Crimea Cape Ilya. Cape Ilya in Feodosia - the romance of Crimea: photos, GPS coordinates. Legends and reality

The lighthouse on Cape Ilya near Feodosia has been showing the way to ships for 114 years. During this time, high-altitude lights guided thousands of ships in the Black Sea: ships never sank off these shores. The lighthouse itself was almost completely destroyed during the Great Patriotic War, then rebuilt, and at the beginning of the 21st century, together with its namesake cape, almost disappeared from the face of the earth.

In May 1890, by decision of the Russian government, the main base of the Black Sea Fleet was transferred from Nikolaev to Sevastopol. The city received the status of a 3rd class military fortress and was closed to foreign ships. The question arose about moving the commercial port. After much debate, they decided to relocate him to Feodosia. There they urgently began to erect mooring structures and build a railway line.

The Feodosia Bay juts out into the South coast eastern Crimea, forming a bay convenient for mooring ships. The western part of the bay ends with the rocky Cape of St. Elijah. The steep cape, protruding far into the sea, makes it difficult for ships coming from the west to approach the Feodosia port. Squally variable winds are frequent here, sudden fogs are common in autumn and spring, torrential rains in summer, and numerous reefs bordering the cape make sailing along its shores extremely dangerous. Not a year passed without a maritime accident or disaster in this place. Neptune collected another tribute from sailors in 1890: on February 16, not far from Cape St. Elijah, the steamship “Grand Duke Konstantin” crashed on the reefs and sank, and soon the steamship “Vladimir” suffered the same fate. Local newspapers wrote bitterly: “Feodosia, having become a commercial port, is deprived of even port lights... steamships enter the bay along the lights of the Feodosia yacht club.”

Indeed, at that time there was no reliable navigation fence along the entire Crimean southern coast from Ai-Todor (the lighthouse was built there in 1835) to Chauda (the lighthouse began operating here in 1888). True, as is clear from the historical information that has reached us, attempts to place a warning sign were made more than once, but these messages are more like legends. So, according to one of them, a certain merchant sailor Ilya Tamara, who was twice shipwrecked on the reefs of a treacherous cape, but survived, at his own expense erected a church on the highest place of the steep shore in the name of the holy prophet Ilya - the manager of rains, thunder and lightning . What it was and how long it lasted is unknown. There is information that in 1816, in its place, the chapel of St. Elijah was consecrated and sailors, when approaching the port, were guided by the domed cross during the day, and by the light of candles burning in the altar at night. However, in the 80s of the 19th century, the cape was pristinely empty.

The catastrophes of 1890, which alarmed everyone, forced the Directorate of lighthouses of the Black and Azov seas urgently consider the issue of building a lighthouse on Cape St. Elijah. With the approval of the Hydrographic Department, specialists examined the cape in 1894, and the commander of the hydrographic vessel Ingul chose a place to install a lighthouse. But due to lack of funds, the start of construction was postponed...

It is unknown how long the search by naval officials for funds for the construction of the lighthouse would have lasted and how many human lives this inaction would have cost if disaster had not struck the family of the Moscow mayor, the famous philanthropist Konstantin Vasilyevich Rukavishnikov - the only son, nineteen-year-old Nikolai, who had just been admitted, fell ill with tuberculosis to Moscow University. A council of doctors recognized the situation as serious, but the opinions of medical luminaries on methods of treatment were divided. Zakharyin proposed to immediately take the patient to Bashkiria for kumys, but Ostroumov categorically opposed this, insisting on a trip to Crimea. After a prayer service performed at the patient’s bedside by Bishop John of Kronstadt, the family decided to take Nicholas to Feodosia. There, the founder of the family, gold miner Vasily Nikitich Rukavishnikov, back in the 60s of the 19th century, acquired an estate in which his household loved to spend the summer.

The sun, sea and air, filled with the aromas of steppe herbs, little by little returned strength to the body weakened by the disease. Health was improving. Having gotten a little stronger, Nikolai began to take walks to the port. There, an inquisitive young man was noticed, and he soon met many ship captains who became frequent guests at the Rukavishnikovs’ dacha.

Seeing how her son was getting better before her eyes, the touched mother, Evdokia Nikolaevna, decided to thank the city of Feodosia. Listening to the captains' stories about frequent shipwrecks off Cape St. Elijah, which claimed hundreds of lives, and about the futility of numerous attempts to knock on the doors of maritime officials, she became more and more convinced of the idea of building a much-needed lighthouse at her own expense. The captains with whom Evdokia Nikolaevna shared the idea warmly supported the noble intention and willingly gave advice on where to go and what steps to take to resolve this issue.

