The castle of the Prince of Oldenburg was built when. Palace of the Prince of Oldenburg: a dream of an ideal world

The park of Prince of Oldenburg has already a century of history - it was created in 1902 in Gagra. Initially, it was not so big, but over time, plants from different corners peace. The Prince of Oldenburg himself dealt with the importation of new plants, birds and animals - but he lacked knowledge of biology and botany: many of them simply did not take root. In Soviet times, the park became an excellent example of park architecture - the best landscape designers of the country worked on this for a long time. Today, more than a thousand plants grow here, most of which are evergreen. Often this place is called Seaside Park, as it is located almost on the coast.

How to get there?

The easiest way is to use the services of a fixed-route taxi. The park is located near the final stop - leaving the minibus, you immediately find yourself in the right place. The cost of the trip is 30-60 rubles. You can also get there by car or taxi - the average cost of this service is 150 rubles. Nearby is located railway stop"Abaata".

• The park of the Prince of Oldenburg covers an area of ​​about 14 hectares. Plants grow here canary islands, China, South America, Africa, Syria and other parts of the world.
• The park was visited by interesting and important personalities. In 1912, Nicholas II visited here along with his daughters and high-ranking guests. In Soviet times, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Igor Severyanin, Maxim Gorky, Vladimir Vysotsky and other creative personalities shared their creativity on the stage of the park.
• In Soviet times, films were shot here - "Jolly Fellows", "Duel", "Star of Captivating Happiness".
• At the junction of the park and Primorskaya Alley, created after the laying of the park, there is an openwork colonnade built in the 50s of the last century.

• Combine a walk in the park with a visit to the Castle of the Prince of Oldenburg - the emotions you get will last for a long time!
• Among all the plants in the park, date and coconut palms, Himalayan cedars, agave and a candy tree deserve special attention - but do not think that you will find sweets on the last one!

Address: Prince of Oldenburg Castle, Old Gagra, Gagra, Abkhazia. Coordinates: 43.325583; 40.225367.

Gagra was founded by Alexander Petrovich of Oldenburg, who was a prince and a member of the imperial house. During his travels in the Caucasus, he fell in love with Abkhazia for its warm and mild climate. Oldenburg also decided that this area is perfect for creating a Black Sea resort town. He sought to establish a worldwide famous resort, which, according to glory, was supposed to "catch up" with Nice. Quite quickly, Gagra became a resting place for representatives of the Romanov dynasty, their closest relatives and close associates. The local climate was used to treat many diseases, including respiratory ailments - this was also facilitated by the fact that, by order of the prince, eucalyptus trees were planted here. The microparticles emitted by the trees, in combination with the sea air, favorably influenced the healing of the whole organism, especially the respiratory organs. Eucalyptus also helped to dry up the swampy area where Gagra and Primorsky Park were built.

The history of the construction of the castle

For his family, the prince ordered the construction of a castle. The construction work was supervised by the architect I. Lucernsky. He had great knowledge in architecture and was open to new trends in this area. As a result, for the implementation of the project for the construction of the castle complex, the specialist chose a completely new at that time Art Nouveau style. Thanks to this, the original palace was built, which has a red tiled roof, where the chimneys can be seen. The facades are decorated with balconies and a tower where the Prince of Oldenburg constantly sat. The palace is located in a very beautiful area known as Old Gagra. The architect managed to enhance the effect of the building by erecting it on a mountain, near the Joekvara river flows into the sea.
The castle belonged to the family before the advent of Soviet power, after which it was subject to nationalization. The same fate befell climatic resort, which became the territory of the health resort "Seagull" (another name for the "name of Stalin"). The elite of the communist party rested in the sanatorium. For such a long time, only cosmetic repairs have been carried out here. After the collapse Soviet Union The health resort lost its importance, vacationers stopped coming here, so the castle began to gradually fall into disrepair, and the area around it fell into disrepair.
The war of the early 1990s also had a negative effect on the sights. between Georgia and Abkhazia. Military operations were carried out in this area constantly, so the soldiers of both armies plundered the former residence of the prince several times. The building was partially burned due to shrapnel shells and fires. Now the castle of Prince Oldenburg is just a sad monument to a bygone era. Tiles are gradually crumbling from the roof, beautiful stained-glass windows have been broken for many years, the walls are painted, and the paint on them has faded and peeled off. The internal situation has also changed a lot since the last party officials left there.

