Feodosiia
4
gazetteer entry: port
plain
2020-03-25T14:07:14-04:00
Short Universal Geography
The most important of Tavrida's port towns; has a superior harbor.
New and Complete Geographical Dictionary (part 6, page 290-291)
Toponym: Feodosiia
What Maksimovich would have you know about Feodosiia:It is the most famous of all towns in Tavrida Province. Known to the Ottomans and Tatars as Kefe (Maksimovich also mentions "the more ancient" toponym Krym-Stambuli, or Crimean Constantinople) it was renamed Feodosiia when Catherine II annexed Crimea in 1783.
The city lies on sandy and rocky slopes that extend from the cape on the right, while on the left the land leads to the Kerch peninsula. A bay extends eastward from Feodosiia toward Cape Tash Kachik. As far as the city itself there are high fortified walls which, when the city was at its height, held 12 Greek churches, 32 Armenian churches, and 1 Roman Catholic church.
Settled first by Greeks, by the 13th century it belonged to the Genoese. It was the seat of a Greek diocese that extended from Saraj (on the Volga) to Varna (in Bulgaria).
Between 1344 and 1475 the city cycled through siege, destruction, and rebuilding, until it fell to the Ottomans. The Ottomans transferred the city's great wealth - in treasure and people - to Constantinople, leaving Kefe a heap of ruins. The last khan of Crimea took it as his capital, building a palace, divan, and customs house, and even moving the mint from Bahcesaray.
