Kichkine Palace is so named because of its small size, in Tatar «Kichkine» means «little girl».
It is on the border of Gaspra and Livadia, because of the proximity of the sea and densely growing juniper, the air contains useful iodine ions and phytoncides. Thanks to this therapeutic air, back in the XIX century the royal family began to equip their estates here. «Kichkine» was built in 1913 by Yalta architect N.G. Tarasov, for Grand Duke Dmitry Konstantinovich Romanov, grandson of Emperor Nicholas I.
It was built in the village of Kurpaty, just behind Oreanda, on a high precipitous seashore. A tiny Moorish-style palace indeed, with turrets, a minaret and Arabic script above the entrance.
It was here, in the Kichkine estate, that a young and incredibly happy family settled immediately after the construction was completed: Dmitry Konstantinovich’s niece Tatiana with her husband, Georgian Prince Konstantin Alexandrovich Bagration-Mukhransky and their young son Teimuraz.
Their life in «Kichkine» is a story of incredibly tender and devoted love that overcame all the canons of the Imperial family. Grand Duke Dmitry Konstantinovich himself spent December 1916 and January 1917 at «Kichkine» with his niece and her children.
And at the beginning of 1921 the estate passed into the possession of a famous military figure of pre-revolutionary Russia — Grand Duke Nikolay Nikolaevich Jr. The estate survived the disasters of numerous revolutions and two world wars.
The entrance to the Kichkine Palace is from the side of the lower Alupka road. The territory of the estate is divided into two parts: south-west — park area with numerous paths and plantings of subtropical plants, north-east — the palace with a front courtyard.
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The park area was founded by G. Klaidi, a specialist from the Nikitsky Botanical Garden. Today on the territory of the estate reconstructed museum «Summer Residence of Prince Romanov» and located hotel «Kichkine».
The palace, as it was then, is surrounded by a picturesque ancient park, and a staircase cut into the rock leads to the sea, where three grottoes are arranged for rest.
From the sea it looks like a stylized ship: the minaret resembles a mainsail mast, the domes and turrets are sails, and the crenellated balustrade.