travel_yalta

Renaissance

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The city of Yalta on the Black Sea is the Ukraine's best-known seaside resort and the nearest
the country comes to the French Cote d'Azur. The Crimea Mountains shelter Yalta from cold
north winds, providing the city and its coastline with a mild climate. The Greeks were the first
to appreciate the beauty of the area, establishing settlements in the 8th Century BC. A
lengthy period of Byzantine rule followed, until control of the city fell to the Genoese, who
exploited the commercial potential of its port. Yalta then came under Turkish rule, providing
protection from Tartar invasions. During the reign of Catherine the Great, the rule of Yalta
transferred to Russia.

The Romanovs established their imperial summer residence near Yalta, at Livadia, and the area
became a favourite holiday resort for the Russian aristocracy. The city fared well after the Russian
Revolution, when Lenin claimed it as the property of the people and made it the most important health
treatment centre in the country. In 1945, the former Russian imperial residence was the venue for the
Yalta Conference, held between Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin, when Europe was divided into
eastern and western blocs.

The elegant buildings of Yalta pay testimony to its past grandeur. The grand mansions now belong to
the state and have been turned into hotels and rest homes for the multitudes of people who annually go
to Yalta for therapeutic treatment. Livadia, the magnificent summer imperial palace nearby to Yalta, is
currently a highly prestigious cardiology centre.

A further major attraction of the area is Alpuka Palace, built to compete with Livadia by an English
architect in 1828-1848. The former home of the Count of Voronstov, the governor of Odessa, the north
facade is in Tudor mediaeval style, and the south facade is a copy of the Alhambra in Granada.

A speciality of Yalta's cuisine is chebureki, minced meat fried in oil, eaten with the fingers. Traditional
dishes include fish, caviar, chicken Kiev, roast lamb and beef shashlik. Iced vodka is highly
recommended.