In the fall of 1897, Rukavishnikova submitted an application to the Directorate of Lighthouses about her desire to take over the construction of a lighthouse on Cape St. Elijah. After some time, a response came in which the Lighthouse Directorate recommended that she take a “Swedish fire” light installation for the future lighthouse. The letter was accompanied by a plan and drawings of the tower, and the officials ordered the lighting apparatus from Finland. Evdokia Nikolaevna entrusted the management of the construction of the lighthouse to the technician Alexey Alekseevich Polonsky, whose brother she knew, and without hesitation she began collecting money: she mortgaged the dacha, sent a letter to her husband in Moscow. Konstantin Vasilyevich approved the planned enterprise and sent the missing funds.

A year later, the construction of the lighthouse and the keeper's house was completed. Soon they received a lighting apparatus, and the lighthouse began to operate. In “Notice to Mariners” No. 5 dated February 17, 1899, an official notice appeared: “The Directorate of Lighthouses and Pilots of the Black and Azov Seas informs sailors that in the Black Sea, near Feodosia, on Cape Ilya, at the south-east cliff, it is installed in a wooden booth on top of wooden trestles there is often an alternating fire with white and green flashes... The height of the fire at sea level is 214 feet and above the surface of the earth is 32 feet.”

In order to equip the lighthouse with a bell to give signals in bad weather, Evdokia Nikolaevna had to take up knitting and the charity sale of colored woolen wallets. Residents of Feodosia and vacationers enthusiastically supported Rukavishnikova. The purses were in great demand, and most of them were returned to the performer filled with gold coins. Soon a fog bell was installed at the lighthouse.

Grateful townspeople and sailors of the Feodosia port persistently suggested that Evdokia Nikolaevna name the lighthouse built after her, but she resolutely refused, declaring that this was a selfless gift to the city of Feodosia for the miraculous healing of her beloved son from a terrible illness, and the lighthouse should be called Ilyinsky, after Cape St. Elijah, on which it is installed. Then the captains of the ships, no less excited than the donor, told her that every time they passed the lighthouse they took off their caps and prayed for her. From these words, as the eldest daughter Evdokia testifies, “mother could not stand it and burst into tears...”.

The wooden lighthouse, built at the expense of Rukavishnikova, served sailors regularly until 1912. Then it was rebuilt: the trestles and the lighthouse were made of metal, the lighting apparatus was replaced with a more powerful one, and a pneumatic siren was installed instead of the bell. After the reconstruction, the visibility range of the beacon light and the audibility of the foggy nautophone increased significantly. In this form, the lighthouse survived both the revolution and civil strife and met the Great Patriotic War. But in December 1941, during the Kerch-Feodosia operation, during the liquidation of an enemy battery dug in on the cape, the lighthouse was destroyed by artillery fire from the destroyer Zheleznyakov. After the liberation of Feodosia from the fascist invaders (April 13, 1944), a temporary navigation light was installed on the cape. A permanent lighthouse and a camp for staff were built only in 1955.

The lighthouse has survived to this day. The round fifteen-meter white stone tower with light three-tiered windows, topped with a cylinder of a lantern structure, captivates with its grace and austere beauty. Spacious flights of stairs lead to the lighthouse room, decorated with oak panels. This is the place of the watch keeper. From the windows you can clearly see the entire area of responsibility - from Cape Kiik-Atlama with the pointed rock-island of Ivan Baba in the southwest to Cape Chauda in the east. From the lighthouse room, a vertical ladder leads to the holy of holies - a lantern structure. There, in the center of a faceted glass cylinder, in 2006, a modern light-optical module assembled using bright LEDs was installed, and electronics were entrusted with maintaining the lighthouse’s operating mode. There was no longer any need for hourly meteorological observations. The mini-computer included in the control system displays all the necessary synoptic data on the monitor screen in real time without human intervention.

And she carefully preserved the history of the construction of the lighthouse on Cape St. Elijah in her diaries and, after the end of the Great Patriotic War, told it in a letter (dated October 21, 1947) to the head of the Hydrographic Service of the Black Sea Fleet, the daughter of the Rukavishnikovs, Evdokia Konstantinovna. At the end of the touching story, she reported that all these years she had been closely following the fate of the Ilyinsky lighthouse, dear to her heart: “Back in 1902,” she wrote, “my late husband and I climbed with emotion onto the lighthouse along its steep openwork staircase and were interested in the fate of the lighthouse in 1944 after the liberation of Feodosia from the German occupiers." Without this letter, we would never have known about the noble deed of a wonderful Russian woman.

If you look at geographical location, then on one side Feodosia borders resort village Beregovoe, and on the other side it is covered by the Tepe-Oba ridge. It protects the city from strong winds, and also closes the main ridge Crimean mountains, stretching from Sevastopol to Cape St. Elijah in Feodosia.

Today I will talk about the best way to get to the cape and what interesting things you can see there.

