Old Crimea

On the territory of the city in different places, Neolithic settlements were opened, which received eponymous names Old Crimea, Bakatash, Izyumovka in 1930 ^[7] ; Old Crimea I (1975), II (2004) ^[8] . During the excavation in the center of the city, antique ceramics from the 4th century were found BC e. - III century. n e. ^[9] These layers are overlapped by the layers of the medieval city and partly destroyed. Honorary inscription 222 AD e. in ancient Greek, found in 1895 in the Old Crimea, is evidence of a much greater age of the city than is commonly believed ^[10] . In the XI century, Armenians began to settle here, and already in the XIV century it was a major trading center with a large Armenian colony and Tatar government. According to A.L. Jacobson and B.A. Mikayelyan, the toponym Solkhat (the old name of the city) is Armenian and is derived from the Armenian word combination Surb Khach, ie “holy cross”. The city received its name from the Surb Khach monastery built near the settlement ^[11] . According to Philip Curtin ( Johns Hopkins University ) in the XIV-XV centuries, Armenians played an important role in the commercial life of the region. Crimean Armenians not only brought goods to their homeland; they also drove caravans further westward through modern-day Romania and Poland, and further to Nuremberg in Germany and Bruges in the Netherlands. Their colonies in Crimea were so large that the Genoese sometimes called Crimea Armenia maritima ^[12] .

But the emergence of the city is traditionally attributed to the XIII century, when after the Mongol conquest of the steppe Crimea became part of the Golden Horde . Shortly after the final establishment of the Horde government in the eastern part of the peninsula, the city of Kyrym was founded, which became the administrative center of the Crimean Yurt and the residence of the Emir of Crimea. A participant in the Egyptian diplomatic mission from Sultan Baybarz to the khan of the Golden Horde Berke, held in 1263, reported that Kipchaks and Alans live in the city ^[13] .

During the rule of the Golden Horde, the city had two names at the same time. The Horde people and the Kipchaks who made up the bulk of the population of the steppe Crimea called the city Kyrym, and the Italians (mostly the Genoese), who owned the southern coast of Crimea and led active trade in the region, called it Solkhat - Solcati. There are a lot of controversies about the origin of both names, but the following versions seem to be the most reasonable. Kyrym - Western Kipchak qırım - “trench, ditch” (Lazar Budagov "Comparative Dictionary of Turkic-Tatar dialects. Volume 1). Solkhat - from Italian solcata -“ furrow, ditch. ”Some historians suggest that the city was divided into two parts: the Muslim, in which the residence of the Emir was located, and the Christian, in which the Italian merchants lived, and these two parts were called Kyrym and Solkhat respectively.

The name of the city - Kyrym - soon spread to the whole peninsula, which was previously called Gazaria or Tavrika.

The heyday of the city fell on the XIV century. During this period, Solkhat was a major trading center on the Silk Road from Asia to Europe, actively growing and building. Then several mosques and madrasahs that survived to the present day were built. According to one version, the great sultan of Mamluk Egypt, Beibars , was a native of Solkhat. Becoming the ruler of Egypt, he sent generous gifts to his hometown, in particular, one of the city mosques was built at his expense.

After the Crimea gained independence from the Horde, and the Crimean Khanate was formed, the capital was moved first to Kyrk-Yer , and then to the newly built Bakhchisarai , and the city began to lose its former value. After the conquest of the Genoese colonies by the Ottomans in 1475, the name Solhat fell into disuse. At the time of the Crimean Khanate, the city began to be called Eski-Kyrym ( Crimea. Eski Qırım - “old Kyrym”). The current Russian name is tracing paper with this name.

After the annexation of the Crimea to the Russian Empire, almost the entire population of the city emigrated, and the census of 1805 recorded only 114 inhabitants in it. At the same time, the city was renamed Levkopol, but unlike other renamed cities, the new name did not stick.

During World War II as a result of the retreat of the Soviet army in the fall of 1941, Germans entered the Old Crimea ^[14] . During the retreat of the German-Romanian military on April 12-13, 1944, the city was taken to combat with the joint efforts of partisan detachments and the forces of the Red Army. The first to enter the city were the forces of the 9th separate Kerch motorized reconnaissance company. On the night of April 13, units of the Wehrmacht staged a massacre in the city, during which 584 people were killed, including 200 children ^{[15] [16]} .

In the 1960s - early 1970s, the great surgeon N. M. Amosov was treated for tuberculosis at the Starokrymsky sanatorium . Arranged in the sanatorium pulmonological surgical department. Repeatedly coming to Stary Krym for two or three months to visit his relatives, he brought his students and taught them how to treat people with tuberculosis. Repeatedly conducted operations in the sanatorium and in the Starokrymsk city hospital ^[14] .

