CHAPTER XIV.

THE EASTERN COAST AND SOUDAK.

Alouchta—The Eastern and Western Coast—Oulou Ouzéne, the property of Mrs. Lang—Mdlle. Jacquemart—The Bay of Soudak—Ruins of the triple fortress—The Kiz Koullé, or Girl’s Tower—Ancient Soldaya—Its history—Remains—Vandalism of the Russians—Ruined barracks—The Crimean Wine Company—The wines of the Crimea—Prices of land in the Crimea—Road to Theodosia—Tatar hospitality—Koktebel.

Alouchta[194] is beautifully placed on the sloping side of a gentle elevation, near the sea-shore, and the cultivation of the vine has made here rapid progress. Its situation, in a wide and fertile valley, at nearly the centre of the southern coast, must always have rendered it an important place, although the only mention of it in ancient times is with reference to the castle built here by Justinian, the remains of which are to be seen on a little hill near the sea-shore. The ancient town of Alouchta was built in front of the fort on the right bank of the river Oulou Ouzéne, but the place is now deserted and covered with the wild vine and tamarisk. Some remains may still be discovered of houses and of several Greek churches placed on the most elevated positions. The churches are nearly as large as those of Kherson; and in the principal one a semicircular apse shows that either a bishop or at least a priest of high rank presided over the clergy attached to it. Alouchta is the limit between the eastern and western coast, which are great rivals for public favour. There can, however, be no doubt that in remarkable scenery and romantic beauty the western coast has greatly the advantage. The igneous jets of ophitic granite do not come further east than Alouchta; and while the granite domes of Kastele, Aioudágh, and Liméne form promontories and bays, and sublime variations of scenery, the eastern coast is a monotonous repetition of narrow ravines, covered with meagre vegetation, of the wich elm (the commonest tree in the Crimea), the turpentine-tree, and the oriental juniper, some specimens of which measure as much as a foot and a half in diameter.

A ride of eight miles along a sterile and desert shore of the eastern coast brings the traveller to the valley of another river, called Oulou Ouzéne, the property of Mrs. Lang, who has planted vineyards and orchards, and converted it into one of the most agreeable residences along the coast. Some miles further on is the bay of Soudak, and the residence of an eccentric French lady, Mdlle. Jacquemart, who, having originally gone to Russia as a governess, and then, by her brilliant conversation and wit having gained a great reputation in the highest circles, both in Petersburg and Vienna, suddenly renounced the world, and retired to solitude on the shores of the Crimea. Marshal Marmont, in his works, tells a romantic tale about a rejected and despairing lover, who in a paroxysm of fury attempted her life; but according to Mdlle. Jacquemart’s own account the story differs wonderfully from the unpoetic truth, which was, that a Greek, whom she had never seen before, brutally attacked and nearly murdered her, as she was returning home one evening to her solitary dwelling.[195]

The view of the bay of Soudak, on approaching it from the west, is very striking. Its shores present a charming rural prospect; and the valley which leads down to the water is entirely occupied with orchards and vineyards. Near the extremity of the bay, on the right, the rocks jut out boldly, and the fortifications of the old Genoese town crown the heights. Soudak, as will presently be more fully explained, was in ancient times a very important place, and its beautiful position attracted here the population of a town even in time of the ancient Greeks. The Russians, since they have possessed it, have done much injury to the ancient remains; but even the ruins of the fortress and citadel, which alone have been spared, possess great interest. The traveller threading his way among the vineyards may approach the pyramidal rock, on which is built the three stages of the vast and carefully-constructed fortress, which once protected the surrounding city of Soldaya,[196] as Soudak was anciently called. The rock is inaccessible on the side of the sea, but may easily be approached from the interior of the valley, where it opens on a broad terrace, defended by an immense rampart, flanked by ten towers.

The entrance-gate is defended by an exterior work; and in front of it, where a German colony has lately been planted, there formerly stood the Genoese part of the town of Soldaya. Between the colony and the gate is a beautiful fountain, of ancient workmanship, the water of which formerly supplied the fortress; and above it is placed a bas-relief, which has been brought from the ruins, of St. George killing the Dragon, and the scutcheon of the Doge Adorno. Over the gate is an inscription, declaring it to have been built in the year 1385, when the noble and puissant lord, James Gorsevi, was the consul and castellan of Soldaya.

