Swallow’s Nest Castle

“Swallow’s Nest” is a castle, built in the late XIX century near Yalta, in the South of Crimea. Situated on the steep cliff right over the sea, it has become the symbol of the South coast of Crimea and one of the most exciting tourist’s destination.
The first building on the Aurora Cliff was constructed for a Russian general circa 1895. The first structure he built was a wooden cottage romantically named the "Love Castle”. Later on, the ownership of the cottage passed to A. K. Tobin, a court doctor to the Russian Tsar.
How did a wooden summer residence turn into a beautiful castle? The new owner of the rock, oil magnate baron von Steingel decided to build a more refined structure. In 1910 architect Vsevolod Sherwood came to Crimea on his honeymoon. The baron, who dreamed about a nook of the Rhine by the Black Sea, asked the architect for a concept suitable for a romantic castle. Sherwood was captivated by this work and, as soon as 1912, the castle was ready and waiting for baron von Steingel.

The architect managed the impossible: Swallow’s Nest is monumental and at the same time elegant, majestic and weightless. It is beloved by tourists, enjoys an incredible “stardom” and has even achieved the status of icon of Crimean peninsula.
Having reached the castle, you realise that it is actually very small as palaces go: it is 12 metres high, the base is 10 by 20 metres, there are only two floors, just a few rooms (hall, living-room, two bedrooms, now converted into an Italian restaurant). It is hard to believe that the palace once was surrounded by a garden: during the great earthquake of 1927, the part of the rock where trees were planted fell into the sea. Since this disaster 80 years ago, part of the balustrade of Swallow’s Nest has been hanging over the sea without a foundation. It is both a scary and exciting sight!
Though the palace itself was damaged very little, it became necessary to save it from sliding into the sea. There were several rescue projects. One of them would have had the castle dismantled and all its stones numbered and then re-assembled again as far as possible from cliffs and abysses. Fortunately, this idea was not implemented. Renovation and restoration on the building was started in 1968 by the employees of a construction company from Yalta. The project involved the restoration of a small portion of the castle and the addition of a monolithic console concrete plate to strengthen the cliff. Since 1975, an Italian restaurant has operated within the building.