Cape St. Elijah is the most protruding part of the Tepe-Oba ridge. Tepe-Oba translated from Crimean Tatar means the top of a mountain or the end of the mountains. So it is, we can safely say that in Feodosia the mountains end, or vice versa, they begin. Who likes it more?

Only then for Kerch Strait, on Taman Peninsula they will connect with the chain of the Caucasus Mountains.

Beyond Feodosia you can only find plains and fields stretching beyond the horizon.

The best way to get to Cape Ilya is by car.
The road is of poor quality, mostly country roads.

Having reached the cape, a wonderful view of the Feodosia Bay opened up.
I parked the car and decided to take a walk.

From above you can see many kilometers ahead!

The villages of Beregovoye and the village of Primorsky, neighboring Feodosia, are clearly visible:

By the way, from the sea Cape Ilya looks like this:

Along the road, on the slopes, wild Caper cucumbers bloom beautifully.

Down in the bay, fishermen set up nets and catch fish.

Construction of luxury real estate is now in full swing.

During the war, pillboxes were built on the cape to hold off the enemy's siege.
They have been dug up and are sticking out of the ground.

The name of Cape St. Elijah is associated with legends:

Once upon a time there was a place on the highest point of the cape ancient temple. The Feodosian legend tells about a sailor whose name was Ilya Tamar, who was shipwrecked twice at the cape on the day of Elijah the Prophet. Both times he asked the gods for forgiveness. And both times Elijah the Prophet appeared to him and saved him from death.

After that, he built a church here in the name of St. Elijah the Prophet.

From that moment on, this place began to be called Cape St. Elias.

If you look closely at western part Feodosia Bay, then it is at the rocky Cape Ilya that a strong illusion is created for incoming ships. Cape Ilya, as it were, covers the entrance to the harbor. And this cannot always be clearly defined and understood. During autumn-winter storms, ships often sank here. There was a need to identify a dangerous place.

On February 17, 1899, a lighthouse was built on the Swedish Lindbergh optical system.
That’s why they called it Ilyinsky Mayak. It was far from the current modern one, but it really helped to orient the ships and subsequently protected them from crashing.

Photo of the Lighthouse in 1899.

Now the lighthouse looks different:

Today, from Odessa to Novorossiysk, there are 18 lighthouses, but there are only 4 such as Feodosia.

Access to the lighthouse area is prohibited.

I walked parallel along the lighthouse grounds to look at the opposite shore.

There is no way down, but a very beautiful view to Dvuyakornaya Bay and the village of Ordzhonikidze.

I looked and admired the bay. There was a lighthouse to my left.

On the right, 50 meters away, there is a fence and a fenced military area.
And goats were grazing near me.

There were lonely trees here and there at the top.

This perfect place, where there are no excursions.
From the cape, as I already said, it opens beautiful view, from here you can see the entire Feodosia Bay.

It feels cool here. Very clean air blows from the sea, which you want to breathe deeply.

I stayed some more time at the cape.
Then I got into the car and went downstairs at sunset...

Ilyinsky lighthouse is far from standard tourist routes across Crimea. Rarely organized here sightseeing tours. However, year after year, this place increasingly attracts particularly curious travelers who are ready to get off the beaten path. No wonder, because at the lighthouse interesting story, and from the land on which it is located, an unusually beautiful view of the sea opens up.

It is noteworthy that this landmark of Feodosia does not have a specific address. The lighthouse is located on Cape St. Elijah on south coast Crimea, in the western part of the Feodosia Bay.

Ancient times

The cape has long been a threat to ships. Strong winds often blow here, there is fog in autumn and spring, and the entire coast is surrounded by rocks and reefs that are difficult to notice. Since ancient times, there have been many references in history to ships that were wrecked in these places. Therefore, even then, the residents of Feodosia thought about the need for landmarks that would be visible from a long distance.

Several centuries BC, the territory of Feodosia was occupied by the Greeks. They built a small temple on the then unnamed cape. The building served not only religious purposes. It was also a signpost for passing ships. Apparently, the temple was also destroyed in ancient times. Because sea vessels continued to crash against the rocks.

Much later, in XVIII-XIX centuries, a chapel was built here. It is unknown who exactly built it. There is a legend that during a strong storm near Cape St. Elias, the ship of a wealthy merchant was wrecked. When there was no longer any hope of salvation, the merchant began to pray and Saint Elias himself appeared to him. The merchant promised the Saint to build a chapel if he survived. He survived the storm, but forgot his promise. And a few years later, in the same places, the ship of the same merchant again suffered disaster. Having experienced the same event a second time, the merchant still kept his words and built a chapel. Now all that remains of it are ruins.

