The Swallow's Nest ( uk, Ластівчине гніздо, , russian: Ласточкино гнездо, ), ) in

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

, ''Schwalbennest'' in

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

, and (''Qarılğaç yuvası'') in Crimean Tatar., group="nb" is a decorative

castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...

located at

Gaspra Gaspra ( uk, Гаспра, officially transliterated Haspra; russian: Гаспра; crh, Gaspra, from Greek hàspra, άσπρα, white) is a spa town, an urban-type settlement in Yalta Municipality in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. It is loc ...

, a small spa town between

Yalta Yalta (: Я́лта) is a resort city on the south coast of the Crimean Peninsula surrounded by the Black Sea. It serves as the administrative center of Yalta Municipality, one of the regions within Crimea. Yalta, along with the rest of Cri ...

and

Alupka Alupka (Ukrainian and Russian: Алу́пка; crh, Alupka; gr, Ἀλώπηξ, Alòpex) is a resort city located in the Crimean peninsula, a territory of Ukraine currently annexed by Russian Federation (see 2014 Crimean crisis). It is located t ...

, in the

Crimean Peninsula Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...

. It was built between 1911 and 1912, on top of the Aurora Cliff, in a

Neo-Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

design by the Russian architect

Leonid Sherwood Leonid Vladimirovich Sherwood (russian: link=no, Леонид Владимирович Шервуд (28 April 1871 – 28 August 1954) was a Russian sculptor and architect. Biography Sherwood was born in Moscow. He was of English descent, his gra ...

for the

Baltic German Baltic Germans (german: Deutsch-Balten or , later ) were ethnic German inhabitants of the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, in what today are Estonia and Latvia. Since their coerced resettlement in 1939, Baltic Germans have markedly declined ...

businessman Baron von Steingel. The castle overlooks the Cape of Ai-Todor on the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Rom ...

coast and is located near the remains of the Roman castrum of

Charax Charax (Χάραξ) may refer to: * Charax, alternate name of Acharaca, an ancient oracle site in Lydia, Anatolia * Charax, alternate name of Charakipolis, an ancient town in Lydia, Anatolia * Charax, alternate name of Tralles, an ancient city in Ly ...

. The Swallow's Nest is one of the most popular visitor attractions in Crimea, having become the

symbol A symbol is a mark, sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, object, or relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by creating linkages between otherwise very different conc ...

of Crimea's southern coastline.

Description

The building is compact in size, measuring only long by wide. Its original design envisioned a foyer, guest room, stairway to the tower, and two bedrooms on two different levels within the tower. The interior of the guest room is decorated with wooden panels; the walls of the rest of the rooms are stuccoed and painted. An observation deck rings the building, providing a view of the sea, and Yalta's distant shoreline.

History

The first building on the Aurora Cliff was constructed for

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

n general circa in 1895. The first structure he built was a wooden cottage romantically named the "Castle of Love." Later on, the ownership of the

cottage A cottage, during Feudalism in England, England's feudal period, was the holding by a cottager (known as a cotter or ''bordar'') of a small house with enough garden to feed a family and in return for the cottage, the cottager had to provide ...

passed to A. K. Tobin, a court doctor to the Russian

Tsar Tsar ( or ), also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar'', is a title used by East and South Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word ''caesar'', which was intended to mean "emperor" in the European medieval sense of the ter ...

. In 1911,

Baron Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than a lord or kn ...

von Steingel, a

noble who had made a fortune extracting oil in

Baku Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world an ...

, acquired the timber cottage and within a year had it replaced with the current building called ''Schwalbennest''. The

Scots Baronial Scottish baronial or Scots baronial is an architectural style of 19th century Gothic Revival which revived the forms and ornaments of historical architecture of Scotland in the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period. Reminiscent of Scot ...

and

Moorish Revival Moorish Revival or Neo-Moorish is one of the exotic revival architectural styles that were adopted by architects of Europe and the Americas in the wake of Romanticist Orientalism. It reached the height of its popularity after the mid-19th centu ...

styles had been introduced in the Crimea in the 1820s by

Edward Blore Edward Blore (13 September 1787 – 4 September 1879) was a 19th-century English landscape and architectural artist, architect and antiquary. Early career He was born in Derby, the son of the antiquarian writer Thomas Blore. Blore's back ...

