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Cultural heritage of Crimea

Crimea is a unique territory: given its geographical and climatic specificity, the peninsula was inhabited by people as early as the Stone Age. From the advent of the first people in the territory of Ukraine until the contemporary period, Crimea has seen developments related to the history of many peoples and civilizations, all of whom have left unique and invaluable sites. Museums of Crimea are the oldest in Ukraine. Their collections are colossal, extremely riveting and diverse.

In the museums of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, there were about 930,000 items of the State Part of the Museum Fund of Ukraine.

Out of more than 320,000 museum items stored in the museum institutions of the city of Sevastopol and the Sevastopol City Council, about 200,000 were in the collection of the National Preserve of Tauric Chersonesos.

118 objects had the status of monuments of national importance (excluding intra-complex ones). In 2020, another 182 monuments were accorded such status. One object from Ukraine and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea is inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List – the Ancient City of Tauric Chersonese and its Chora in Sevastopol (2013).

A peculiarity of Crimea before the occupation was that the Constitution of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea confers to the republic the responsibility for regulating matters of museums and historical-cultural reserves. This, unfortunately, led to the fact that the central bodies of the executive power of Ukraine do not have complete information about museums and nature reserves. Annual archaeological research in occupied Crimea, including excavations at construction sites, drawing up new site plans of Crimean cities, reviewing the compliance of objects with the status of monuments, combining cultural heritage objects into complexes or changes in toponymy and territory, are changing the cultural landscape of Crimea beyond recognition.

Sources

Tytova O. M. (2016). Kulturna spadshchyna Krymu ta Donbasu za suchasnykh umov: zahrozy, vtraty, perspektyvy zberezhennya. Kulturni tsinnosti Krymu i Donbasu v umovakh viyny ta okupatsiyi: Materialy Kruhloho stolu “Istoryko-kulturnyy ta naukovyy potentsial Pivdnya ta Skhodu Ukrayiny v umovakh okupatsiyi ta voyennykh diy: zahrozy, vtraty, perspektyvy zberezhennya ta vidnovlennya”; Kyiv, 12 November 2015. Kyiv: Institute of History of Ukraine of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.
Stan obiektiv kulturnoyi spadshchyny v okupovanomu Krymu (2014–2019) / Ablyalimova E. N., Yashnyy D. V.; with the participation of Andreyuk Ye. S., PhD in Law Busol K. I., PhD in Law Koval D. O., Levada M. Ye.; cartography – Enver Chashly.