Mount Mithridate

Mount Mithridate, on the slopes of which once stood the ancient city of Panticapaeum, is the main attraction and the heart of Kerch. The famous grand staircase leads there, and it offers a magnificent view of the Kerch Bay and the surrounding area.

Panticapaeum

Once this mountain was nameless. The ancient city of Panticapaeum grew in terraces on its slopes. The city was founded around the 8th century BC, and by the 6th it had become the centre of a large union of Greek polities. At the top of the mountain was the acropolis, the central part of the city. In the centre of the acropolis stood the temple of Apollo. Apparently, it was the main and common temple for all allied cities. Apollo was worshipped here as a healer - after all, the famous physician Asclepius was his son. We know this from the inscriptions preserved here with the dedication "Apollo the Physician". The temple even minted its own coin with the image of Apollo. From the temple survived only the remains of the foundation and fragments of the capitals of columns, but scientists are confident enough to reconstruct its appearance. It was not the only temple of the acropolis - there was also a temple of the gods of wine and love - Dionysus and Aphrodite. From it the foundation was preserved.

On the acropolis stood the royal palace. Two royal dynasties ruled in Panticapaeum - the Archeonakdites (after the name of the first archon Archonaktos) and the Spartakids. Almost all of them we know by name, because coins with their images have been preserved. The present Obelisk of Glory is on the site of the former royal palace.

And the most beautiful tourist object, against the background of which the sea views are usually filmed - remains of the colonnade. They belong to the building of the pritanei, that is, the council of state. The colonnade was raised from the ground during excavations and restoration works in 1976; now restoration is underway.

Mithridates Eupator

The mountain was named after a very historical person - Mithridates IV Eupator (Pontic). He lived in the II-I centuries BC and became famous for his wars with Ancient Rome. His name is closely connected with the history of Crimea.

For example, it is in his honour that Evpatoria is named - it was a fortress that he put here after his victory over the tribes of the Taurians. Panticapaeum was then the capital of the Bosporan kingdom. The last Bosporan king - Parisad - was ready to abdicate the throne in favour of Mithridates, king of Pontus. But this was resented by some of the nobility led by Savmak and seized power. The revolt lasted for several years, but in 107 BC Panticapaeum was captured by Mithridates.

After that, Mithridates decided to expand the boundaries of his possessions further - and faced the eastern provinces of Rome. Historians count three "Mithridates Wars" - grand clashes between the forces of Mithridates and those of Rome and its allies. The struggle lasted more than thirty years. The wars ended with a complete victory of Rome - in 66 BC Mithridates was forced to return to Panticapaeum and deal with the internal affairs of his kingdom: some of the Bosporan cities rebelled against him. Eventually his own son, Pharnak, joined the conspiracy. After learning about it, Mithridates committed suicide on the acropolis of Pantikopeia, and the mountain received his name.

Archaeological excavations on Mithridates

Mount Mithridates has been a place of urban development since antiquity and is still inhabited by people. At the same time it is riddled with catacombs, ancient masonry and foundations, and there are numerous legends among the townspeople about the treasures buried in it. For example, still looking for the golden horse of Mithridates - a precious statue, which allegedly buried him in the grave.

In the 19th century, houses built on the mountain could be distinguished by the use of preserved fragments of ancient buildings. The townspeople used these remains, not distinguishing temple columns from funerary sarcophagi, all that they could - let for construction. Simple Kerch residents began the first excavations on the mountain. But they were not interested in science, they were interested only in search of various antiquities, which could be profitably sold. Antique shops in the city were overflowing with antique finds. When in 1859 finally began official excavations under the guidance of scientists - had to specially hire armed soldiers to protect the excavations. The study of monuments was led by the Odessa Society for the Study of Antiquities.

After the revolution, when the search for treasures intensified, Kerch Museum simply allowed excavations to all, but stipulated to itself the priority right to buy finds.

Excavations and study of the remains of the ancient city continue to the present time. Before the revolution, the leading researcher was Vladislav Vyacheslavovich Shkorpil - he excavated mainly the northern slope of the mountain, on which part of the necropolis is located. In the thirties, the work almost stopped - in any case, there were no reports and findings about them. A full-fledged study of Mithridates and the remains of Panticapaeum was started after the war. These works were carried out under the leadership of Vladimir Dmitrievich Blavatsky, head of the sector of ancient archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology of the USSR Academy of Sciences. He owns many articles and the most fundamental modern book about the city of Panticapaeum.

