Situation: Evpatoria is a city on the shore of the Black Sea. On the one hand, any body of water of this scale is the living territory of all sorts of romantics, travelers and flibusters. On the other hand, on the territory of Evpatoria there are 15 museums filled with unique artifacts and documents. The majority of them are decorated according to the most fashionable world tendencies in the organization of work of «temple of muses». But members of youth club «Charm» did not hold back, and have created in city one more museum devoted to such provocative theme, as pirates operating in water area of the Black Sea.
The newly formed «Museum of Pirates» is located in the basement of the house on Revolution Street, just opposite the new «Museum of the History of the Crimean War» and the children’s library named after Makarenko. There is a mast above the entrance, so guests have the impression that they are ascending, but in fact descending, on a real ship of gentlemen of fortune.
Evpatoria «pirate base» is conditionally divided into 2 parts. One hall is decorated as a hold of a corsair ship — low vaults, wooden furniture, ropes, chains and semi-darkness. The other is a real pirate treasury. It contains about 600 exhibits telling guests about the history of the Black Sea exploration, as well as the life and traditions of sea robbers.
The guides open the acquaintance with their «ship» with a story about the first pirates who sailed the waters of Pontus Axinskiy. They were children of the sea, who followed the Greek colonists from the Mediterranean Sea, or inhabitants of the polis who could not support themselves by farming or trading. In «their goblets» lie amphorae that were once filled with sweet Chios wine. On their desks lie the first maps of the waters of the Black Sea, the Sea of Marmara and the Mediterranean Sea.
Pirate bases, rare hospitable ports, and caves where corsairs hid loot and captives are mapped. Many guests of the cellar on Revolution Street note that the coins, carelessly scattered near antique shards, in this «house of pirates» looks much more natural than in the numismatist’s blotter or in the exposition of an ordinary local history museum, «chained» to the stand.
Corsairs-Greeks in the waters of the Black Sea were replaced by the Romans. Later, it was plundered by non-legally obedient subjects of the Byzantine Empire and official representatives of the Ottoman sultans. This era is represented in the «Museum of Pirates» samples of weapons, personal belongings of flibusters and fragments of sunken ships, about which it is known that they went under the flag of «jolly Roger». Young visitors Evpatoria pirate base adore to consider mannequins in clothes, characteristic for that time and a specific kind of activity. And everyone can take a free photo in the treasury, against the background of the helm or as the captain of this pirate base.
The young museum quickly took a worthy place in the cohort of attractions of Evpatoria. After all, only here you can learn the true history of the development of the Black Sea and the most terrible secrets of Krym!