Infrastructure around the castle

Other important objects were built not far from the imperial building. So, thanks to the efforts and financial support of the prince, a telegraph, lighting, water supply and a technical school, called subtropical, appeared in Gagra. A little later, the opening of a climatic station took place, the place for which was chosen the restaurant "Gagripsh".

tourist features attractions

All these buildings from the beginning of the 20th century are monuments and important tourist sites, open to visitors at any time of the year. They are able to tell about the history of the formation and development of the city, the role of the Oldenburg family in its appearance. Unfortunately, the prince's castle does not enjoy such tourist fame, although it is quite an attractive place to visit. In many tour agencies, tourists and guests of Gagra are asked to show them the complex, the roof and tower of which peek out from behind the trees. But excursions here are prohibited due to the accident rate of the building.

Prince of Oldenburg stood, thinking, over the pond of the Gagra park,
like Peter over the waters of the Baltic Sea. He stood, leaning slightly on a stick
huge, still lean, despite his age, body.
Alexander Petrovich was out of sorts. With Vita, together with the adjutant, in
number of six people, standing side by side on a long and wide, like
Petersburg Prospekt, park alley, with her whole pose expressed readiness
to rush to carry out any of his orders, as well as to scatter at all
side...

Fazil Iskander. "Sandro from Chegem"

The Prince's Plan

More than a century ago, a member of the Russian imperial family, Prince of Oldenburg, fascinated by the beauty and climate of the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus, set about to equip these places in order to make them as popular with the Russian aristocracy as French Nice. The idea was almost a success, the prince even built himself a castle in the mountains, but soon a revolution broke out ... However, first things first.

Oldenburgsky Alexander Petrovich
1844 - 1932

The history of the Gagra resort

The authentically known history of Gagra begins for us in the 2nd century BC. In those distant times, there was the city of Triglyph, founded by Greek merchants who colonized these shores in search of new lands and new treasures. Then he bore the Roman name Nitika, then the Byzantine Trachea, later Kakara and Hackers, the Venetian Contesi ("harbor") and Kakura, the Persian Derbent ("iron gate") and the Turkish Badalag (" high mountain"). As you can see, this place seemed to everyone to be a tasty morsel, although by the time it was Russia's turn to raise its flag here, the coast turned out to be completely swampy. Malaria raged here so that A. A. Bestuzhev-Marlinsky, exiled to the Caucasus called Gagra “a coffin for the Russian garrison.” However, happy times also came in the Russian history of Gagra.

The resort perspective of the Black Sea coast at the end of the 19th century. interested in the Russian government. There were no seaside resorts in Russia at that time. The Russian nobility went to Europe for treatment and vacations - to the Cote d'Azur in France, to Italian beauties, to Germany - "to the waters". Finally, hands reached their own shores, beauties and mineral springs. A special commission examined the entire Black Sea coast and decided: it is better not to find Gagra, this is where the Russian Nice will be. What to be surprised about: Gagra is the warmest place in the European part of the Empire, the average annual temperature is 15-17 degrees. And this despite the fact that the Alpine peaks come close to the sea in order to combine with the coastal warmth to create a unique microclimate.

And here Gagra was lucky for the second time - by the royal decree of January 9, 1901, Alexander Petrovich Oldenburg was entrusted with the construction of the climatic station.

Prince of Oldenburg, a descendant of the younger branch of the Dukes of Holstein-Gottorp, who were closely related to Peter III and Catherine II, was also the great-grandson of Paul I by his grandmother Grand Duchess Catherine Pavlovna. He received a military education, served in the Life Guards Preobrazhensky Regiment, fought in the Russian-Turkish war of 1877 - 1878, participated in the siege of Plevna. From 1896 he was a member of the State Council and a senator.

The unselfishness and energy of the prince became proverbial. However, the conservative Russian society did not particularly favor him - he was known as an eccentric, moreover, active and therefore dangerous. His undertakings were perceived as too bold and unworthy of an aristocrat. The prince was known as a fan of progress, paid much attention to supporting science and charitable institutions, was personally acquainted with famous scientists and doctors, including Louis Pasteur.

