The hallmark of Foros is its famous Resurrection Church, dashingly hanging over the seashore at a height of 412 meters. Few people know about the existence of Foros Park, so its visitors are guaranteed some privacy and intimacy in communicating with nature.
A wonderful park appeared in one of the best places in the South Coast thanks to the efforts of General Raevsky and merchant Kuznetsov. The first was a hero of the Patriotic War of 1812, a cousin of Denis Davydov, an idol of Pushkin and father-in-law of a couple of Decembrists. The second was famous as Russia’s first tea merchant. He brought it from his Indian and Ceylon plantations.
General Raevsky, who was related to half of the Russian monarchs, in 1824 planned this park near his Gurzufsky property, in the manner of those he saw in his «travels» in Europe. But the problems caused by the uprising on the Senate Square undermined the health of the member of the State Council, and the subsequent monarch’s disfavor led to the ruin of the once rich family. The lands near Yalta were bought by a tea magnate, a merchant of the first guild, who was happy to settle the new estate.
On the territory of 300 hectares Alexander Grigorievich Kuznetsov developed the most active activity. In 1887 the construction of the mansion, which today houses the Foros sanatorium, and the park itself began. The Nikitskij botanical garden and the park surrounding Alupka palace of Vorontsovs were taken as a model. To work on the grounds, Kuznetsov enlisted horticulturist E.A. Albrecht and agronomist I.I. Yanin. The guild of landscape designers did not exist in those days, so the function of organizing the space was put on a professor of the Academy of Arts, a famous landscape painter, Y.Y. Klever. Kuznetsov spared no money — the required plants and animals were brought here literally from all continents. Therefore, in a few years Forossky Park turned into the best anthropogenic «green corner» on the South Coast, easily overtaking all its former idols.
To date, the former possessions of Kuznetsov recognized as a «monument of garden and park architecture». However, the territory of Foros Park has been slightly reduced in comparison with the century before last. It was left only 70 hectares of the original 300. At the same time, 30 hectares is a zone of high attention, which is called the Lower and Middle Park. But the Upper Park, the so-called forest park, is constantly under attack from the nouveau riche who want to get close to the landscape aesthetics of Raevsky-Kuznetsov.
So, what will casual visitors to Foros Park see? On the first level, i.e. in the Lower Park, alleys are laid out parallel to the embankment. Along them are planted Himalayan cedars and strawberry trees, which can not touch hands, Spanish firs, American sequoias, yews, junipers, cypresses, palms, laurels, as well as amazing bamboo groves. The pearls of the local botanical collection are Aleppo pines, which are not afraid of salt water and stretch their arms and branches to the Black Sea itself.
The Middle Park will surprise its guests with the spectacle of the system of reservoirs. There are six of them. They are connected with each other by waterfalls, elegant bridges, stone masonry and canals. Water lilies and water martlets decorate the water surface. On numerous islets and peninsulas here grow Judah trees, yuccas, boxwoods and several species of pines — Arizona and Positanskaya. Under Smith, this place was inhabited by swans, ducks. Canaries and nightingales flew between the trees, and real antelopes, zebras and gazelles came to the ponds for watering. This part of the park has the unofficial name «Paradise Corner».
The upper park is the most neglected. Some compare it to a jungle, and some compare it to Eden before the Fall! Having come on holiday in Foros, you will be able to make your own impression about this attraction of the South Coast of Krym.