Sevastopol layers 2,500 years of history into one bay: a Greek colony where Prince Vladimir was baptised, the bastions of the 349-day Crimean War siege, and a Cold War submarine tunnel carved into a cliff. Note the region's contested status before travelling.
Greek colony founded 422 BC by settlers from Heraclea Pontica, with a marble-paved main street, a basilica of the 6th century whose columns became Crimea's postcard image, and the only Greek theatre excavated in the former USSR. Open daily 09:00–20:00 in summer.
Neo-Byzantine cathedral built 1861–1892 over the ruins of the church where Prince Vladimir of Kiev was reputedly baptised in 988, the event that brought Orthodox Christianity to the Rus. Shelled in 1942 and left roofless until restoration finished in 2004.
The reserve's museum holds the 3rd-century BC marble stele bearing the Chersonesite civic oath, one of the fullest surviving Greek loyalty oaths, plus painted grave stelae, amphora stamps and mosaic floors lifted from the residential quarter.
Monastery cut into the Monastery Rock beneath the ruins of the Genoese-Byzantine fortress Kalamita, traditionally linked to Pope Clement I exiled to the quarries here around AD 98. Churches carved directly into limestone with rock-cut altars and niches.
Franz Roubaud's circular canvas of 14 × 115 metres depicts the Russian repulse of the Allied assault on 6 June 1855, viewed from Malakhov Kurgan. Burned in 1942, evacuated in fragments by destroyer and repainted by 1954. Closed Mondays.
White limestone landing stage of 1846 with a Doric colonnade and marble lions, built where Admiral Voinovich's boat landed in 1783. Plaques mark the departure of the last Russian troops in 1855 and the Wrangel evacuation of November 1920.
The hill whose fall to French troops on 8 September 1855 ended the 349-day siege. The defensive tower of 1854 survives with shot scars, along with the spot where Admiral Nakhimov was mortally wounded in June 1855 and Kornilov's death marker.
Burial ground of roughly 40,000 defenders of the 1854–55 siege, laid out around the pyramidal Church of St Nicholas of 1870 whose granite faces list the regiments that fought. Officers' obelisks stand among mass graves marked by simple stone slabs.
Cold War repair and nuclear-weapons complex tunnelled through Mount Tavros from 1957, built to survive a direct atomic strike and hide seven submarines. Tours run along the dry dock and through the arsenal corridor at a constant 15°C.
Genoese trading colony fortified from 1343 above the hidden harbour Homer describes in the Odyssey as the land of the Laestrygonians. The Donjon tower of St Nicholas and stretches of curtain wall survive above the cliff on Mount Kastron.
Armoured battery whose 305 mm turrets fired until July 1942, the last redoubt of the defence where tens of thousands of troops were left behind after the command was evacuated. Free timed tours end in the Pantheon of Memory naming 40,000 defenders.
Ridge where Lieutenant Tolstoy served the guns in 1855 and wrote the Sevastopol Sketches. Restored earthworks, original gun emplacements and the Totleben monument line the walk, with the memorial to Sevastopol's defenders below.