Together with his wife Evgenia Maximilianovna, daughter of the Duke of Leuchtenberg and Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna, he created the Women's Paramedic Courses, opened a Vaccination Station at his own expense.

In 1888-1890, at the Holy Trinity community of sisters of mercy, which had been under his care since 1881, he created the Institute of Experimental Medicine - the first Russian research center in the field of medicine and biology.

The prince worked tirelessly himself and did not let others down, especially despising laziness and drunkenness - he was even the Chairman of the Russian Sobriety Society. And now, when a person was needed who would take on the work of transforming the backyards of the Empire, they remembered Alexander Petrovich. At the same time, evil tongues gossiped, this appointment saved the capital from the annoying reformer, who disturbed the court and shocked the royal family with his undertakings. The prince did not refuse.

The day of the beginning of the construction of the climatic station (the so-called new resort) in Gagra is considered October 14, 1901 (according to the old style). More than 7 million rubles were allocated from the treasury for this.

The prince took up a new business with all his energy and enterprise, so that after 2 years the official opening ceremony of the Gagra climatic station took place. Telegraph, telephone, electric lighting, water supply appeared in Gagra. The cares of the prince were directed to the establishment of a high-society resort here, which in time could compete with European ones. He was not turned away by the idea of ​​making Gagra a Russian Monte Carlo, so that the gold, which was lowered by gambling Russian travelers, would remain in the country.

He built a palace and a hydropathic center on the seashore, villas and mansions, hotels and restaurants, paved the way to the mountains - to the "Alpine Gagra", laid the magnificent Primorsky Park, striking with rare species of exotic ornamental plants. Here, date palms from the Canary Islands grew on 14 hectares, fan palms from China, coconuts from South America; Syrian mallows, American magnolias, Himalayan cedars, agaves, chamerops, lemon and orange trees, cypresses and God knows what else. Swans glided over the surface of the pools, iridescent peacocks roamed the alleys. An original system of park ponds was created - an alternation of small and large ponds, interconnected by streams.

Opposite the park stood (and still rises) the restaurant "Gagripsh" - the emblem of the city. By order of the prince, it was built in Norway from Norwegian pine and brought to Gagra in disassembled form in 1902. On the stage of this building, assembled without a single nail, F. Chaliapin performed, A. Chekhov, M. Gorky, I. Bunin visited here.

Alexander Petrovich did not remain the only influential Gagra patriot for long. Very soon, other smart people also believed in the New Riviera. At the beginning of the 20th century, the construction of dachas and mansions began in Gagra. Little by little, the Russian nobility began to come here, to the newfangled resort, and in 1911 the resort solemnly received the long-awaited foreign guests - German tourists.

As they say, a city does not stand without a righteous man. Everything here was controlled by the restless eye of the restless Prince of Oldenburg. Alexander Petrovich traveled daily around the resort in his Mercedes, zealously followed discipline and order, delved into all matters, large or small. His car with a horn that emitted a cock's cry (so as not to disturb the harmony of nature) could be found everywhere. Wanting to give the resort a local flavor, he ordered the names of boarding houses and dachas to use Abkhaz toponymy. Oldenburgsky paid special attention to supplying the resort with food, vegetables, fruits, and grapes. For this, land was created on the estates of the prince himself - "Otradnoye", his wife Princess Evgenia Maximilianovna, Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich, merchant Igumenov on Pitsunda. Gagra became the Prince's favorite brainchild, his dream, his earthly paradise. It seems that he was happy here with the labors and successes of the work of his own hands. In any case, he succeeded.

It seemed that the future of Gagra as a luxury resort was assured. But great upheavals awaited the Empire, and along with it the lines of fate of all its parts broke.

In 1914 the First World War began. The Russians were not up to the resorts, and the Prince was recalled to St. Petersburg and made the Supreme Head of the sanitary and evacuation unit. Here, too, he showed himself to be an outstanding organizer - he managed to combine the efforts of various departments and authorities to prevent epidemiological diseases and brilliantly organized the evacuation of the wounded from the army to the interior provinces. During the "Great Retreat" he was able to extremely clearly organize the transportation and accommodation of refugees.

