TOUR SCHEDULE
TOUR PROGRAM OF THE SECOND INTERNATIONAL
PROFESSIONAL FORUM «CRIMEA-2016»
Sunday, June 5, 2016
We invite all Forum participants to join us at one-day tours on Sunday, June 5. Please choose one of the routes and register online for reservation.
Please don’t forget to confirm your reservation and get your boarding pass when registering for the Forum on site on June 4.
You are kindly asked to register individually and for one tour only! If you change your mind please inform our authorized contact persons at: cit2@gpntb.ru.
Seating in tour buses is limited. The registration will close upon the tour group is complete.
Tour No. 1 Massandra
Route: Sudak – Massandra – Yalta - Sudak
Start: 8.00 a.m.
Duration: 12 hours
Bus and walking tour
Sightseeing goals:
The Massandra Palace, Massandra Main Winery, City of Yalta embankment (1 hour free time).
The scenic route runs along Sudak-Yalta highway, via the town of Alushta toward the Crimean Southern Coast with the poetical sea sights on your left, and the mountain mass of the Crimean main ridge on your right.
The first stop for sightseeing will be at the Palace of Emperor Alexander III in Massandra. It was built as a royalsummer residence. The beautiful elegant building resembles Charles Perrault’s tales and is a true wonder. It is guarded by its stone guards: sphinxes, satyrs and chimeras which lends glamour and mysticism to the place.
The Massandra Palace is situated in a big beautiful park flowing into the woods. The two remarkable gigantic sequoias are the Massandra Ensemle’s gods and landmarks.
During the tour of the Massandra Palace, you will visit the royal private rooms and the museum exhibition.
The next goal of our tour will be the Massandra Winery.
The Massandra Production Amalgamation is the crown jewel of the Crimean wine-making industry. The best world wine, namely White Muscat of the Red Stone, sweet muscatel liquor wine is produced there. No one wine in the world has got so many prizes, diplomas, national and international awards as the White Muscat has. During the tour, you will come down to the Tsar Cellar of the Main Winery and see big old oak casks storing famous Massandra liquors, get yourself familiar with some technologies and production stages, make a visit to the Wines and Wine-making Museum, and see the Winery’s ‘inner sanctum’ – its famousenoteca holding the rarest samples of Massandra wines (Xeres de la Frontera is almost 250 year old!).
In the old wine cellar, you will taste 9 Massandra premium wines. True wine enthusiasts know that wine loves not traveling. The further we go on from the cellar and cask, the more original taste and quality is being lost. At the MassandraWinery you will learn the true taste and characteristics of Massandra wines.
Our journey is not over. You will have a short stay in Yalta for a lunch (not included) and a walk along the famousYalta embankment.
TOUR No. 2. St. Luka Crimean domain. The pilgrimage tour
Route: Sudak – Topolevka – Simferopol – Sudak
Start: 9.00 a.m.
Duration: 9 hours
Bus and walking tour
Sightseeing goals: Toplovsky Paraskevievsky Trinity Convent; in Simferopol – St. Luka Museum, The Church of St. Constantine and Helena, St. Peter and Paul Cathedral..
Please note: that according to Russian Orthodox tradition women should wear skirts and be head-dressed when entering churches and monasteries. If desired, bring a flask to fill it with consecrated water; for baptistery you will have to wear a robe.
The route runs along Sudak - Simferopol highway. In the settlement of Topolevka, among the rocks and emerald-green woods, the famous Toplovsky Paraskevievsky Trinity Convent is situated.
Nuns will give you a tour of the Convent and its churches – The Church of Parasceva the Righteous Martyr and the Church of the Virgin of Consolation of All Sorrows Icon, walk to Chokrak-Saglyk-Su springs (in Crimean Tatar – ‘the source of life-giving and healthy water’). Actually, it was around this spring-well, sainted both by Christians and Muslims, where the holy convent was established in the mid 19th century. It was named after St. Parasceva which icon was found at the spring-well.