On entering the gate the traveller stands within the lower fortress, and finds the ground covered with ruins. Here are the immense brick cisterns which contained enough water to supply the garrison for several years; and the aqueducts of earthen tubes, which conducted the rain-water from the rocks above are still visible. Near them are the remains of some Genoese houses in the Gothic style, with dates and scutcheons; the only ones which escaped destruction when the Russians occupied the place.

Here are also the most uninteresting remains of the huge Russian barracks, to construct which, the beautiful architectural erections of the Genoese were destroyed. These barracks were built by Prince Potemkin after the conquest of the Crimea, when he entertained an idea, which was afterwards abandoned, of making Soldaya the Russian capital of the peninsula.

Beyond the ruins of the barracks, in the north-east corner of the platform, where the rock overhangs the sea with a sheer precipice, is a curious edifice, which bears traces of many styles of architecture. It must have been originally built as a mosque, because it does not look east and west, like a Christian church, but north and south, with the altar, formerly the _maharab_ of the mosque, turned in the direction of Mecca.[197] It was probably raised by the Tatars, when, in a moment of fanaticism, they drove the Greek Christians from Soudak in the beginning of the fourteenth century, as the arrangement of the parts and the style of the ornaments are of an earlier date than the Turkish occupation. In 1323, on the demand of Pope John XXII., Soldaya was restored to the Greek Christians; and it was from them that the Genoese captured it in 1365, when the Greek churches were turned into Catholic ones. In 1575 Soudak was taken by the Ottomans, and all the churches were again turned into mosques; and thus they remained till, on the conquest of the Crimea by the Russians, the mosques were once more devoted to the Greek form of Christianity. Thus this church has undergone no less than five changes of religious destination, having first been built as a Tatar-Mongol mosque, then converted into a Greek Christian church, then changed to a Latin Catholic church, then once more a mosque, and being at the present day, for the second time, a Greek church.[198]

A steep path leads from near the church to the middle fortress, called Katara Koullé, built in a ledge of the precipitous rock, with the sea chafing round its base. The principal tower is constructed in the noble style of the fifteenth century.

A narrow path along the edge of the precipice leads to the third and highest fortress, called the Kiz Koullé (The Girl’s Tower), which is the real acropolis on the summit of the rock, and consists of a simple square tower, placed like the eyrie of an eagle, commanding a view of the expanse of the sea, the whole of the fortifications, the recesses of the valley, and the circuit of the ancient town of Soudak, in which the smallest details may be observed.

The eye also follows the windings of the coast as far as Kastele and Aiondagh, and wanders over the terraces of the Tauric chain that rise one above another, while turning round and looking inland, the traveller sees the Swiss colony which has replaced the Scythians, Greeks, Komans, Genoese, and Turks, and occupies the entrance of the beautiful gulf of verdure which stretches inland in the midst of the dark grey rocks.

As early as the eighth century, Soldaya, or Sougdai, the origin of which goes back to the remotest times, was the seat of a bishop, and although then depending on the empire of the East, had its own sovereign princes. Four hundred years later the Komans, an Asiatic people, driven from its seats in Asia towards the West by the hordes of Zingis Khan, arrived in the Crimea, and were the precursors of the terrible invasion of the Mongols, which occurred soon afterwards. The arrival of the Komans in their flight was fatal to the Greek establishments in the Crimea, and the princes of Soldaya were exterminated, and the conquerors seized on their capital.

The Tatars soon followed, and the Komans, after thirty years’ possession, were obliged to abandon the Crimea, and seek an asylum in the more western countries of Thrace.

Under the Tatar domination the Greeks re-entered Soldaya, which again became a Christian city, and the most important port in the peninsula. Although it was certainly tributary to the Tatars, it had a bishop, and governed itself.

In the beginning of the fourteenth century, when the Tatars of Kiptchak adopted the Mahometan religion, Musselman fanaticism predominated for a moment in the Crimea, and the Christians, driven from Soldaya, saw all their churches converted into mosques. But it is a remarkable fact, that the remonstrance of the Pope John XXII. was sufficient in 1323 to procure from Usbek Khan the restitution of the city to the Christians, and the restoration of their ancient privileges.