The climate of the Old Crimea is essentially a mild mountain climate. Located at the foot of Mount Agarmysh (722.5 m) at an altitude of about 320 m above sea level ^[17] , the city received a well-deserved reputation as a very good medical place for pulmonary patients. Heating up during the day, Agarmysh creates an upward air flow in the evening, which in turn leads to the fact that air from the Black and Azov Seas and air from the steppes of the Kerch Peninsula come to Old Crimea. Mingling with the air of the powerful forest of Agarmysh and the surrounding neighborhoods, the sea air creates a unique climate of the eastern tip of the Crimean mountains.

• 1805 - 114 people. (89 Crimean Tatars, 25 Gypsies)
• 1926 - 4738 people (1897 Russians, 1183 Bulgarians, 900 Greeks, 266 Crimean Tatars, 175 Ukrainians, 84 Jews, 63 Germans)
• 1939 - 5141 people
• 1989 - 9196 people
• 2001 - 9960 people

According to the census results in the Crimean Federal District, as of October 14, 2014, the resident population of the city was 9,277 people. ^[31]

National composition

According to the 2014 census, the national composition of the city’s population was as follows: ^{[32] [33]}

Old Crimea is a historically established city ^[34] . In the planning structure and the terrain of the location of the city clearly reads its town-planning history. The primary core of the city stands out, dating back to antiquity, covered with medieval archaeological layers. It is located in the contour of the rectangle between the former cinema, the school and the Catherine Fountain. The pre-Tatar period includes the ruins of a medieval church. In its architecture can be seen two construction periods of the XII and XIV centuries. with traces of repairs. Medieval city in the XIII — XIV centuries. occupied a somewhat large area. It is now marked by the ruins of medieval buildings: mosques, caravanserai and fountains. Fountains with the development of stone quarries on the slopes of the mountain Agarmysh lost water supply.

In the new time there was a redevelopment of the city with respect to transport routes, which greatly improved the urban qualities. The central street (Ekaterininskaya) is oriented along the road Theodosia - Simferopol. In the eastern part, beyond the Georgievsk valley, there was a road to the German colony Zurichtal, to landowner estates and neighboring villages. To the north of the mountain Agarmysh went out on the old road of the XVIII century to Karasubazar. The third road, along which the buildings of Bakatashskaya Street were formed, connected the secondary Bulgarian colony Koktebel and the villages Bakatash , Imaret (village) , Barakol with the Old Crimea. The fourth road through the Bulgarian colony led to the Armenian monastery Surb Khach . Ethnocultural agglomerations of the city were formed in accordance with the compact settlement of the multinational population.

Russian building of the XIX century occupied the main street and the streets adjacent to it. Residential buildings are single-storey, respectable. They were built of limestone-limestone from the Ak-Monai deposit on the Kerch Peninsula. Surrounded by gardens on large courtyards. In the lower historical part of the city, a small palace and a fountain were built on the square for the Crimean journey of Empress Catherine II in 1787. Later, a cathedral was built near this square. In recent times, the cathedral and cemetery were destroyed, the fountain was damaged.

The Tatar part of the city traditionally occupied the northeastern part of the city in the area of ​​Mechetnaya (Khalturin) street. A characteristic feature of the Tatar house-building is represented by small houses with two rooms, separated by a hall, which in winter serves as a kitchen. Clay floor. The walls are made of kalyb ( samana ). Roof gable, without ceilings. Roof tile, as in all buildings of the Old Crimea.

The south-eastern side, behind Bakatashskaya (Partizanskaya) street, was occupied by the Greeks. The houses are small, one- or two-story, built of Akmonai stone. The most representative was the building of the Greek school.

The territory between the three parts mentioned was occupied by Armenians without clearly expressed resettlement, towards the Russian part of the city. Partly the Armenian settlement is marked by the medieval church in its second construction period and the place where the Armenian church with the church cemetery stood at the city market, destroyed in the 60s of the XX century. Domostroenie from the Russian did not differ anything.

The western part of the city represented the dacha building. The most interesting buildings were the dachas of artist S. N. Dolgopolov, poetess N. A. Verzhkhovetskaya and K. Umanskaya. Cottage last, surrounded by pines and a vineyard, was a guesthouse for pulmonary patients. Nearby was the later constructed solarium of Dr. Nania for the rehabilitation of weakened people in unfavorable climatic zones of the country. Other remarkable buildings were residential houses of wealthy citizens or summer cottages owned by residents of Moscow and St. Petersburg. The dacha district was limited to the 1st Bulgarian street (the later names are Voroshilov Street, Lesnaya Street). The buildings were designed in the Art Nouveau style, the Pseudo-Moorish style and in the style of provincial classicism. Oriental nuances were elements of eclecticism. These buildings had historical and architectural value, but due to improper operation they were greatly modified ^[35] . To the north of this region, at the foot of Mount Agarmysh, in 1915, cottages of a small sanatorium were built, destroyed by invaders during World War II.