History of the Ilyinsky Lighthouse

The Ilyinsky lighthouse itself begins its history in 1890. This year, the main naval base of the Black Sea Fleet was relocated from Nikolaev to Sevastopol. And the commercial port was moved to Feodosia, since the bay here is very convenient for parking. However, the free passage of ships coming from the west was hampered by reefs in the vicinity of Cape St. Elijah. Hardly a year passed without another damage or crash. The most famous cases are the wreck of the ships “Grand Duke Konstantin” and “Vladimir”, which claimed the lives of a large number of people. All this made the Lighthouse Directorate think about building a guiding tower. However, there was no money for financing, so the implementation of the idea was forced to be postponed.

But everything was decided by a combination of circumstances, and construction still took place. At that time, the wife of the state councilor, Evdokia Nikolaevna Rukavishnikova, and her 19-year-old son Nikolai arrived from Moscow to Feodosia. The young man was seriously ill with tuberculosis, and the doctors' forecasts were disappointing. However sea air performed a miracle - the young man was cured. As a token of gratitude, Evdokia Nikolaevna, who had heard more than once from local captains about constant shipwrecks, decided to build a lighthouse with her own savings.

In the fall of 1897, the Lighthouse Directorate received a statement in which Rukavishnikova expressed her desire to finance the construction. The funds she had were very modest, but they were enough to build a wooden booth mounted on trestles. The booth was equipped with a Swiss Lindbergh lighting system that alternately flashed green and white. The construction of the lighthouse and the keeper's house was completed in 1899. A little later, a bell was installed next to the lighthouse, with the help of which sound signals were given when visibility deteriorated. They wanted to name the building in honor of Evdokia Nikolaevna, but she insisted on fixing the name “Ilyinsky Lighthouse”. Only very recently they placed on the territory of the lighthouse commemorative plaque, dedicated to Evdokia Nikolaevna Rukavishnikova. Her granddaughter Evgenia Gippius asked the city authorities about this.

In 1910-1912, the lighthouse was reconstructed: the bell was replaced with a sound siren, the booth and trestles became metal. In this form it functioned until the early 40s. During the Great Patriotic War, the Ilyinsky lighthouse was destroyed. Rumor has it that Russian soldiers had to specially blow it up in order to destroy the Germans sitting in the trenches next to the structure.

Lighthouse in our time

The new lighthouse was built only in 1955. And since then it has remained outwardly untouched. Now it's 15 meters White Tower with windows in 3 tiers. Relative to sea level, the height of the lighthouse is 65 meters. So the top is visible from anywhere in the Feodosia Bay. Convenient stairs lead to the lighthouse room, decorated with oak panels. From here you have a view of the entire relevant area. And only from the lighthouse room along a vertical staircase you can get to the very top, to the lantern. In 2006, a modern light-optical module made of LEDs was installed on the top. The LEDs are powered by a quartz oscillator that can operate autonomously for many days in a row. A white flash appears every three seconds, the pause between signals is 6 seconds. And all the activities of the lighthouse are now managed by a computer. Electronics made it possible not to carry out meteorological measurements every hour. The built-in mini-computer, without human intervention, provides all the necessary weather indicators in real time.

The history of the lighthouse until the middle of the 20th century was preserved in her personal notes by Evdokia Konstantinovna, the daughter of those same Rukavishnikovs. In 1947, she told it in a letter to the head of the Hydrographic Service of the Black Sea Fleet. All these years, the daughter of Evdokia Nikolaevna followed the fate of the Ilyinsky lighthouse and visited it several times with her husband. Most likely, without her letter we would never have known to whom Crimea owes such an important object.

The area around the lighthouse was recently discovered. Now, in order to get beyond the fence and into the tower itself, you need to get permission from the guards. In the buildings next to the lighthouse you can go into a small makeshift “museum”, which contains exhibits related to the history of the building. If time permits, it is worth staying at the lighthouse until dark. At this time, the white tower looks especially attractive. The window openings illuminated from the inside fascinate onlookers.

Despite its little fame, the lighthouse managed to be captured by movie cameras. In 2013, an episode of the film “Such Beautiful People” directed by Dmitry Moiseev was filmed here.

What about the direct purpose? The Ilyinsky lighthouse continues to function to this day, showing ships the way to Feodosia.

How to get to Ilyinsky lighthouse

There are several ways to get to the lighthouse by land:

By car. The journey from the Free Flight Museum takes about 25 minutes. GPS coordinates: N 45.012644, E 35.42197.
By taxi. How to get to Ilyinsky lighthouse Every driver in Feodosia knows it.
By public transport (but part of the journey will need to be done on foot). At the bus station, take minibus number 1, 2a, 14 or 15 and get to the City Hospital stop. Then walk along Korabelny Lane to the Mayak agricultural complex, after which the open area begins. About 1.5 kilometers along a winding dirt road to the cape. Military fortifications located near the lighthouse will serve as landmarks.

It might be useful to read: