The Palace And Park Ensemble In Alupka
The working hours of the courtyard territory:
From 6.00 to 22.00
The palace and Park ensemble in Alupka, one of the outstanding monuments of the Romantic era, was built in 1828-1848 for the Governor-General The Novorossiysk territory of Count M.S. Worontsov (1782-1856). It was a time when romanticism, which dominated literature and art, had a strong influence on architecture. The ideals and principles of medieval architecture were discussed in theoretical treatises and embodied in the Neo-Gothic structures of Europe and Russia in the first half of the XIX century.
The park is an integral part of the Alupka Palace and Park Ensemble. It serves as the link that provides the palace with an organic connection with the natural nature of Alupka.
The park covers an area of more than 30 hectares. It is conventionally divided into Upper and Lower. The upper park, laid out in a landscape style, its beauty is majestic and impresses with its monumental paintings. Mysterious grottoes, quiet lakes and noisy waterfalls amaze the imagination.
The lower park conquers with its southern beauty. Walking along its paths laid between the terraces, admiring the ancient trees, bright green glades, you can go down to the sea itself, enjoy the seascape.
When creating the park, the main trends of European landscape architecture of the Romantic era (primarily England and Russia), as well as the family ties of the Worontsov nobles, their aesthetic preferences and tastes were taken into account. Elisabeth Ksaverevna took an active part in the creation of the park, referring to Keebach , whom she called “my kind gardener.” Mikhail Semenovich was professionally interested in botany and personally planted magnolias in the open ground, which is known from the correspondence of M.S. Worontsov and N.A. Hartvis.
The unique Worontsov Park, which has no analogues in the world, was created under the guidance of the German gardener Karl Keebach (1799-1851). Keebach was an experienced botanical gardener – he planted exotic trees in the new natural environment of Crimea, maintained relations with many botanical gardens in Russia and Europe, as well as with the largest nurseries.
Pond in Alupka Park
Kebakh worked on parks in all the Crimean estates of the Worontsov, Naryshkin and Potocki, as well as in the parks of Gaspra, Oreanda, Foros, Mellas. In Alupka, in addition to his main duties, he was instructed to conduct daily observations of the weather, arrange all festive festivities and arrange illuminations (the first illumination was arranged on September 5, 1830 in honor of the birthday of E.K. Worontsova), accompany guests around the park.
The terrain of Alupka with its gentle hills, steep slopes and ravines, bizarre rocks, piles of stones and abundance of water was the best suited for a landscape park.
Thanks to the efforts of gardeners and serfs, huge blocks of stones turned into Large and Small chaos with their mysterious labyrinths.
The basis of the flora of the Alupka Park was made up of local breeds: fluffy oak, pistachio, hornbeam, Crimean pine.
By 1872, the park’s garden catalog numbered 267 species, most of them imported from around the world.
Alupkinsky Park is rightfully considered one of the most beautiful parks in the south of Russia. It is not only a worthy frame of the Worontsov Palace, but also an excellent artistic embodiment of the ideas of landscape art.