Hanging over the sea, stands on the Aurorina rock stunningly beautiful castle. This is a symbol of Crimea - Swallow's Nest. There is an amazing architectural monument in the village of Gaspra, twenty kilometers from Yalta. The castle really looks like a nest of a swallow: it bravely hovered above the waves, attaching itself to the very edge of a 40-meter steep cliff, towering above the coast between Livadia and Miskhor.
The construction in the Gothic style attracts a countless stream of tourists. Vacationers, holding their breath, admire the magnificent views from a dizzying height, capture themselves against the wonderful background of the castle. It seems that the Swallow's Nest exists without land between the sky and the sea - this is a feeling of incredibility and gives the structure such an attraction.
The history of the castle is intertwined with many legends. Local guides enthusiastically tell them, and tourists listen with no less enthusiasm, glancing down with a sinking heart. However, the real history of the Swallow's Nest castle is also very interesting. It was first mentioned in 1895, which means that the building already existed by this time. Initially, it was a summer residence: a wooden one-story house, boldly built on a rocky patch. The name of the creator, unfortunately, has not been preserved. It is only known that he was a romantic general and named his dacha the Castle of Love (the second name is the Generalif). Then the doctor A.K. Tobin became the owner of the house. The dacha passed into the inheritance to his wife, who in 1903 sold it to the merchant girl Rachmanina. At that time, the name "Swallow's Nest" was assigned to the structure.
Further, the dacha began to be owned by the German baron von Stengel. It was he who decided to build a miniature castle in place of the house in 1912. So on the Black Sea coast appeared as if transferred from the banks of the Rhine to a palace resembling medieval knightly buildings. The construction with a three-story high tower is amazing. It is so well located on the edge of a cliff that it is not even immediately possible to determine its very small size: 10 meters wide, 20 meters long and 12 meters high.
When the First World War began, the Baron left for Germany, prudently selling the building. The new owner, the merchant Shelaputin, converted the Swallow's Nest into a restaurant. Then the castle was nationalized by the Soviet government. During the powerful earthquake of 1927, the structure was partially damaged, and after a new earthquake in 1966 it completely began to sag. Due to the danger of collapse, the Swallow's Nest was closed to visitors.
The restoration of the castle began in 1968. The work was difficult, dangerous. You need to have great courage to work on the abyss in the
hanging cradle, so only volunteers were involved. Cracks were laid with stones, flooded with concrete. We conducted a reinforced concrete
monolithic slab under the base
, surrounded the structure with antiseismic belts, and then carried out the restoration of the building.
Today this building is a well-known landmark, a historical monument. There is a restaurant inside the castle. Around the park, there are two sanatoriums. The observation deck offers a magical view of Ayu-Dag, Yalta Bay and Yalta itself. Here is such an amazing place - Swallow's Nest. How to get here? There are several ways: by minibus, trolley, car or cruise boat.