Thirty years had hardly elapsed when a new revolution, arising from intestine discord, annihilated in Soldaya the Greek power. On the 18th June, 1365, the Genoese, already masters of Kaffa for nearly a century, incorporated in their dominions the ancient capital of the Komans. It was then that these bold merchants, to secure the possession of the fertile country of Soudak and to defend it from the Tatars, constructed on the most inaccessible part of the rock commanding the entrance to the town the formidable fortress with three stages, that has been mentioned, crowned by the gigantic Maiden Tower (Kiz Koullé), whence sentinels were ever on the alert to watch over the port, the sea, and the neighbouring country.

The Genoese remained undisturbed possessors of their castle for more than a century; but after the taking of Constantinople by Mahomet II., and the immediate destruction of Kaffa, the capital of their colonies in the Crimea, the last hour arrived for unfortunate Soldaya. In 1475 the Turks besieged the place,—the resistance was long and obstinate, and famine alone achieved the triumph of the besiegers over the valour and heroism of the garrison. With the Genoese possession terminated the glory and prosperity of Soldaya, which had lasted for so many centuries. The population of the town was expelled and dispersed; the port, once so animated, became desert, and grass grew in the streets, formerly trodden by the elegant Greeks of Byzantium, the victorious Komans, and the proud citizens of Genoa. To all these various populations, so rich or so powerful, succeeded a feeble Turkish garrison, which witnessed during three centuries with indifference the degradation and solitude of one of the most ancient and famous cities on the shores of the Black Sea.

In 1781 the imperial eagle of the Czar floated on the towers of Soldaya, and then began, for the monuments of the Genoese colony, that destruction which everywhere characterizes the conquests of Russia. All the public and private buildings, which Pallas in his first voyage had so much admired for their beautiful architecture, disappeared, and their precious remains were used by the Muscovite Vandals to build huge barracks, which were utterly useless, and which now form themselves the most uninteresting of ruins. At this day Soldaya, utterly effaced from the list of towns and fortresses, does not possess even a guard to watch over its walls and magnificent towers with their proud inscriptions. Each year new mutilations take place, and soon there will remain none of the tablets of marble, with elegant arabesques, which adorn each tower and gateway, retracing their origin and history. Certainly the absence of all Russian authorities is the only thing that can preserve the Genoese castle from utter destruction.

Unfortunately the government seems now to wish for its preservation, and no doubt the remains of Soldaya will be threatened with entire destruction the moment an employé, having nothing to live upon but his wretched pay, becomes officially invested with the right of protecting them from the ravages of time and men.

The best view of the valley of Soudak and the surrounding country is from the monastery of St. George, placed on a high mountain, a projection from which runs into the sea, and forms the eastern side of the bay. There are few eminences in the Crimea that offer so vast and varied a landscape. Every detail of the valley is visible; and the vast fortress is below, a pyramid of ruins, without a living soul near them, except a stray traveller, or the children from the neighbouring German colony, who make it their play-ground. The coast is visible far beyond Alouchta; and in the interior of the country the dark and barren mountains are thrown pell-mell; while among them penetrates, in pleasing contrast, the bright green valley of Soudak. Here the dark foliage of the fruit-trees and the tall poplars is mixed with the pale green of the vineyards; and white houses are dotted about, each in their own domain. Although there is a considerable population, there is no town at modern Soudak; and the only spots where a few houses are placed together is near the church, where a Greek has built a hotel.

Near here, also, are the vast establishments of the wine company of the Crimea, and the house of their manager, M. Larguier, a French gentleman. As the wine company have chosen Soudak as their head-quarters, and the wine of this neighbourhood has always been famous, this will, perhaps, be a proper place to say a few words upon the cultivation of the vine in the Crimea.[199] The Crimean wine company has been established to make known the different kinds of Crimean wines in the markets of the world, and to facilitate the sale of them. The production of wine has received an immense development in the Crimea since the beginning of the present century, and especially since Prince Woronzof has been governor-general of New Russia; but a great difficulty has always been found in disposing of the produce.