Alexander Petrovich did not return to Gagra. After the February Revolution in March 1917, he was forced to sell his palace on the banks of the Neva to the Provisional Government and, shortly before the October Revolution, he left for Finland. Then he moved with his family to France. Didn't sit idle. He was engaged in charitable work, was elected Honorary Chairman of the Union of Transfiguration. Under the pseudonym "Peter Alexandrov" he published in Paris a small book of his stories "Dream" (about the "golden" people's hearts, suddenly seeing the light after the intoxication of the revolution and passionately surrendering to Christ"). He died on September 6, 1932 in Biarritz, on Cote d'Azur- away from its coast and its Riviera.

And the world he built continued to live. Immediately after the establishment of Soviet power in Abkhazia, Gagra was declared a resort of national importance. All palaces, boarding houses, hotels were nationalized. By the 1930s, the resort began to function year-round. In the same years, a resort polyclinic, a hydropathic clinic were opened here, and for the first time in Abkhazia a medical beach was organized. In 1933 a new spa boom begins. In Gagra, several new sanatoriums and rest houses are being built at once - "Ukraine", named after Chelyuskintsev, "Mayak", a rest house of the Writers' Union, a rest house named after the 17th Party Congress, etc. - good money is allocated for the improvement of the resort. The Soviet nobility and - in the form of encouragement - ordinary workers stretched to the south. However, the new war again took away the habit of rest from the Soviet people for a long time.

Thank God, nothing in the world is eternal, even bad times end. Gagra was waiting for a new flowering. The 50s brought a revival to these places. Sanatoriums "Gagra", "Oilman", "Armenia" and a children's sanatorium were built. The resort gradually grew and became accessible not only to the elite, but also to the rest - on trade union vouchers. The next two decades made it truly popular: new sanatoriums, a spa hydropathic, a balneary were built; in 1962, mineral thermal sulfate-calcium-magnesium water was brought to the surface of the earth, and an invasion of vacationers from all over the country began. 500,000 people a year, including savages!

Gagra and its environs have turned into a flourishing area - of course, by Soviet standards, and not in the way that Alexander Petrovich Oldenburg imagined: no luxury, no frills, everything is modest and cramped, as befits a Soviet unspoiled vacationer. But everyone equally got the luxury of nature, sun, sea, mountains, generous - irrevocable by any government decrees! - flowering and exotic beauty.

By the 1990s, Gagra was spread over a narrow strip along the seashore for 7 km. This is a continuous subtropical park with fountains, ponds, alleys of evergreens. The area of ​​Old Gagra is especially beautiful, where a fabulous view of the mountains, gorges and the bay opens from the seashore. The image of the city was complemented by the Soviet resort style of the 50s, including the famous Gagra colonnade, built in 1951. Behind the colonnade begins the magnificent city embankment of 1949, decorated with exotic plants. So viewing platforms above the city there is a magnificent view of Novaya Gagra and Cape Pitsunda.

The residence of the founder of the high-society resort Gagra in the thirties of the last century was named after Stalin, then renamed "The Seagull", and after a fire in the late eighties it was desolate for a long time, now the palace is rising from the ruins, only as what?

Sputnik, Vladimir Begunov.

Unknown tenants

“The palace was leased in 2010 to a legal entity for forty-nine years,” says Inal Dzhopua, chief specialist of the Department of Historical and Cultural Heritage Protection of Abkhazia. have not agreed with us." According to Jopua, the department has developed security obligations for builders with recommendations to return the building to its pre-revolutionary appearance, removing elements of Soviet perestroika. But the tenant avoids meeting with officials.

The palace on the rock was built from 1901 to 1904, and in January 1903, its owner, Prince Alexander of Oldenburg, announced the creation of the Gagra climatic station in the newly opened Gagripsh restaurant.

"To create the Caucasian Riviera, Prince Oldenburg put forward a very effective argument, which was that Russian moneybags would go to Gagra, instead of pumping their money on the Mediterranean coast. But even this rather important calculation itself was only a subtle tactical move. A true fiery dream prince, while carefully hidden from everyone, was that he would create a small, but cozy island ideal monarchy, the realm of order, justice and the complete fusion of the monarch with the people and even the peoples. "Sandro from Chegem".

The idea about Gagra was thrown to the prince by the doctor Fyodor Pasternatsky. He explored the Stavropol province and Black Sea coast in search of places where it is possible to organize medical resorts. The first reconnaissance, on which Fyodor Ignatievich and the prince got out, took place in 1899. The resort opened just four years later. Alexander of Oldenburg knew how to infect people with his ideas. He achieved good from the emperor through Georgy Shevarshidze-Chachba, who has weight at court. The prince received the relevant paper from Nicholas II, state sponsorship and set about realizing his dream.