Here the roofed baptistery is built. It is open all year round. You can perform ablution, too, so don’t forget a towel, a robe, and a flask for holy water. When in the Convent, you can also visit the Cave of St. Constantina.
We leave Topolevka and head for Simferopol. Our first goal there is St. Luka Museum.
Archbishop Luka (Valentin Voyno-Yasenetsky) is a legendary, remarkable person. He was an outstanding medical doctor, author of well-known works in medicine, a surgeon who had saved thousands of lives during the Great Patriotic War, and honored priest. All his life he served people. He arrived to Crimea in 1946, stayed there and worked for the name of God and the Orthodox Church and for the sake of Crimean people. After his death, he was canonized. Even when his mortal life is over, St. Luka still help all the seekers: touching his relics and deep belief in his power gives purification and healing to the many. When visiting the Orthodox Saint Trinity Monastery, try this spiritual and physical power of St.Luka’s relics buried in the walls of the Monastery Church. Here, you can also adore another Crimean shrine – miraculously renewed icon of the Virgin of Anguish.
The next church on our way will be the Church of Saint Constantine and Helena, Equal-to-the-Apostles, where Empress Ekaterina II prayed in 1787.
We will also go inside St. Peter and Paul Cathedral. The legend tells that the Cathedral was built where the tent of Generalissimo Alexander Suvorov had been pitched during 1770 Crimean Campaign. The relics of St. Gury (Karpov) Archbishop of Tauris and Simferopol, consecrated as a locally venerated saint in August 2008 can be seen there too.
The tour program is rather dense but it makes possible to adore many Orthdodox holy places where great Russian men of faith served their selfless service.
Tour No. 3 Feodosia
Route: Sudak – Feodosia – Sudak
Start: 9.00 a.m.
Duration: 6 hours
Bus and walking tour
Sightseeing goals: Quarantine (The Genoese Fortress, three churches, Afanasy Nikitin monument), The Stamboli Dacha, Marina and Anastasia Tsvetaevy Museum
We are leaving to the town of Feodosia from Sudak via the serpentine road of Sinor Pass, wine-making Shchebetovka, and Koktebel, this artistic Mecca.
In Feodosia, you are awaited by the most interesting sightseeing. You will visit the oldest town district called Quarantine, go up to the foot of the Genoese Fortress.
Quarantine is the place where the ancient Greek Theodosia sprung up in 6 B.C., and in 13th century the GenoeseKaffa raised. The relics of the medieval fortress that protected the city’s eastern part from the sea and served Feodosiasea gate can be seen on the Quarantine Hill.
Today you can see the remains of the fortress walls, the gate, and two citadel towers. There are three medieval churches in the Quarantine: St. John the Evangelist, John the Precursor, St. George and Demetrius (also known as St. Stephen Church).
Feodosia is one of the oldest cities in the world. It is also one of the first Crimean cities christianized.
In the area of Quarantine the Iveron Church supposedly built in 14th century is located. It architectural design is similar to the Armenian churches of 13-14thcenturies. Inside you will find the unique stone relief images. In the past, the church walls were decorated with fresco painting. The fragments could be seen in the early 20th century but today they are lost.
In the Quarantine district you will also see the monument to Afanasy Nikitin, the merchant of Tver who lived inKafa for three years. A legend says that in the moment he set his foot on the land of Kafa, Nikitin saw the Church of theIveron Mother of the God and heard the psalms. He was happy to pray in the Church after he had lived among Muslims and Buddhists for so long. He served the thanksgiving service to thank and pray to his happy coming back.
The tour of old Feodosia continues with the visit to the unique and original Stamboli’s Dacha built in the early 20thcentury. The most impressing and fanciful Feodosian palace amazes with its architecture: terraces, roofed galleries, turrets, the candle of minaret and patio fountains make the palace ensemble. Bright ornamental decorations resemble traditional Oriental arts, as the owner was Iosif Stamboli, Karaim, rich tobacco manufacturer.
We will complete the immersion into the history in the Museum of the Tsvetaevy sisters.
