Sevastopol

Sevastopol in the Crimea

At least I managed to get from Slavyansk na Kubani to Sevastopol and survive. I had tried booking on line but there were no coaches listed and I checked time tables and there were no timetables for that route so naturally panic set in. The hotel staff didn't speak English and I hadn't researched my Russian to ask them.

After an hour in the bar next door to get wifi and practice my new Russian words, I went to the bus station and bought a ticket. I wanted to go in the morning so that I could cross the new bridge connecting the Russian mainland to Crimea in daylight. However I had a choice of just one coach in the late afternoon so I was crossing at dusk but at east I had seen it and been over it and I resisted the temptation to take a photo.

Next day I had a tour of Sevastopol.I took the ferry to the far side of the harbour, passing the Monument to the Sunken Ships. It is an Imperial Eagle standing on top of a column. It was erected in 1905 as part of the 50th anniversary celebrations of the siege of Sevastopol during the Crimean Wars to remember the dozen or so ships that the Russian lost from their Black Sea fleet in the harbour.

The Konstantinoskaya Battery at the mouth of the harbour. I never got a better shot of the seaward side of the defences and I was trying to avoid any shot of the military base just out of shot to the right.

And this is what they were trying to protect, a huge and long deep water harbour surrounded by hills for protection from weather and enemy approached from land. It was the base for the Imperial Black Sea Navy.

The mouth of the harbour seen from the battery.

Inside the battery at ground level.

Looking back at the entrance to the battery from inside.

A detail of the monument in the centre of the square.

Inside one of the double stacked artillery positions, now a well presented museum on the inside portion of the gun position.

What the inside portion might have looked like at the time of the Crimea battles. Note the giant metal oven on the right used to warm the positions.

How the firing position would have looked like.

The bridge of land connecting the well renovated battery to the mainland was only lightly protected during the Crimea War but was heavily built up with concrete gun emplacements by the Russians in preparation for the German offensive during the 1941 offensive and suffered badly, then upgraded by the Germans only to be destroyed agin by the Russians as they liberated the Crimea from the Germans. It has yet to receive any renovation but there is work taking place so come and see it next year.

Just a little further into the harbour on the same side as the Konstantinovskaya Battery is another massive supporting gun emplacement, the Mikhailovska Battery, a view from the seaward side from the ferry.

A detailed view from the far end.

As with most war time historical sites, there are a few guns on show like these anti aircraft guns.

And this tank which they didn't have time to put on the armour before sending it into battle.

The outside of Mikhailoskay battery, the landward side showing bond damage as this monument has yet to receive funds to renovate it to the same standard as the Konstantinoskaya.

The inside of the defence.

How one of the double stacked defences may have looked like during the Crimea War, partly obscured by the oven on the right.

How the crews may lived opposite their gun.

A view down the gallery linking this battery of twenty guns with an oven between each one, so it must have been quite cosy down here. I wondered how it smelt?

Then it was time to return to the south side of the harbour and there are some wonderful sights to see on the embankments.

And another palatial building.

The theatre.

Yet another monument but there are not as many as Murmansk!

Guess what? Another war monument with an eternal flame to those that fought in the Crimean battles.

A statue of Admiral Pavel Nakhimov, commander of naval and land forces during the Siege of Sevastopol during the Crimea War. He was a brilliant commander and had defeated a Turkish fleet at Sinope with a much inferior force in 1853 and became the overall command on the defences in Sevastopol against a superior foe.

He held out from October 1854 fighting several memorable battles and commanded until killed by a sniper in July 1855. The city fell just a few weeks later to allied forces in September 1855.

 The Museum of the History of the Black Sea Fleet.

 Inside the museum. It has a lot of great displays of models, photographs, uniforms, guns, paraphernalia, gifts, medals and the like, all of which are great if you like that thing and also not so large in case you don't like that stuff but I was more fascinated with the architecture.

 Just a short walk away is an underground museum, one of several but this one I was barred entry...but there are others.

 The Panorama Museum of the Defence of the City of Sevastopol, a great building from the outside and situated on some heights above the city but the other attractions, statue of `tolstoy, the 4th Battery, the memorial and the actual 38th Battery and some other sights were all closed due to renovations.

 Inside is a panorama of the siege of Sevastopol during the Crimea War. It is very realistic and was badly damaged during the Great Patriotic War by the Germans and they claim to be the biggest panorama but Volgograd claimed that it was the largest just a couple of weeks before so some checking will need to be done. I didn't realise that there were so many claims to something that I had never really been that much interested in!

But the effects are very realistic. Several scenes of the battle from the viewing gallery.

 And of course no tour is complete with going past the local cathedral, although this one was so enclosed by other buildings it was difficult to get a distance shot of it at all.