Monkeys in the Abkhaz forests

"The Seagull" is a private facility, it was privatized by the Republican State Committee for Privatization and leased out, - says Vladimir Vardaya, Chairman of the Committee for Property Management and Privatization of the Gagra District. - The tenants are Yuri Ardzinba and another person whom I do not want to name, because he is elected to the deputies. This building will be a health resort complex. When they're done, I can't say. The reconstruction is complex, before each type of work, specialists check the structures for wear."

Prince Alexander Petrovich, having moved to Gagra, lived here for several months a year. He founded the Seaside Park and opened a museum - a cabinet of curiosities. Bought exhibits from local residents. He also had adventurous ideas: to populate the local forests with parrots and monkeys. The first ones were beaten by kites, the second ones were shot by local hunters.

Fazil Iskander in "Sandro from Chegem" wrote that the emperor's quick consent had its own secret plan.

“The tsar agreed with his proposal with unexpected speed. Then Alexander Petrovich guessed that they simply wanted to get rid of him in St. Petersburg in this way. Alexander Petrovich knew that he was considered an eccentric at court because he always, regardless of faces , with all the frankness of a loyal subject, expressed his thoughts about the means to save the tsar and the Russian state. Oldenburg princes were like that, and everyone was considered eccentric."

It is worth telling more about the Prince of Oldenburg himself. In 1903 he was already fifty-nine years old. He was an infantry general with many awards, including the golden weapon "For Courage". In addition to the resort in Gagra, he opened the Institute of Experimental Medicine in St. Petersburg, was the chairman of the anti-plague commission. During the First World War, the prince organized the sanitary business in the army. Nicholas II, appreciating the merits of a distant relative, appointed him head of the sanitary and evacuation unit of the Russian army. The wife of Oldenburg did not lag behind her husband. Evgenia Maksimilianovna was engaged in charity work, was a trustee of schools and hospitals. During the Russo-Japanese War, she headed the Port Arthur Committee for Relief of the Wounded and Commemoration of the Fallen. But by the time the palace was built in Gagra, she was already paralyzed and moved by her mind.

Foundation with a crack

On the Internet photo of the passport of works in the palace of the Prince of Oldenburg, it is indicated that the status of the works: "scientific, restoration and reconstruction", the contractor company "Dipton Sea". CEO— Yuri Ardzinba. Design development was carried out by the team of the Tyumen Institute of Architecture and Civil Engineering.

Another contractor is "Dipton Enterprises LTD. (UK)". Its owner is Yuri Laptev. Judging by the name, Dipton Sea is a subsidiary of Laptev and, in fact, a subcontractor. Yuri Laptev's company cooperates with the same Tyumen institute, sends students on foreign internships.

In 2013, Ardzinba's firm had a financial scandal with a hidden partner, fake seals and missing money transferred to Abkhazia by Laptev's firm. Then Yuri Ardzinba expressed the opinion that Laptev, having entered into the reconstruction of the palace, was trying to seize the rights to the building. Three years have passed, the storms have subsided, and construction continues.

Old photographs show that the castle was built in stages. First, the palace itself was built with a round panoramic window in the prince's office, a chimney and an openwork metal curl. Then an attached hotel part appeared for members of the royal blood and representatives of the highest nobility of the Russian Empire. The place was getting trendy. In 1912, the emperor himself visited him, though briefly, but still. The gray-haired prince managed to combine the incompatible: balls and receptions of the highest nobility with the benevolent attitude of the highlanders.

The palace was built by the St. Petersburg architect Grigory Lutsedarsy. There is a version that when laying the foundation, it cracked twice, and then a local contractor, Yahye Kerbolai Abbas, was invited, who built the palace on the mountain according to the capital's drawings in the style that the architects call romantic modern.

Two lighthouses operated on the territory, illuminating the way for suitable ships and yachts. The entrance to the yard was very narrow. The Mercedes, which the prince rode, had nowhere to turn around in the yard, so a wooden turning circle was invented in front of the threshold. In 1906, an outbuilding with a tower appeared, the purpose of which historians and local historians are still arguing about: whether it is an observation tower, or a falconer's tower. Both versions have arguments for and against.

