State Historical and Archaeological Museum-Reserve 'Chersonesus Taurica'

About museum

The ancient city of Chersonesus Taurica was founded by the Greeks in the 5th century BCE. It experienced Roman rule and Byzantine dominion. In the 13th–14th centuries the city was gradually destroyed, its last inhabitants left, and only in the 19th century did it receive its second birth as an archaeological monument. In 1827, by order of Admiral A. S. Greig, the first excavations of Chersonesus were carried out. Later, at the initiative of the Imperial Archaeological Commission, Karl Kazimirovich Kotsyushko-Valyuzhinich was appointed head of the Chersones excavations. Today the Chersones Reserve is a major research and museum institution, overseeing 418 hectares of archaeological territory. Its museum collection contains more than 214,000 exhibits, and its archival holdings amount to nearly 90,000 documents. The reserve's research library contains over 30,000 different books, including unique ones.