The research continues up to the present time: on Mount Mithridates one can still see open excavations in summer.

Mithridates Stairs

In the first half of the 19th century the city was actively rebuilt. The town governor at that time was Zakhar Semyonovich Kherkheulidzev. He came from a noble Georgian family, at one time was an adjutant to M. Vorontsov. Vorontsov, fought in the Russian-Turkish. He married a Kerch native, merchant's daughter Lydia Kushnikova, loved the city very much - and started a big construction here. The new Kerch was to be built according to the regular principle: with straight streets, smooth neighbourhoods, landscaped embankments - and of course the city was to have a grand staircase!

The project was entrusted to the Tuscan architect Alexander Digby. He came to Russia back in the late 18th century. He became the chief architect in Astrakhan, then Odessa, he built a lot in the Caucasus. He owns the project of the first hospital building in Pyatigorsk - the resort was just beginning to develop. Astrakhan owes its planning to him - it was he who developed the general construction plan. And at the end of his life he worked a lot in Kerch.

A peculiarity of his project was the orientation on the "reverse perspective". From below, all the flights of the staircase should seem the same. In fact, it expands - each next tier is larger than the previous one.

The staircase was damaged during the Crimean War, and it was restored in the 1860s. The monument had to be restored again after the Great Patriotic War. Statues of griffins were broken, part of the spans collapsed. Griffins managed to restore the sculptor Roman Vladimirovich Serdyuk. This man devoted his life to the decoration of Kerch. He organised an art school here. Practically all post-war monuments in the city were created by him or his students, and not so long ago opened a monument to himself. The staircase was continued - the concrete section, built in the post-war years, now leads to the very top. Originally, according to the architect's idea, the staircase had three hundred steps, and now it has 423.

Unfortunately, at the moment the staircase is under threat. In 2015, part of the spans collapsed, now the restoration of the architectural monument is underway.

Small Mithridates Staircase (Konstantinovskaya)

From the north to the mountain leads another grand staircase, which is also an architectural monument. The staircase was built in 1866 on the wave of rebuilding and improvement of the city after the Crimean War.

The funds for its construction were donated by the merchant of the 1st guild Alexei Kirillovich Konstantinov - this is what gave the second name to the staircase. The merchant was much engaged in charity. His mansion at one time housed the first female gymnasium of Kerch, on his money was repaired men's gymnasium.

For his participation in the improvement of the city he was awarded the Order of St. Stanislaus 3rd degree. His name can still be seen on the white marble plaque at the foot of the stairs.

Remembrance of the Great Patriotic War

The Obelisk of Glory is installed on the top of the mountain. This is one of the first monuments to heroes in the USSR - it was erected before the end of hostilities, on 8 August 1944. For the construction of the monument went to the remains of the completely destroyed by the Nazis Holy Trinity Cathedral. From the entire cathedral complex remained only the school building, now on it hangs a memorial plaque in memory of the lost temple.

The architect of the monument was A. D. Kiselev. D. Kiselev. The monument is a 24 metre high stele with three cannons on its sides. On the face of the stele, facing the city, is fixed the sign of the Order of Glory. On the marble memorial slab are written the names of soldiers who participated in the liberation of Crimea and received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union - a total of one hundred forty-six people. The silhouette of the mountain with the obelisk on it became the main symbol of the city - it is visible from everywhere, from land and from the sea. Since 1959 the eternal flame burns next to the stela.

After the war, both the stairs and the mountain became symbols of Victory. The custom of climbing the mountain in the evening on 8 May with candles and torches to celebrate the victory and honour the memory of those buried here arose. Now it is already an official annual torchlight procession, in which every year more and more people participate.

Interesting facts

• Mithridates of Pontus, although he died on Mount Mithridates, was buried not here at all, but in his homeland in Sinope.
• It is said that it was on the Mithridates stairs that the young actress Fanny Feldman came to mind to take the stage name "Ranevskaya".

On a side note

• Location: Kerch, Mount Mithridate.

• How to get there: shuttle buses: №23, №5, №3 to the Lenin stop.

• Entrance is free.