, the architect of the Vorontsov Palace (1828–46). Compared to the Alupka and Koreiz palaces, the Swallow's Nest is closer in style to various German fairy-tale-inspired castle follies, such as Lichtenstein Castle,

Neuschwanstein Castle Neuschwanstein Castle (german: Schloss Neuschwanstein, , Southern Bavarian: ''Schloss Neischwanstoa'') is a 19th-century historicist palace on a rugged hill above the village of Hohenschwangau near Füssen in southwest Bavaria, Germany. T ...

and

Stolzenfels Castle Stolzenfels Castle (german: Schloss Stolzenfels) is a former medieval fortress castle ("Burg") turned into a palace, near Koblenz on the left bank of the Rhine, in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Stolzenfels was a ruined 13th-centur ...

, although its precarious seaside setting on the cliffs draws parallels with the Belém Tower in

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of th ...

, or Miramare Castle on the Gulf of Trieste outside Trieste, Italy. In 1914, von Steingel sold the building to P. G. Shelaputin to be used as a restaurant. For a short time after the

1917 Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and adopt a socialist form of government ...

, the building was used only as a tourist attraction. In 1927, the Swallow's Nest survived a serious earthquake rated at 6 to 7 on the

Richter scale The Richter scale —also called the Richter magnitude scale, Richter's magnitude scale, and the Gutenberg–Richter scale—is a measure of the strength of earthquakes, developed by Charles Francis Richter and presented in his landmark 1935 ...

. The building was not damaged apart from some small decorative items that were thrown into the sea along with a small portion of the cliff. However, the cliff itself developed a huge crack. In the 1930s, the building was used by a reading club from the nearby "Zhemchuzhina" (Pearl) resort, however it was closed shortly thereafter as a safety precaution due to the damage it had suffered in the quake, remaining closed for the next 40 years. Renovation and restoration of the building began in 1968. The project involved the restoration of a small portion of the castle and the addition of a monolithic console concrete plate to strengthen the cliff. Since 1975, a restaurant has operated within the building. In 2011, the Swallow's Nest was closed for three months due to major restoration work estimated to cost 1,200,000 hryvnias ($150,000 USD).

In culture

Owing to its important status as the symbol of the Crimea's southern coast, the Swallow's Nest was featured in several Soviet films. It was used as the setting of ''

Desyat Negrityat ''Desyat Negrityat'' (russian: Десять негритят, 'Ten Little Negroes') is a 1987 Soviet film adaptation of Agatha Christie's 1939 novel of the same name, now known as ''And Then There Were None''. It was directed by Stanislav Govorukh ...

'', the 1987 Soviet screen version of

Agatha Christie Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, (; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fiction ...

's ''

And Then There Were None ''And Then There Were None'' is a mystery novel by the English writer Agatha Christie, described by her as the most difficult of her books to write. It was first published in the United Kingdom by the Collins Crime Club on 6 November 1939, a ...

''. The building was also featured in the 1983 Polish/Soviet co-production children's film ''Mister Blot's Academy'' as well as in ''

Mio in the Land of Faraway ''Mio in the Land of Faraway'' ( sv, Mio min Mio; russian: Мио, мой Мио, Mio, moy Mio) is a 1987 fantasy film directed by Vladimir Grammatikov and starring Christopher Lee, Christian Bale, Nicholas Pickard, Timothy Bottoms and Susanna ...

'', a 1987 joint production by Swedish,

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

, and Soviet film companies.

References

Notes Footnotes Bibliography * * *

External links

* * * {{coord, 44.430727, N, 34.12825, E, type:landmark_region:UA, display=title Houses completed in 1912 Tourist attractions in Crimea Folly buildings Buildings and structures in Crimea Yalta Municipality 1912 establishments in the Russian Empire 1912 establishments in Ukraine Tourist attractions in Ukraine Cultural heritage monuments of federal significance in Crimea

Description

History

In culture

See also

References

External links