In all times, the Crimea has exported wine into Southern Russia. Bronevski,[200] in the middle of the sixteenth century, says that Soudak had large vineyards which gave the best wine in the Crimea. De la Motraye, in 1711, speaks of a wine of Soudak, which did not differ from Burgundy in colour, and was not inferior to it in taste. He also mentions a wine of Katche (Katchik) which sparkled in the glass like Burgundy or Champagne, and was sold at a farthing a bottle. At a later period, Peyssonel, in 1762, speaks of the wines of the Crimea, and praises their excellence and abundance. They were white, light, and wholesome; and the wine of Soudak was the only one that was strong. The best qualities then came from Soudak and the banks of the Belbek, the Alma, and the Katcha. The price was about a penny a quart for the best wine of Soudak, and the Cossacks of the Ukraine and the Zaporogues bought a large quantity every year.

The wines of the Crimea could not, however, compete with those of France or Greece, and they were consumed only among the people; while the rich classes, accustomed to the wines of Sauterne, Bordeaux, Hungary, and the Rhine, despised the productions of Soudak or the Katcha, where the vine, cultivated after the Greek or Tatar method, at the best, produced only a feeble aqueous beverage, without body, and impossible to keep. The wines of the Crimea, therefore, had no reputation; the mode of making them was defective; and it was necessary that there should be a complete revolution in the whole system of culture and manufacture before the vines of this country could enter into competition with those of foreign ones.

A number of proprietors in the Crimea resolutely undertook this task, and, with Prince Woronzof at their head, spared neither money nor encouragement of every kind. They procured from Spain and France, and the Rhine, plants from the most celebrated vineyards; and Prince Woronzof collected 200 sorts, in small quantities, at Aloupka, for experiments. They also brought over good vine-dressers, and consulted the best works on the subject. The most suitable lands on the coast were carefully prepared and covered with fine plantations. Experienced persons were brought over to teach the art of treating the wines; vast cellars were built and fitted up with immense vases; in short, neither trouble nor expense were spared to perfect the qualities of the wine. The enterprise, however, still failed, because the rich continued to drink Bordeaux and Burgundy, and the common consumers the cheap wine of Soudak and the Katcha; so that the bad old kinds of Crimean wines still found a market, and the good remained unsold in the cellars of the proprietors. As a remedy, the Crimean wine company was established, with a considerable capital, managed by M. Larguier, to buy the choice wines of the proprietors, and to place itself in relation with the principal towns of Russia; to make known by their travellers the best sorts of Crimean wines; and to have dépôts in the towns; and try, by every means, to remove the prejudices against them. This was the more necessary, as the common wine-merchants, by adulteration, continually depreciated them in the public estimation. The greater part of the weak wines of Soudak and the Katcha, which they bought cheap at the time of the vintage, and carried immediately to their cellars at Moscow, and elsewhere, were mixed with all kinds of substances, and lost their reputation as soon as tasted: the pure wine was nowhere procurable.

The head-quarters of the company were fixed at Soudak, and cellars and an office were established at Simpherópol. The commencement was difficult, as relations had to be established; and only inferior sorts could at first be bought with any chance of obtaining a profit. As the proprietors had been at great expense, they asked an enormous price for the good wines; and, besides this, their quality could never be depended upon, on account of the newness of the vineyards, and the consequently uncertain and variable flavour of the grapes.

The ancient culture of the vine by the Greeks and Tatars, who looked only to quantity, was carried on entirely on the flat grounds in the bottom of valleys, which were easy to irrigate. The valley of Soudak, which runs in nearly two miles from the sea to Taraktache, was adapted for this cultivation; and no doubt the vine was planted here in the early Greek times, when Athenæon flourished where Soudak was afterwards founded. At Alouchta, also, there was then much wine made, as is evident from the immense quantity of amphoræ found there.

The other vineyards of the Crimea were on the Katcha, the Belbek, and the Alma; where the clayey or limestone soil was favourable, and the valleys easy to irrigate. The climate however was inferior to Soudak, and so were the wines, with the exception of some parts of the valley of the Belbek near the sea. The vine is buried each winter in these valleys; and its culture must be very ancient, as wine-presses are found cut in the living rock in the grottoes of Katchi Kalene.

