Everyone has a town they grew up in,
A mother’s song of love.
Sevastopol-soldier, Sevastopol-matros,
You are dear to anyone who has seen you.
Л. Oshanin «Thinking of Sevastopol».
About such glorious places as Sevastopol, it is difficult to speak using ordinary words. The richest past, the huge role of this city in many historical events, amazing fund of attractions, gentle Mediterranean climate, dizzying natural beauty — it is possible to enumerate the reasons why guests from all over Ukraine and abroad come to Sevastopol for vacation for a very long time.
For all tourists who in the vacation appreciate the variety of opportunities, Sevastopol — one of the best places in the Crimea. Here you can rest measured and meditate surrounded by beautiful nature, enjoy cultural recreation in theaters and simple earthly entertainment in numerous entertainment venues, to test themselves, conquering the depths of the sea and mountain peaks, to expand your horizons, learning history and getting acquainted with the many architectural sights of this beautiful city. Today Sevastopol is the main cultural, historical and recreational center of Crimea, one of the most visited by tourists cities in Ukraine.
Familiarization with Sevastopol is better to start with its history, which is so interesting and rich in significant events that does not leave indifferent even the most disinterested in historical excursions guests of the city. Life on the territory where Sevastopol is located today has existed since ancient times. Here lived the Taurians, Scythians, Sarmatians, but it is the city’s history that begins when the Greeks came to the picturesque land of bays, rocks, beaches and valleys.
The history of the city is divided into several stages, but each of them glorified the settlement as a wonderful place surrounded by paradise nature and inhabited by wonderful people. The first chapter of Sevastopol’s history is «written» by Greeks — natives of Heraclea of Pontus. In the 4th century B.C. in search of a new place to live, they paid attention to an island of land in the south-west of Taurica, surrounded by the sea from the south and west, and from the north by a bay (then it was called the Gulf of Ctenunta), and, being charmed by the place so reminiscent of Greece and Peloponnese, founded here the city of Chersonesos, which existed for two millennia and was the largest economic, political and cultural center of the Northern Black Sea coast. Today the place where the territory of the ancient city stretched is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, one of the largest open-air museums, the exposition of which are the ruins of the city that began to exist before our era.
The second chapter of the city’s history begins in 988, when Chersonesos was conquered by the Kiev prince Vladimir, who adopted Christianity here — it was from here that monotheism, which replaced paganism, and enlightened Byzantine culture began to spread throughout the Slavic lands. The third chapter is the saddest in the history of the settlement on the southwest coast of Crimea. It begins when the Golden Horde hordes seize Chersonesos in the 14th century, and the once powerful state turns into a ghost town. After the Horde, these territories were ruled by the Genoese, who subjugated the entire Crimean south coast in the Middle Ages, and then displaced by the Turkish conquerors. And only after the Russian-Turkish war begins a new bright page in the history of Sevastopol, founded in 1738godu and became a new lively polis on the territory where once flourished Chersonese. The name alone speaks volumes: Catherine II ordered the new city to be called Sevastopol, which translates from Greek as «city of glory, worthy of worship».
Among the glorious pages of the history of modern Sevastopol — the creation of the Black Sea Fleet, victories over the Turkish invaders, including the battle that finally put an end to the Russian-Turkish military conflicts (the Battle of Sinop on November 18, 1853), the defense of the state borders during the two wars that marred world history in the first half of the last century — the First and Second World Wars. Sevastopol is a hero-city, which took the heaviest blows during the complex historical turns in interstate relations. Today, numerous museums testify to the rich past of this city, which are visited with interest by all visitors.
In addition to museums in Sevastopol, tourists are interested in a variety of monuments in the city and its surroundings, both natural and architectural. Thus, the eastern outskirts of the city is another ancient city — Inkerman, which has preserved to our time the most interesting objects: the cave monastery of St. Clement and the ruins of the medieval fortress of Kalamita. In addition to historical monuments, Inkerman became famous as one of the centers of Crimean winemaking, which attracts many lovers of the most aristocratic drink — here you can visit wine cellars with excursions, learn a lot of interesting things about the creation of famous Crimean vintage wines.
There are so many remarkable man-made objects in the city and its surroundings that their enumeration turns into numerous books written about this interesting city. However, the same delight cause tourists and natural attractions — the bay and valley Laspi, capes Aya, Chersonese and Fiolent, rocks Kaya-Bash, rivers Chernaya and Belbek, Baidar Valley and many other beauties of local nature forever conquer the hearts of those who came to holiday in Crimea — it is simply impossible not to love Sevastopol ….