Tauric Chersonesus

Tauric Chersonesus stands on the edge of Sevastopol, by the sea. It is an ancient Greek city: settlers from Heraclea Pontica founded the colony in the 5th century BC, by tradition about 422. Columns of an early Christian basilica stand among the ruins. Finds are shown in the museum on the site.

From the cape the sea shows over a low rocky shore. On a windy day the waves break on the stone and the water turns pale. This is the sea Ivan Aivazovsky painted.

The Greek city

The Greeks took this shore from the Tauri and the Scythians and planted colonies along the Black Sea, but they hardly went inland. Chersonesus lived by trade with Greece and with the north. In the 3rd century BC the city minted its own coins. Slaves were sold with the other goods. In the 2nd and 1st centuries BC the city sought an alliance with the kingdom of Pontus against the Scythians.

Rome and Byzantium

Under Rome the city kept part of its self-government in return for help against neighbouring tribes. Stones still carry inscriptions about repairs to the walls. Church tradition says that Clement, author of the letter to the Corinthians, was exiled here under Trajan around the year 100. He preached, and later he was tied to an anchor and thrown into the sea.

The bell by the sea was cast in 1778 and used as a signal in fog. In the 4th century Constantinople rose on the far shore. The basilica, and a tradition that the city's bishop sat at the Council of Nicaea in 325, are the local signs of Christianity.

In the 9th century, on their way to the Khazars, Cyril and Methodius stopped in Chersonesus. The script of their mission became the basis of Cyrillic. Tradition says Cyril found bones and an anchor in a burial mound, recognised them as the relics of Clement, and took them to Rome. Pope Adrian II placed them in the basilica of San Clemente.

Kyivan Rus

In the 10th century Kyivan Rus was taking shape north of Crimea, with its centre in Kyiv. A monument to Volodymyr stands on the site. In 988 he took the city from the Byzantines and demanded their sister Anna as his wife. He was baptised, married Anna, and returned Chersonesus. In Kyiv people were then baptised in the Dnipro. He was later called Saint Volodymyr.

Decline

Under Byzantium the city held on until the 13th century. Trade passed to the Venetians and the Genoese, to Sudak and to Caffa, present-day Feodosia. After the raids of the 13th and 14th centuries Chersonesus emptied. The ruins lay underground for several hundred years. The first excavations began in 1827 and still continue. In 2013 the Ancient City of Tauric Chersonese and its Chora was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Crimea is temporarily occupied by the Russian Federation. For now it is not a place for tourism.