For the first time, Marina and Anastasia Tsvetaevy come to south-eastern Crimea in May, 1911, when they visited Maximilian Voloshin in Koktebel. In June, 1911 they arrived in Feodosia. The old seaport town enchanted the sisters. They lived there from October 17, 1913 till June 1, 1914. They were very welcomed by the residents. Voloshin introduced them to his friends’ families. The sisters were greeted at the poetical and musical parties and concerts, and enthusiastically volunteered in local charity actions.
It was in Feodosia that Marina Tsvetaeva wrote one of her best lyrical poems “The day is ebbing over Feodosia.” This period of Tsvetaeva’s work was truly fruitful and was crowned by the book of “Juvenile Verses” in 1914 though published only in 1976. The letters and diaries with Marina’s impressions on Feodosia are extant.
The museum exhibition “Feodosia of Marina and Anastasia Tsvetaevy” covers the Feodosian-Koktebel period of their life up to the World War I that destroyed the Crimean idyll and had impact on the destinies of the generation at large. Materials from the Feodosian Museum, Max. Voloshin’s House and Museum, I. K.Ayvazovsky National Art Gallery, Feodosian Museum of Antiquities, and several personal collections are on the display.
TOUR No. №4 Koktebel, the cradle of aviation
Route: Sudak-Koktebel-Sudak
Start: 9.00 a.m.
Duration: 6 hours
Bus and walking tour
Sightseeing goals: Klementyev’s Mountain, Gliding History Museum, tour of Koktebel, Karadag Natural Reserve.
In the year of the 55th anniversary of the Soviet space Odissea, you are invited to the cradle of the national aviation – the famous Klementyev’s mountain.
Klementyev’s mountain is situated near the town of Koktebel. Its another name is Uzun-Syrt, which means “The Long Range”. One of the specific things about it are the powerful upward winds which make Uzun-Syrt the unique for Europe and one of the two in the world (with another one in America).
In 1929, the Central Glider School was established to be later renamed as a High Air-gliding School. Soviet aircraft designers: K. Artseulov, A. Tupolev, S. Korolev, O. Antonov, A. Yakovlev, S. Ilyushin tested their flying machines on Klementyev’s Mountain.
On the 50th anniversary of gliding, on September 9, 1973, a monument was opened on Klementyev’s mountain. It is the silver glider, 7-meter high, with an inscription: “To front-liners and aircraft dreamers”. Today, the Center of Gliding Sport and Gliding History Museum are located there where amateurs are offered instruction and familiarization flights on gliders, AN-2 and Vilga aircrafts, paragliders, hang-gliders, and parachute jumping. .
The Museum of Russia Gliding History occupies four rooms and covers the history of the High Air-gliding school, great pilots and aircraft designers who worked there.
Room One is given to the display on Konstantin Arseulov who discovered this unique place, the Room Two display deals with Klementyev’s Mountain, gliding coming-to-be and development in 1920-1930. Room Three is devoted to SergeyKorolev, Oleg Antonov, Sergey Ilyushin, Andrey Tupolev and other geniuses of aircraft construction, and famous pilots whose way to the sky started on Uzun-Surt; Room Four display is related to modern gliding and parachuting. In the HighAir-gliding School hangars, you will see gliders once flying over the Klementyev’s mountain.
Coming down to earth, we will make a sea voyage along the Kara-Dag dead volcano, and unique landscapes named mysteriously: Dead Town, the Frog and Carnelian Bays, the Three Elephants Cave, the rocks Shaitan, Ivan the Robber, and Monomakh’s Cap, Roaring Grotto, Froggy Valley, Devil’s Finger, and finally, the Golden Gate – the basalt arch 37 meters high and 10-11 meters wide. The Golden Gate is a kind of Kara-Dag emblem. The Gate is depicted in thousands of pictures and is described in many verses and prosaic texts. The Tauris, Scythians, The Genoese and Odyssey himself adored the Golden Gate. The Karagach range is very beautiful, too. The stoney ‘zoo’ of fairy animals and birds has petrified on its peaks and sea cliffs.