The expedition of experts to study the historical and cultural monuments of the south coast of the Crimea has finished

Between 22 April and 4 May an international expedition of experts and photographers visited the Crimea for the multi-disciplinary study of historical and cultural monuments on the south coast of the peninsula. On 27 April the Vorontsov Palace at Alupka was the setting for a presentation of the programme “The South Coast of the Crimea – a World Heritage Area” and a press conference.

The expedition is part of the “South Coast of the Crimea – a World Heritage Area” programme organized by the State Hermitage and the Likhachev Foundation. The programme is being implemented with the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Crimea, the Alupka Palace and Park Museum Preserve, the Union of Museums of Russia, the Russian Committee of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) and the Presidential Grants Foundation.

The more than 20 participants in the expedition were from the Crimea, St Petersburg, Moscow and Italy, experts on architecture, archaeology, park and garden art, nature and climate, historical events and personalities. They included members of the Hermitage staff: Svetlana Adaksina, Victor Myts and Yury Molodkovets. Also among the participants was Teresa Colletta, Professor of the University of Naples, ICOMOS expert on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

The Hermitage photographer Yury Molodkovets and the New York-based French portrait photographer Brigitte Lacombe are preparing a photographic exhibition “The Monuments of the South Coast of the Crimea and Their Custodians” (curator Yulia Demidenko). The results of the first stage of the programme will be presented in November 2018, at an international conference during the Cultural Forum in St Petersburg.

The attention of the experts participating in the expedition was chiefly devoted to substantiating the uniqueness of the south coast of the Crimea as a composite historical and cultural monument, a unique natural and cultural object that combines various strata of heritage within it. The project experts are inclined towards an understanding of the universal value of the south coast of the Crimea as a cultural landscape, as a man-made coastal park. The area is not only full of monuments of material culture, but also has an entirely special significance in Russia’s cultural code. The experts gave unwavering attention to questions of the state of preservation of the heritage. The list of casualties includes such outrageous losses as the Magarach winery, huge expanses of the Nikitsky Botanical Garden and the Kuchuk-Koi estate.

There is a need to draw the fixed attention of the state to questions relating to the formation of cultural policy on the cultural heritage of the south coast of the Crimea, to the comprehensive study and preservation of this unique territory, the dissemination in Russia and abroad of knowledge about the south coast of the Crimea as a place of exceptional aesthetic and cultural value.