To the west of 2nd Bulgarian Street (April 13, 1944) was the Starokrym Bulgarian colony (Bulgarian) with picturesque, typical for the Bulgarians, houses, a church, a school and five constantly flowing fountains for water supply. Next to the church was a square for fairs. The cemetery was located at some distance to the northeast of the colony. Two-three-bedroom houses, built of kalyb and covered with tiles - "Tatarka." The entrance to the house is through an open terrace. To the right of the terrace is the entrance to the basement for food storage. A barn and a cattle shed adjoined the house. ^[36] .

The main sights of the city are the buildings of the XIII - XIV centuries , when Kyrym was the center of the Crimean Yurt. The current mosque of Khan Uzbek has been well preserved to our days. Nearby are the ruins of the Beibars mosque, which is considered the most ancient mosque in the Crimea, the ruins of the Church of St. John the Baptist . In the eastern part of the city are the ruins of the mint, the caravanserai and the Kurshum-Jami mosque. The Armenian monastery Surb Khach (Holy Cross) of the XIV century is located 5 kilometers south-west of Old Crimea. Today it is a functioning monastery of the Armenian Apostolic Church . There, above the tract are the ruins of another Armenian monastery - Surb Stepanos ( St. Stephen ).

On the territory of the literary museum is the Catherine's Mile , one of the five surviving in the Crimea.

Many famous figures of Russian culture are buried in the city ​​cemetery , the most famous is the grave of the writer Alexander Green ^[37] .

To the south of the city is the source of the Holy Great Martyr Panteleimon the Healer with the chapel of the same name. The chapel was rebuilt in 2001 on the site of the burned down in 1949.

At the end of Partizanskaya Street, “ Green Road ” begins, which is very popular among tourists. In 1931, Alexander Green went on it to Koktebel to visit Voloshin . Many famous people traveled along this road: Voloshin, Tsvetaev sisters, Efron , Zabolotskaya .

On the mountain Agarmysh there are karst caves, in the Monastery gully there are waterfalls.

In the city are:

• literary-memorial house-museum of Alexander Green ;
• literary-memorial house-museum of Konstantin Paustovsky ;
• ethnographic museum dedicated to the culture of the Crimean Tatar people ;
• literary and art museum ;
• museum exposition in the monastery of Surb Khach - dedicated to the history of the monastery;
• Museum of the Old Crimean sanatorium ;
• Museum of the school-gymnasium № 1
• The Museum of History and Archeology is a branch of the Republican Crimean-Tatar Museum of Cultural and Historical Heritage , opened in 2018, and to which, in 2019, about 15,000 medieval artifacts of the Golden Horde period found during archeological excavations on the peninsula were transferred, many of which are unique, existing in a single copy ^[38] .

• In the north-west of the city is the mountain range Agarmysh (722.5 m above sea level);
• In the south, the Tuar-Alan Range (the highest point is 748.2 m above sea level);
• In the east, the Kara-Oba barrow (333.9 m above sea level).

• "BytService"
• Starokrymsky concrete products plant does not exist
• MP "BIOTsENTR"
• Starokrymsky bakery does not exist
• Starokrym garment factory does not exist
• Private Joint Stock Company "Career Starokrymsky"
• Starokrymsky GLOKH (forestry)
• Starokrymskaya food factory
• Starokrymsky Sports Technical Club OSOU (DOSAAF)
• LLC "Cabinet"

The road P23 Simferopol - Theodosia passes through the Old Crimea.