Such were the ancient vineyards of the Crimea.

The new vineyards extend all along the southern coast from a place near Kertch to Laspi. One of the first plantations was that of Laspi. M. Rouvier entered into an engagement with the government to introduce merino sheep, and plant with vines a certain extent of ground which should be given him; and, bringing his plants from Malaga, his wine retains some qualities of the original. In 1826, Prince Woronzof began the first vineyard of Ai Daniel. The Princess Galitzin began at the same time; and the example once set, vineyards quickly sprung up all along the coast; and already, in 1834, 2,000,000 of vines had been planted.

The climate of the coast is very like that of Provence. The winters are mild, the spring early, the summer hot and stormy, and the autumns long. In winter the thermometer seldom falls below 6° or 7° Réaumur. The soil is generally a black decomposed schist, mixed with limestone, and forms into a grey clay, more or less stony, very compact, and in dry weather impossible to work, so that it can only be broken up in winter, when softened by the rain. The vines are planted in terraces, and in winter have plenty of water from springs, which disappear in the dry time of the year. The grapes are retarded by this cause, and by the great heats of the coast, so that their development is checked till the rains of September, and then, being gathered very late, the fine quality of the wine is injured. Alouchta is the only place that never suffers from drought.

From wherever the plants come, they all, after a certain time, have a tendency to the strong qualities of the Spanish wines. In a new plantation, when the first grapes appear, they give a wine like that of the country from which they have been transplanted; but scarcely two more years pass before there is a change; and from year to year the difference becomes greater, till at the end of ten years there is no longer Burgundy or Bordeaux, but a particular sort of wine, far less delicate and strong.

The vineyards of Prince Woronzof at the Ai Daniel, and those of the Baron of Berckheim at the same place, where the plants have been kept totally distinct, give the results that have been mentioned. In the other vineyards the plants are much mixed, and Gros Bourgogne, and Pincan Fleuri, Rissling, Bordeaux, and Kakour, are all mixed together. The last plant, of uncertain origin, is said to give a very good flavour, and a bouquet which would make it sought even in Europe, as it differs greatly from all known wines. Here is planted also a certain quantity of Aleatico, and some ancient Crimean plants from the Katcha. The grape which loses the most of its primitive qualities by the change of climate is the Rissling from the banks of the Rhine. It has been particularly grown in the valley of Alouchta, where a schistous soil, mixed with calcareous particles and the detritus of sandstone, lighter, and less exposed to drought than the rest of the coast, would seem to recall the qualities of its primitive soil. At Miskhor also, Mr. Leon Narishkin planted, in 1834, a vineyard of Rissling, which produced a good wine, of a fine taste, but without the exquisite qualities of Rhine wine.

Everything then proves that the wines of the coast of the Crimea are still in a state of transition, and cannot have a fixed reputation for some time to come. Then alone can the wines of the Crimea be spoken of as a class, and their place will probably be between the fine wines of the north and the strong wines of Spain. The Crimea has so many different climates, and soils, and situations, that if the stony lands of the coast will not give the qualities desired, they may be found elsewhere. Long experience has shown that the soil and climate of the Heracleotic Chersonese is as favourable to the cultivation of the vine as that of the coast of the Crimea, for already in ancient times this peninsula had vineyards and cellars and amphoræ. This fact is, besides, proved by an inscription found in 1794 in the ruins of Kherson, stating that the people had voted a crown of ivy to Agazikletos, “who had made the cultivation of the vine to flourish in the country;”[201] so that this cultivation was a branch of the industry and commerce of the Khersonians.

Mr. Bardac, captain of the port of Sevastopol in 1803, again introduced the vine on the soil of the Chersonese, where the flocks of sheep and goats of the Tatars had extirpated it. He planted with vines from Smyrna some land near Sevastopol, on the ravine running into South Bay, and the successful results encouraged other proprietors. In 1834 a wine was made at least equal to any other in the Crimea, and this may perhaps be accounted for by the nature of the soil, which is a detritus of limestone, mixed with cinders and volcanic remains, the whole reposing on the rock as a subsoil.

