This seemingly fragile, very small in size and volume construction left far behind all other architectural treasures of the Crimea, becoming its calling card. It happened so that it is Lastichkin’s Nest in the first place seek to see many tourists coming here, despite neither the apparent danger of being near it, nor the criticism of architectural solutions by experts in this field. It is, without exaggeration, the main attraction of the whole Crimea.
In times immemorial, when the earth was inhabited by gods, the goddess of the morning dawn Aurora climbed the rock overhanging the steep cliff every day at dawn. The first rays of the sun reflected on her face, and the morning of a new day began — the birds sang songs and the whole world went about its business. One morning the god of the sea Poseidon saw Aurora meeting the dawn, and love for her settled in his heart. This love, no matter how hard he tried, was not mutual, and then he decided to bewitch Aurora with the help of a magic tiara. Waiting for the next dawn, Aurora, not knowing that Poseidon had persuaded Aeolus, the lord of winds, to cover the sky with dark clouds, fell asleep on a rock, languishing in anticipation.
And then the god of the sea crept up to her, and almost managed to bewitch her, but at the last moment the goddess woke up and recoiled from Poseidon, the diadem slipped from his hands, and one of the diamonds adorning the magic thing broke off and fell into a crevice of the rock. The sea lord left with nothing, having lost forever the hope of being near his beloved. When dawn came, one of the sun’s rays hit the diamond, everything around it shone, flashed with bright light, and at the place where it fell, a beautiful castle appeared, which, as a symbol of unrequited love, to this day rises above a steep precipice on the very edge of a high cliff.
This is the romantic story of the emergence of a unique landmark of the Crimea — the castle Swallow’s Nest on the Aurora Rock in Gaspra. And she — just one of many, because this construction has long excited the imagination and minds indifferent to the beauty of people. But in reality, everything was somewhat different.
Swallow’s Nest Castle decorated the picturesque landscape of Cape Ai-Todor in 1912. It was not the first building on this place. The first owner of the plot on the cape was one of the Russian generals who took part in the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878, history has not preserved his name. He built a wooden building here, which was later purchased by doctor A.K. Tobin, and after his death the plot was purchased by merchant Rakhmanina. She gave the name «Swallow’s Nest», but not to the general’s building, but to the new one built on the place of the building demolished by her order. When the estate changed its owner again — this time it was the oil industrialist Baron Steingel, who liked to spend time in the Crimea, the second wooden building was demolished and the present castle appeared in its place. German by origin, the new owner of the Swallow’s Nest wanted his estate to remind him of the medieval buildings of his homeland. The project was entrusted to the engineer L. Sherwood, son of the architect V. Sherwood, who gave Moscow the building of the Historical Museum on Red Square.
Leonid Sherwood took on the job with inspiration, and the Gothic-style castle that appeared on the Aurora rock became a bright decoration of Gaspra. Small — only 20m in length and 10 in width, 12m high, the building turned out to be very spectacular due to its successful location, and the peculiarities of the architectural composition made it exciting, forcing to hold one’s breath. The thing is that the stepped composition consisting of four external volumes was created in such a way that it seems as if the parts of the building located further away from the cliff are pushing the parts hanging over the abyss, and not, on the contrary, trying to balance them. The tiers are weighted and increase in height towards the cliff, so it seems that the castle hangs by a thread and is about to fall from a 40-meter height. Perhaps this peculiarity was specially designed by the architect to increase the spectacularity of the building. In any case, in 1927 the castle almost fell into the sea: the earthquake that occurred then collapsed a part of the cliff, the view platform of the building hovered over the abyss, and several sharp spires crowning the Swallow’s Nest snapped into the sea.
Restoration work did not begin until 41 years later — in 1968. Design engineer V.N. Timofeev and architect I.G. Tatiev took over the project and carried out works that made the building safe. They put a part of the building on a reinforced concrete cantilever slab, which allowed to leave the viewing platform in an overhanging position above the cliff, as well as strengthened the foundation and surrounded it with anti-seismic belts, in addition, they brought new details to the appearance of the Swallow’s Nest, which made it more decorative: four tall spires appeared on the highest tower.
Today we can still admire this most beautiful attraction of Ukraine, exciting and impressive, despite its seeming unreliability — it survived even after the strongest earthquake. Swallow’s Nest Castle continues to inspire and delight all who are lucky enough to see it, and every year it becomes more and more famous far beyond the country’s borders as a truly unique architectural treasure of Crimea.