchang-Su - was the so-called "new" city, on the right was the "old" city, on the left - Zarechye with adjacent suburbs. The most lively, comfortable and attractive was the “new” city. In 1910 in Yalta there were 1842 residential buildings (including 1430 stone). The length of the streets was 32 versts, of which 0.4 versts were paved. The city center was lit by lanterns. Trees were planted on three streets.

In 1911, the city authorities in order to obtain additional funds for the development of Yalta conclude an agreement with the Azov Bank and distribute among the population loan bonds in the amount of 2.5 million rubles. With this money, it was planned to build additional buildings of the city water supply, the building of the city Kurzal, a bathroom and bathing establishment, a mountain climatic station. But the plans were not meant to come true. A drastically changed political situation intervened in the life of the city - war, revolution, war again and a change in political structure. In 1914, the city had two gymnasiums (founded in 1876), a commercial school (with accounting courses) and nine lower educational institutions, including the Autsky Crafts School (opened in 1880). There were two-year higher courses of horticulture and viticulture. Throughout Yalta there were two reading rooms and four paid libraries, two clubs and a people's house, four cinematography. The theater with a hall for 450 spectators opened in July 1896 From 4 to 11 February 1945 in Yalta, in the Livadia Palace, the Yalta Conference was held.

On February 19, 1954, Yalta together with the Crimean region was transferred by the Soviet Union authorities to the Ukrainian SSR.[30] In the postwar years, the city grew rapidly and developed as a resort. Since the second half of the 1950s, elite recreation is actively developing at the Yalta resort, a system of state cottages is being formed. On the seashore in Lower Oreanda, state dachas No. 1 and No. 2 are being built, where the leaders of the country N. S. Khrushchev, then L. I. Brezhnev and others [30] [45] liked to rest. In the 1960s, the nearby villages of Ai-Vasil, Autka and Derek were included in Yalta. In the 1960s, a new South Bank highway was built, which greatly shortened the road from Yalta to Alushta, Simferopol and Sevastopol, since 1961 a trolleybus connection with Simferopol was opened. The 1970s - early 1980s brought to the development of the resort not previously used high-rise construction, new multi-storey buildings of health resorts are being built, some of them stood unfinished until the beginning of the XXI century. In the late 1980s, the resort of all-Union significance had 180 sanatorium-resort institutions, about two million people came to Yalta annually for rest and treatment. The reconstructed seaport began to receive large-capacity passenger ships, and the cargo port in the summer of 1986 moved along with its powerful port cranes outside the city - to the berths of the Massandra beam. During these years, large landslide and shore-fortification works have been carried out over 35 km of the coast of Great Yalta, as a result, the process of destruction of the coast and beaches has slowed down, new beaches have appeared. However, of all sanatorium-resort institutions in Yalta, only 31 per 13 thousand seats belonged to trade unions, the rest belonged to various union departments. These sanatoriums were located in the coastal zone behind high fences, their territories and beaches were inaccessible to other tourists. In the late 1980s, the last Soviet state dacha Zarya was built on the South Bank in Foros, associated with the name of the first and last president of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev. In April 1988 the city was awarded the Order of Friendship of Peoples. In March 1988, a cable car leading to the top of Ai-Petri mountain was opened. By the end of the 1990s in Yalta on the outskirts of the city, as well as on undeveloped sites, there were many houses and cottages built privately. In 1992, the Massandra Palace was restored as a museum. Since the early 2000s, reconstruction of almost the entire coast of Yalta began. Many beaches have been built and renovated, hosting thousands of people today. The so-called "wild" beaches have been ennobled and brought into line with many international norms. Massandra Beach even won the prestigious Blue Flag Award. In 2003, the restoration of Yalta embankment was completed, which turned it into a shopping street, as well as a place of mass festivities.

In 2009, a memorial chapel was erected on the embankment of Yalta, consecrated in the name of the Cathedral of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia in memory of all those innocently killed during the hard times, the Civil and Patriotic Wars. It was built near the place where stood the wooden chapel of St. Alexander Nevsky, demolished in 1932, built in memory of Emperor Alexander II killed by terrorists. On March 18, 2014, Yalta, as an integral part of the established Republic of Crimea, was annexed to the Russian Federation. Yalta very quickly gained serious popularity among the inhabitants of the former USSR. For a long time, vacation in Yalta was easier (due to visa-free travel) and, ultimately, cheaper for citizens of the CIS, and since the early to mid-2000s, it has also become cheaper than rest in Russian resorts. The inhabitants of the former USSR are also attracted by the healing nature of Yalta. Yalta has an approved coat of arms, flag, anthem, logo and even a trademark designed by Honored Artist of Ukraine Sergey Milokumov[53] The Yalta flag is a square canvas consisting of two horizontal stripes of blue and striped red. The ratio of the width of these bands is 1/2. In the blue stripe are crossed golden branches of laurel and grapes. The striped red stripe consists of two fields. The field close to the shaft is crossed 6 times by four red and three blue stripes. The field near the lower free edge is red. In the center is a golden lion with its head turned back. [54] A straight-angle cloth with a width-to-length ratio of 2:3, which consists of two horizontal stripes of equal width. Top-down: gold, purple. There's a big coat of arms in the center. The new large coat of arms of the city is “four-cornered, with rounded lower corners, pointed at the tip, dissected heraldic (Russian) shield.” The right field is crossed 6 times by four purple and three azure stripes. The left field is purple. In the heart of the shield is a superimposed, standing, golden, turned lion. In the azure chapter there are crossed golden branches of laurel and grapes. The shield is crowned with a golden three-headed “tower of dignity” and a golden palm branch. Shield holders are golden seahorses holding a silver motto ribbon under the shield with the inscription in gold letters “Southern Capital”. The anthem of Yalta, posted on the official website called “Southern Capital”, was written by poet Anatoly Mirzoyan and composer Vladimir Koton. I want to bet that in the Black Sea

There is no city more beautiful with the Tsar's Path. You can be sure, southern capital, You're coming here like you're home.

The name of the city of Yalta is often deciphered by the first three letters: I love you. The unofficial motto of Yalta is: “Yalta is the city of happiness!”