Yalta (: Ялта) is a resort town on the south coast of the Crimean Peninsula surrounded by the Black Sea. It serves as the administrative center of Yalta Municipality, one of the regions within Crimea. Yalta, along with the rest of Crimea, is internationally recognised as part of Ukraine, and is considered part of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. However, it is controlled de facto by Russia,
The city is located on the site of the ancient Greece colony of Yalita ( ).
The area became famous in 1945 when the city held the Yalta Conference as part of the Allied World War II conferences of major wartime national leaders.
The term "Greater Yalta" is used to designate a part of the Crimean southern coast spanning from Foros in the west to Gurzuf in the east, and including the city of Yalta and multiple adjacent urban settlements.
History
12th–19th centuries
The existence of Yalta was recorded in the 12th century by an
Arab geographer, who described it as a
Byzantine Empire port and fishing settlement. It became part of a network of
Genoa trading colonies on the Crimean coast in the 14th century when it was known as
Etalita or
Galita. Crimea was captured by the
Ottoman Empire in 1475, which made it a semi-independent subject territory under the rule of the
Crimean Khanate but the southern coast with Yalta was under direct Ottoman rule forming the Eyalet of Kefe (
Feodosiya). Yalta was annexed by the
Russian Empire in 1783, along with the rest of Crimea, sparking the Russo-Turkish War (1787–1792). Prior to the annexation of the Crimea, the Crimean Greeks were moved to
Mariupol in 1778; one of the villages they established nearby is also called Yalta.
In the 19th century, the town became a fashionable resort for the Russian aristocracy and gentry. Leo Tolstoy spent summers there and Anton Chekhov in 1898 bought a house (the White Dacha) here, where he lived until 1902; Yalta is the setting for Chekhov's short story, "The Lady with the Dog", and such prominent plays as The Three Sisters were written in Yalta. The town was also closely associated with royalty. In 1889 Tsar Alexander III finished construction of Massandra a short distance to the north of Yalta and Nicholas II built the Livadia Palace southwest of the town in 1911.
20th century
During the 20th century, Yalta was the principal holiday resort of the
Soviet Union. In 1920,
Vladimir Lenin issued a decree "On the Use of Crimea for the Medical Treatment of the Working People" which endorsed the region's transformation from a fairly exclusive resort area into a recreation facility for tired proletarians. Numerous workers'
sanatorium were constructed in and around Yalta and the
Yalta Raion. There were, in fact, few other places that Soviet citizens could come for a seaside holiday, as foreign travel was forbidden to all but a handful. The Soviet elite also came to Yalta; the Soviet premier
Joseph Stalin used the
Massandra Palace as his summer residence.
Yalta was occupied by the Wehrmacht from 9 November 1941 to 16 April 1944.
The town came to worldwide attention in 1945 when the Yalta Conference between the "Big Three" powers – the Soviet Union, the United States and the United Kingdom – was held at the Livadia Palace.
21st century
Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Yalta has struggled economically. Many of the
nouveaux riches of ex-Soviet citizens began going to other European holiday resorts, now that they had the freedom and money to travel; conversely, the impoverishment of many ex-Soviet citizens meant that they could no longer afford to go to Yalta. The town's transport links have been significantly reduced with the end of almost all passenger traffic by sea. The longest trolleybus line in Europe goes from the train station in
Simferopol to Yalta (almost 90km). Yalta is crowded in the vacation season (July–August) and prices for accommodation are very high. Most of the tourists are from countries of the former Soviet Union; in 2013, about 12% of tourists to Crimea were Westerners from more than 200 cruise ships.
[ New York Times, For Crimea, It's Russian Troops In, Tourists Out, by Neil MacFarquhar, 24 May 2014,]
Yalta has a beautiful seafront Esplanade along the Black Sea. People can be seen strolling there all seasons of the year, and it also serves as a place to gather and talk, to see and be seen. There are several beaches to the east and west of the promenade. Many kinds of pine trees (Stone pine and Aleppo pine for example), oleander shrubs, lemon and olive trees and different sorts of palm trees such as the Chinese windmill palm, the Mexican fan palm and the Canary Island date palm are scattered all over the city. The town has several movie theaters, a drama theater, plenty of restaurants, and several open-air markets.