I will now give some account of the prices of land in the Crimea. At the beginning of the present century the coast-lands were worth nothing, and persons were able to buy large tracts for a trifling sum, which they afterwards sold for fifty times their value. The Duc de Richelieu bought in 1817, for 140_l._, the estate of Oursouf, and laid out upon it about 800_l._ In 1834 the Prince Woronzof, who had become the proprietor, retained 200 acres, and resold the house and the remaining 80 acres for 4000_l._ The estate of Khanime, containing 160 acres, was bought by M. Poniatowski for 240_l._, and was valued in 1834 at upwards of 3000_l._ The lands fit for the vine in the valley of Alouchta, which were first sold at 15_s._ and 1_l._ an acre, now cost 30_l._ or 40_l._, and this is about the average price along the coast. The valuation of the new vineyards that have been planted can be only approximative, as no proprietors of them are inclined to sell. The valuation of a vineyard is made according to the number of plants it contains, and not according to the extent of the ground it covers. The number of plants varies considerably according to the nature of the soil, and there are generally 12,000 plants an acre in the heavy land, and 17,000 in the light land.

There were vineyards sold in 1842 at 600_l._ an acre, and afterwards at as much as 1000_l._ an acre, while on the gravelly soil they were not worth more than 80_l._ an acre.

In 1834 the Crimea possessed in new and ancient plantations 7,100,000 plants, distributed as follows:—

Vines. South-east Coast of the Crimea 1,600,000 Soudak, &c. 2,000,000 Valley of the Katcha 2,000,000 ” Alma 500,000 ” Belbek 500,000 German colonies. 500,000

Since that time the number of vineyards has enormously increased, but I have not been able to procure any details upon the subject.

The road from Soldaya to Theodosia is very mountainous, and the country thinly peopled. The great calcareous chain of mountains here recede from the sea, and are barely covered with a meagre vegetation, and only a few Tatar villages occupy the low valleys. Completely abandoned by the aristocracy, with impracticable roads, and none of the luxurious habitations which fashion has raised about Yalta, the shore between Alouchta and Theodosia is rarely visited by tourists, and only occasionally explored by some scientific traveller.

Although the coasts of Soudak are abandoned by the Russian nobles, although there are there no Italian villas, or Gothic mansions built in porphyry, there is instead a hearty welcome to the traveller and real Oriental hospitality. Far from the centres of civilization which the Russians have raised in the Crimea in the last twenty years, the Tatars of these regions have preserved intact the traditions of the past, and all the remarkable traits of their primitive character. In every village the traveller, especially if he be not a Russian, is received with the most affectionate care. Everywhere the best house, the most beautiful cushions and carpets, are placed at his disposal, and he is installed in a good apartment with coffee and a tchibouk, in a way which can be appreciated only by those who know the inconveniences as well as pleasures of travelling in the East. At Toklouk, Kouz, and Otouz, the Tatar dwellings, with their flat roofs, are raised against the hills which border the valley, and by this arrangement the inhabitants communicate generally by the terraces of their houses. Nothing can be more picturesque than the appearance of these terraces of an evening: at that moment the whole population, men, women, and children, are on the alert, and desert their dark chambers, where they seek a refuge against the sun during the heat of the day, to install themselves on the roofs of the houses.

The most agreeable animation succeeds the silence of the day, loud conversations are heard on all sides, and a very picturesque effect is produced by the various groups, who, still employed in household occupations, thus enjoy the coolness of the evening.

At Koktebel, a little village situated on the borders of the sea, about twenty miles from Soudak, near the sombre Cape Karadagh, are the really mountainous parts of the Crimea. Beyond it the country possesses no features of picturesque beauty; vast plains gradually succeed to the hills, and at a distance the Steppes, which form all the northern part of the peninsula, extend to the east of Theodosia as far as the Cimmerian Bosphorus. On all the line from Soudak to Theodosia there is no ancient monument or ruin; and the nature of the coast, sometimes abrupt, sometimes open and undefended, appears little favourable for the foundations of a town, or the establishment of either a military or commercial port.