© Photo: public domain

After the revolution, the Prince of Oldenburg left Russia, his property was nationalized and a sanatorium for nervous patients was made in the palace. Babel and Furmanov described it in their essays as a place that is in desolation and is only beginning to revive.

New Gagra in the Baltic

In 2013, his nephew Duke Gounod von Oldenburg and his wife visited the castle of the Prince of Oldenburg. The reception was held in a wing restored at that time. Apparently, the contractors thus tried to give their work historical legitimacy.

In the thirties the palace became a sanatorium named after Stalin. Then everyone and everything was called by the name of the leader. After the personality cult was exposed, he acquired a new name - "The Seagull". Contrary to popular belief, the building was not damaged during the war, but earlier - in the late eighties there was a fire, and the building burned to the ground.

But the story of the Prince of Oldenburg himself and his plans to create an ideal monarchy did not end with his departure from Russia.

© Photo: M. Repin

Prince of Oldenburg, fragment of Repin's sketch for the painting "Jubilee meeting of the State Council" 1903

“The Prince of Oldenburg moved to Finland, where, according to rumors, he was engaged in the civilization of a certain place, which he called Novye Gagra from good old memory. Did he continue his experiments, hoping for a quick fall of the Soviets, or simply his active nature did not tolerate stagnation in anything, remains unknown. Neither I nor the owner of the magnificent binoculars knows anything about his further fate, "- this is how the third chapter of "Sandro from Chegem" ends. The history of the palace itself is not finished even today. Restoration and controversy around the building continues. Apparently, Prince Alexander Petrovich (Friedrich Konstantin) of Oldenburg chose the wrong place to build an ideal society.

If you ask a question to any passer-by “What, in your opinion, is the most beautiful and most famous landmark of Abkhazia?”, Everyone will certainly answer - the castle of Prince Oldenburg.

This truly magnificent building is a cultural and historical value of the resort city of Gagra. In addition, the residence of A.P. Oldenburgsky is considered a step in the history of the whole city, as it is the starting point in the development of Gagra.

Prince Alexander Petrovich of Oldenburg, the great-grandson of Paul I, comes from the oldest family of Oldenburg, ruling in the Duchy of Oldenburg. The Oldenburgs were related to the Romanov dynasty. Alexander Petrovich was born in 1844, was in high government positions, and until the fall of the Russian Empire had a membership in the Imperial House.

His merits are countless, but the main one is that the prince founded the first resort city of Gagra on the Caucasian coast. It is with the construction of the palace that the transformation of Gagra into a resort town, "Russian Nice" begins. The castle of the Prince of Oldenburg is located on a slope near the place where the Joekvara River flows into the Black Sea.

This part of the city is considered one of the most picturesque. In addition, a park has been set up along the entire coast, in which various "exotic" plants grow, such as palm trees, cypresses, as well as lemon and orange trees, which creates an even more attractive environment. This park is called Seaside, it gives you the opportunity to once again enjoy all the beauties of Gagra.

History of the castle

Despite the fact that some researchers call 1898 the date of foundation of the palace, the castle of Alexander Petrovich of Oldenburg was built in 1902. It became a kind of "noble nest" of the Oldenburgs.

The place for the construction of the palace was chosen by the prince himself. The architect of the building was Alexander Petrovich's old friend Grigory Ippolitovich Lutsedarsky. Many sources call Grigory Ippolitovich, the creator of the project and the leader of the construction of the palace, who managed to bring to life one of the most beautiful creations of classical modernism.

The palace has absorbed all the most beautiful elements of Art Nouveau: the red tiled roof is in perfect harmony with the many balconies, and the fireplace chimneys in no way spoil the view, but only emphasize the status of the building. In addition, researchers note the importance of the Falconer's Tower, located on the territory of the residence. According to local residents, Prince Alexander Petrovich himself was very fond of falconry, and therefore ordered the construction of the Tower.

The Prince of Oldenburg had many more plans to transform not only the castle and Seaside Park, but the entire city. But the outbreak of war did not allow all plans to be realized. The prince was promptly summoned to St. Petersburg, from where he was later forced to emigrate abroad.