Two beaches in Yalta are Blue Flag beaches since May 2010, these were the first beaches (with two beaches in Yevpatoria) to be awarded a Blue Flag in a CIS member state.[ Four beaches in Crimea receive international certificates of cleanliness, Kyiv Post (12 May 2010)]
Main sights
Famous attractions within or near Yalta are:
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Yalta's Sea Promenade ( Naberezhnaya), housing many attractions, which was renovated in 2003 and 2004
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Saint Hripsime Church of Yalta, an Armenian Church, with frescoes by V. Surenyants
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A Roman Catholic Church built by Nikolay Krasnov
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Yalta's cable car, taking visitors to the Darsan hill, from which one can see Yalta's shoreline
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Renovated Hotel Taurica, the first hotel in the former Russian Empire with elevators
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Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, constructed by the architect Krasnov, who also constructed the Livadia Palace and the architect P. Terebenyov
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Former main building of the Ministry of Defence hotel, built in the style of a Gothic castle
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Palace of Bukhara Emir
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Yalta's Zoo
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Yalta's Aquarium, housing small dolphins
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Park-museum Polyana Skazok (Glade of Fairytales)
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White Dacha – House-museum of Anton Chekhov
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House-museum of Lesya Ukrainka at Lesya Ukrainka Museum
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House with Caryatids, where the composer A. Spendiarov lived
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Yalta Hotel Complex
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Roffe Bath, historical monument
Moreover, Yalta's suburbs contain:
Geography
Climate
As Yalta lies to the south of the
Yayla Mountains and within an amphitheatre of hills, the climate is mild. Köppen classifies the city as humid subtropical (
Cfa), bordering on a Mediterranean climate (Köppen climate classification:
Csa);
while the city's Trewartha class is oceanic (
Do), barely missing the criteria for humid subtropical (
Cf). In February, the average temperature reaches . Snow is infrequent and melts soon thereafter. In July, the average temperature reaches . The average annual precipitation is , most of it being concentrated in the colder months. The sun shines approximately 2,169 hours per year. Since the city is located on the shore of the
Black Sea, the weather rarely becomes extremely hot due to the cool sea breezes. The average annual temperature for Yalta is around , which makes it one of the warmest places in
Ukraine.
Demographics
As of the Ukrainian Census conducted on 1 January 2001, the population of Yalta is 80,500. The main ethnic groups of Yalta are:
Russians (65.5%),
Ukrainians (27.7%),
Belarusians (1.6%), and
Crimean Tatars (1.3%).
[ Central Statistical Office of AR Crimea , see «Ялта», column №3.] The majority of people speak Russian as their mother tongue.
This total number does not comprise the population of neighbouring villages and small towns. The metropolitan area population is about 139,500.
Twin towns – sister cities
Yalta is
Sister city with:
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Antalya, Turkey
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Baden-Baden, Germany
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Batumi, Georgia
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Eilat, Israel
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Fujisawa, Japan
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Grozny, Russia
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Kaluga, Russia
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Santa Barbara, United States
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Khachmaz, Azerbaijan
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Latakia, Syria
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Luhansk, Ukraine
-
Margate, England, United Kingdom
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Nice, France
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Pozzuoli, Italy
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Rhodes, Greece
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Salsomaggiore Terme, Italy
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Sanya, China
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Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt
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Ulan-Ude, Russia
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Vladikavkaz, Russia
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Gagra, Georgia
Notable people born in Yalta
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Oleksandr Lignau (1872–1938), Ukrainian general and first Minister of War of the Ukrainian State
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Alla Nazimova (1879–1945), Russian-American actress
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Viktor Kopp (1880–1930), Soviet diplomat of German ethnicity
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Louis Hofbauer (1889–1932), Austrian artist
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Serge Piménoff (1895–1960), French art director
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Nathalie Kovanko (1899–1967), Ukrainian actress
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Alla Horska (1929–1970), Ukrainian artist
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Antonina Rudenko (born 1950), Soviet-Ukrainian swimmer
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Nathalia Edenmont (born 1970), Ukrainian-Swedish artist
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Nika Turbina (1974–2002), Russian poet
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Julia Vakulenko (born 1983), Ukrainian tennis player
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Vera Rebrik (born 1989), Ukrainian-Russian track field athlete
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Peter Paltchik (born 1992), Ukrainian-born Israeli Olympic and European champion judoka
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Valentina Ivakhnenko (born 1993), Ukrainian-Russian tennis player
See also
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List of cities in Ukraine
Notes
External links
