Gurzuf

Gurzuf or Hurzuf is a small resort urban village in Crimea on the northern coast of the Black Sea. This is a very popular resort area that attracts tourists with the beauty of its nature and the breathtaking views. The salubrious air is rich with the fragrance of eucalyptus and filled with scents of sea breeze. The winding streets and alleys, shady pine parks, turquoise sea and Ayu-Dag mountains of unusual shape create an atmosphere of absolute peace and let you unwind and recharge.

The name's origin was not uniquely determined. Some researchers believe that it comes from the Latin ursus “bear”.

The first written source, which refers to Gurzuf, is a treatise written by the Byzantine historian Procopius of Caesarea. His "Buildings of Justinian " were written in 553-555. It is said there that on the orders of Emperor Justinian I "the castle Aluston and the castle in Gorzuvit area" were built.

Almost 300 years - from 1475 to 1774 - Gurzuf, like the rest of southern Crimea, was a part of the demesne of Turkish sultans. After the annexation of the Crimea to the Russian Empire in 1783, land in the area Gurzuf was passed on to the imperial treasury. In the beginning of the XIX century the area was bestowedon the Duke Emmanuel Armand de Richelieu, one of the founders of Odessa. In May 1881 it was purchased by railroad magnate Peter Ionovich Gubonin.

Adam Mickiewicz and Lesia Ukrainka, Feodor Chaliapin, the marine artist Aivazovsky, Maxim Gorky and Vladimir Mayakovsky, painters Repin and Surikov, writer and poet Kuprin enjoyed the curative properties of the air in Gurzuf. The name of Alexander Pushkin is closely associated with this place. When the poet travelled through southern Russia with the family of the hero of the Patriotic War of 1812 General Rajewski, Pushkin came to Gurzuf August 17, 1820 on the small military brig "Mingrelia." The house, where Pushkin stayed in Gurzuf, luckily remained. In 1912, Konstantin Korovin, a talented landscape painter and decorative artist, built the cottage in the village. Many places in Gurzuf are connected with the name of Anton Pavlovich Chekhov. There are the Chekhov beach, the Chekhov bay, the Chekhov Street here. In January 1900, Chekhov gets a small house in Gurzuf on the beach at the foot of the cliff Dzhenevez-Kai.