After the Bolsheviks came to power, the prince's palace was converted into a sanatorium named after Stalin. The highest ranks of Soviet society came here every year to rest. Later, the palace was given the status of a boarding house, after which it began to bear the name "Seagull".

With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Oldenburgsky castle fell into disrepair, it was looted and even subjected to a fire that destroyed part of the building. By the end of the 1980s. the castle of Prince of Oldenburg was classified as an architectural monument.

Gradually, restoration work began to unfold here. But further events interrupted the restoration of the palace. Georgian-Abkhaz war 1992-1993 did not bypass this creation of architecture. The constant hostilities that took place here caused serious damage to the building, leaving behind traces of bullets and shells.

Legends of the Castle of the Prince of Oldenburg

There are quite a few legends associated with the palace of A.P. Oldenburgsky. One of them relates to the construction and laying of the residence.

According to legend, after many unsuccessful attempts to lay and start the process of building a building, the Prince of Oldenburg decides to call the architect Yahya Abbas-ogly, an Iranian by birth. Allegedly, there were no long conversations between the prince and the builder. Abbas-ogly undertook to complete the construction of the castle within a certain period of time. In case of failure given condition he had to bear all financial expenses. Yahya did not hesitate, and without fail set to work.

When the construction was already nearing completion, there were small problems. It remains to complete the final part, which required cash outlays. But the prince had no funds, and the Iranian himself had to get out of the situation - to borrow money from acquaintances and friends. As a result, the work was completed on time. When the time came for Alexander Petrovich to settle accounts with Yahya Abbas-oglu, the prince did not want to pay according to the contract.

In addition, the situation of Yahya was aggravated by the conflict with the governor of Kutaisi, who, according to his contemporaries, was envious of the successes of other people. The Iranian, in turn, by this time had become quite popular and had great authority. In connection with this conflict, Abbas-ogly could be arrested.

The builder could not put up with such injustice, both on the part of the governor and on the part of the prince, and decided to go to St. Petersburg with a complaint. Despite the fact that the trip took a considerable time, it was nevertheless crowned with success. Ultimately, for his hard work and professionalism, Nicholas II awarded Yahya with a diploma and a medal "For diligence", and Prince A.P. Oldenburg was forced to pay off his debts with the Iranian.

Despite the fact that this legend has no documentary evidence, it is still impossible to deny the fact that Yahya Abbas-ogly really took part in the construction of the prince's castle.

What is the castle today

Today, the palace of Prince Alexander Petrovich of Oldenburg is an echo of a bygone era. Now, looking at the building of the residence, we will no longer see those beautiful architecture that were before.

A sunken roof, partially destroyed walls, traces of fires and bombings - this is all that remains of that marvelous palace, which many guests came to admire. But even in this form, the castle does not lose its popularity and attracts the attention of many tourists, because, in fact, it has come down to us almost unchanged.

On the this moment the residence was bought by a private person, a large-scale restoration of the building is planned. The castle itself is in disrepair. You can get to the castle thanks to the Gagripsh restaurant, which quite often organizes excursions for everyone.

Approximately, such an excursion will cost in the area 700-1000 rubles. It is also necessary to take into account the fact that the building is emergency, and therefore the tour may be denied.

How to get there

• The residence of the Prince of Oldenburg is located near the pier and the terminus of the city public transport. You can go to the castle through the Seaside Park, which can be reached on the fixed-route taxi or by ordering a tour in advance from the administration of the Gagripsh restaurant. The cost of the road by minibus will be about 30-60 rubles, excursions - 700-1000 rubles.
• On foot. Most budget option there will be a walk to the Seaside Park, then going upstairs, you will find yourself in place.
• By cable car. Directly to the castle, starting from the Seaside Park, leads cable car. This option is suitable for lovers of not only beautiful and picturesque places, but also extreme sports. Approximately the cost of such a walk will be from 200 rubles.
• Taxi. The fastest and most comfortable option is to use a taxi, which will cost about 150 rubles.

reference Information

Castle address: Prince of Oldenburg Castle, Staraya Gagra district, Gagra city, Republic of Abkhazia.

Coordinates: 43.325583; 40.225367

The address of the restaurant "Gagripsh": the city of Gagra, st. Nartaa.

Restaurant opening hours: from 11:00 to 0:00.

Average bill in the institution: 1700 RUB.

*Prices are for February 2016.