Crimea
A cutesy hunting lodge built to resemble a French chateau, the turreted palace was completed by Tsar Alexander III in 1889. It's better known, however,…
Must-see attractions in Ukraine
Crimea
Ten years ago Crimean Tatar handicrafts were on the verge of extinction, but Ayshe Osmanova resolved to rescue her people's culture from the precipice…
Eastern Ukraine
The new and much lauded contemporary art space occupies a former electric insulator factory standing at the foot of a particularly picturesque slag heap…
Crimea
Eight hundred metres from the Adzhimushkay Defence Museum, there is a monument from a completely different epoch. This empty, 4th-century-BC burial mound…
Crimea
With the cacophony of tourist agents touting their services through loudspeakers, along with terrible music, junk-food smells and a train line right on…
Crimea
Built in 1552, the landmark mosque is attributed to Mimar Sinan, the architect of Istanbul's famous Blue Mosque. Although not in Backhysaray, it was…
Crimea
The town's quirkiest sight lurks across the bay from the main promenade. The concrete opening in the harbour wall is the mouth of a natural underwater…
Crimea
Small and almost literally down to earth, the town's main Armenian church was built in 1363. Its walls are adorned with numerous khachkar – stone plaques…
Crimea
The forested Iosofatova Valley beneath the Chufut-Kale plateau hides a breathtaking and spooky sight. Thousands of moss-covered gravestones covered in…
Crimea
The beautiful whitewashed colonnaded complex became the main place of worship for Karaites in the aftermath of the Russian takeover of Crimea, when they…
Crimea
Early 20th-century travel guides to Crimea still touted dervishes whirling in a breathtaking shamanic dance as one of the peninsula's main attractions,…
Eastern Ukraine
Believe it or not, for many years the sci-fi sounding terrikony – slag heaps – were the city's main attraction. 'They change their colour depending on…
Eastern Ukraine
On top of a forested hill, the 27m monument of local Bolshevik leader Artyom was designed in an unusual Cubist style by Ivan Kavaleridze, who created some…
Crimea
On the coastal road in Miskhor, behind a little cluster of market stalls, is the cable car up the cliff of Mt Ay-Petri. It's a truly dizzying ride across…
Crimea
Stop for a moment and say 'aah!' at possibly the cutest little church in a country absolutely jam-packed with them. Part of the small Uspensky Monastery,…
Crimea
Tired of being a local celebrity in Yalta, Chekhov sought refuge in this little Tatar farmhouse tucked in a solitary cove under the Genovese Cliff. The…
Crimea
The site where Crimean Tatar khans originally settled in Bakhchysaray now consists of a modest museum, ruins of a public bath, a mausoleum where 18…
Crimea
The first thing to do in Kerch is to take the 432 stairs up the central Mithridates Hill. The view from the summit is brilliant, and on the lee side the…
Crimea
Born in 1817, the most celebrated son of Feodosiya and of its Armenian community, Ivan Ayvazovsky became the official painter of the Russian Navy,…
Crimea
Poet Maximilian Voloshin came to live on this bay beneath the anthropomorphic shapes of the Kara-Dag mountains (which his friends claimed looked like him)…
Kara-Dag Nature Reserve Bio-station
Crimea
The Kara-Dag Nature Reserve bio-station is on the outskirts of Kurortne hamlet. Anyone is free to visit the aquarium, dolphinarium and botanic gardens,…
Crimea
All that remains of the 15th-century Genovese fortress are three semi-ruined towers on top of a strategic hill, guarding the mouth of the harbour. But the…
Crimea
Not nearly as spectacular as its Sudak counterpart, and neglected by the authorities, this is still a beautifully melancholic place where you can get away…
Crimea
Once the heart of a thriving Jewish community, this synagogue was closed by the Bolsheviks, then pretty much all the Crimean Jews were exterminated by the…
Crimea
In the naval museum you can breach the huge nuclear-blast-proof doors and wander some of the 600m of the former repair docks, mess rooms and thankfully…
Panorama of Sevastopol's Defence
Sevastopol
The focus of Sevastopol's wartime memories, this is a circular building, its inner wall covered in a mammoth-sized painting. Supplemented with 3D props,…
Eastern Ukraine
You can visit the mine all year round. From Artemivsk take a taxi or a 'Soledar' marshrutka from the bus station (35 minutes) and ask for the shakhta …
Sevastopol
Full of ship models and Crimean War snippets, this small museum is visually impressive, even though all inscriptions are in Russian. The upper-floor…
Crimea
Hardly any bus station in the world can boast a Scythian burial mound on the premises, but there is one in Kerch. Much smaller than Tsarsky Kurgan, it was…
Crimea
The Ottoman-style Dacha Stamboli was once home to a wealthy tobacco merchant, the building’s exterior is a trifle weather-beaten, but its ornate restored…
Crimea
Apart from an excellent cafe, the restored gates of the medieval Gezlev (Yevpatoriya's Turkish name) house a small museum with a new, skillfully created…
Sevastopol
The Eagle Column commemorates Russian ships deliberately scuppered at the mouth of the harbour in 1854 to make it impossible for enemy ships to pass.
Crimea
The dacha of the Duc de Richelieu, governor of Odesa (1803–14), today houses the Pushkin in Crimea Museum, a history museum.
Eastern Ukraine
The masses gather to watch Shakhtar’s away matches on a giant screen near the Lenin Statue in the centre of town.
Crimea
The restored 16th-century mosque dates back to the Tatar town of Ak-Mechet (White Mosque), a predecessor of Simferopol.
Crimea
A beautiful piece of neo-Byzantine architecture with fantastic detailing.