• Amosov, Nikolai Mikhailovich - a doctor, academician, organized in the Starokrymsky sanatorium pulmonological surgery department.
• Andrei Bely , a poet and writer, was in the Old Crimean sanatorium in 1933, together with O. E. Mandelstam.
• Bertier-Delaguard, Alexander Lvovich - historian, archeologist, solkhat architecture researcher
• Bogdanovich, Maxim Adamovich - Belarusian poet, came for treatment for tuberculosis.
• Budyonny, Semen Mikhailovich - conquered the city from the White Guards. He spoke at a city rally in honor of the conquest of the city.
• Gagarin, Tatiana Alekseevna - sculptor, author of the monument on the grave of A. S. Green
• Galadzhev, Peter Stepanovich - filmmaker, actor and artist. Born in the Old Crimea.
• Green, Alexander Stepanovich - a writer, spent the last years of his life and died in the Old Crimea
• Drunina, Yuliya Vladimirovna - Soviet poet, buried in the Old Crimea
• Catherine II - visited the Old Crimea during her famous journey from St. Petersburg to the Crimea .
• Zhelyabov, Andrei Ivanovich - Russian revolutionary populist. As a tutor Sophia Perovskoy also lived in the Old Crimea.
• Ivanov, Mikhail Matveyevich (1748–1843) - Russian artist. He depicted the views of the Crimea, made a series of watercolors in the Old Crimea.
• Kapler, Alexey Yakovlevich - Soviet film director, screenwriter, actor, buried in the Old Crimea.
• Köppen, Peter I. - Academician, bibliographer, ethnographer. Explorer of all former city names.
• Krachkovsky Ignaty Yulianovich - academician, Arabist visited the Old Crimea with a scientific purpose in 1924 and 1929.
• Kulakovsky, Julian Andreevich - Russian historian and archeologist. To study the antiquities visited the Old Crimea.
• Mamai , the ruler of the Kiyat Crimean Ulus, beklari-bek of the western wing of the Golden Horde in the 1360-1370-ies. His headquarters was located in the city of Solkhat (Old Crimea), where he was killed by order of the Khan of the Golden Horde Tokhtamysh at the end of 1380 and the beginning of 1381. He was also buried there on the outskirts of the city.
• Mandelstam, Osip Emilievich - in 1933 he spent almost all summer visiting Nina Green
• Marks, Nikandr Alexandrovich - Lieutenant-General of the Russian Army. Published in 1913, the three legends "Legends of Crimea", which included the legends recorded in the Old Crimea.
• Mednikov, Nikolai Aleksandrovich - Russian Arabist. He died in the Old Crimea in 1918.
• Narovchat, Sergey Sergeevich - Soviet poet.
• Oseeva, Valentina Aleksandrovna - Russian children's writer, lived in Izyumovka near Old Crimea.
• October, Philip Sergeevich - Admiral. He lived at the cottage in the Old Crimea in 1951-1957.
• Okhotnikov, Vadim Dmitrievich - inventor of Russian sound film, science fiction writer. He died and was buried in the Old Crimea in 1964.
• Paustovsky, Konstantin Georgievich - a writer, from time to time he lived in the Old Crimea.
• Perventsev, Arkady Alekseevich - writer, war correspondent. In 1944 he was in the Old Crimea. The events of the war and the actions of the partisans reflected in the novel Honor from His Youth (1948).
• Perovskaya, Sophia Lvovna - known terrorist. Periodically lived in the Old Crimea, in the estate of his mother.
• Petnikov, Grigory Nikolayevich - a poet, died and was buried in the Old Crimea in 1971 .
• Stamov, Gavriil Dmitrievich - chairman of the Starokrymsky district executive committee.
• Stamov, Vasily Gavrilovich - Leningrad sculptor. He lived and studied in the Old Crimea since 1921.
• Leonid Ivanovich Tkachenko - Honored Trainer of the Ukrainian SSR. Born in the Old Crimea in 1953.

Filmography of Old Crimea

• The film "In the sky" Night Witches "" Directed by: Evgenia Zhigulenko. Year of release: 1981
• The film "9 Company". Directed by F. Bondarchuk. Year of release: 2005
  • Scenes associated with the protection of "high-rise" were filmed in 2004 on Mount Lysy Agarmysh
• The film "Inhabited Island". Directed by F. Bondarchuk. Year of release: 2008
  • Part of the scenes was filmed on Lysy Agarmysh and Sary-Kai.
• The series “Death to Spies. Crimea ” Director Anna Gres. Year of release: 2008
  • Old Crimea "played" the role of the resort village of Koktebel, where half a century ago it was not possible to find the natures.

• Altunin, Alexander Terent'evich (07.19.1978) - Hero of the Soviet Union. Army General.

• Crimea Old // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron : 86 t. (82 t. And 4 extra.). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Dombrovsky OI, Sidorenko V.A. Solkhat and Surb-Khach. Simferopol, 1978.
• Zabolotsky P.N. Essays on the prehistoric past of the Crimea. Traces of the Stone Age in the South-Eastern Crimea // Collection of articles on the economy, life and history of Theodosia district. Issue 1. Theodosia, 1931.
• The body of the Bosporus inscriptions (KBN). M. - L., 1965, № 953.

• Solkhat and Surb Khach popular science essay (Neopr.) . Archived November 29, 2012.
• Site dedicated to the Old Crimea (Unsolved) . Archived December 1, 2012.
• Armenians of medieval Surkhat and their churches (Neopr.) . Archived December 1, 2012.