Hotel OREANDA

Oreanda Hotel was certainly born under a lucky star since the place for the hotel in 1907 was chosen by Alexander Vitmer - a retired general of hussar regiment, professor of military history & tactics of the Academy of General Staff, writer and painter. Back to those times the hotel became the best one in Yalta district and the whole of Crimea. Pre-revolutionary guide-books inform that the hotel had "perfect provision, excellent furniture, mirror glasses, fresh air and a well kept garden around". In the hotel's lobby an incomparable smell of cigars mixed with a delicate aroma of ground coffee and expensive perfumes, its art saloon exhibited the masterpieces of Aivazovskiy, Shishkin, Makovskiy, Vereschagin and others who started cultural traditions of Oreanda. In 1918, during the revolutionary period in Yalta, the hotel served as a fort post and defensive fortification for the Crimean opponents of Bolsheviks. Machine gunners, being on the hotel roof, centered fire at sea front and its neighborhood until revolutionary sailors from the ship suppressed fire and damaged two rooms on the 3d floor. At the beginning of the World War II a military hospital was placed here. After the war the hotel was converted into a recreation center where the wounded soldiers and officers were treated. By the end of the 1950th after capital repairs Oreanda regained the status of a hotel. At the beginning of the 1970th the hotel was reconstructed with preserving a historical image. It's remarkable that a unique look of the architecture masterpiece of the early XXth century was also remained after complete modernization in 2001. In 2007 renewed and forever young, beautiful as never before, Oreanda crossed the threshold of its first century. Oreanda is well-known and beloved; it has been a symbol of Yalta and the most comfortable hotel in the Crimea for 100 years.