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Imperiia: a spatial history of the Russian Empire

Crimea's southern coast, 1817

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Garden Locator
Ready to turn the clock back to the early nineteenth century?
"Gardens of Crimea" highlights the 809 orchards registered as state properties in the early years of Russian imperial rule. The registers associate each orchard plot with one of eighty-nine villages, but for thirty we have data identifying tree quantities and types. Those thirty villages are highlighted in this project.

In 1817 a cartographer named Semyon Mukhin working for the Military Topographical Depot of the Russian General Staff produced a ground-breaking topographical survey map of Crimea.
Newer isn't always better.
Mukhin published his map twenty-four years after the compilation of the garden registers - that is a meaningful amount of time in which all sorts of things changed. Wars, droughts, earthquakes, tragedies and triumphs of all kinds. And hundreds - maybe even thousands - of maps have been made of Crimea between 1817 and today. Nevertheless, this is the first map produced at a scale that allows us a detailed look at the peninsula's topography. It allows us to see each village in its historical context. The modern elements we are used to - roads, rail lines, boundaries, etc. - are missing: take this opportunity to retrain your eye to see space the way it was long ago.

Here is a zoomed-in view of the southern coast of the peninsula. Move your cursor across the image to see the garden locations. The villages are listed below as "tagged" pages - go to any location page by clicking the placename.
Mulberry
Щелковица; Morus alba et nigra
Prevalence in tree population: 1% (125 trees)
Occurrence rate: 37%
Season: July

Mulberry trees made up 10% of classified trees at Foros; 35% of the mulberries grew at Magarach.
Where are the Orchards?
Move your cursor over the map below. White rectangles will appear showing the locations of villages with orchards containing mulberry trees.
Plum
Слива; Prunus domestica
Prevalence in tree population: 40% (6,272 trees)
Occurrence rate: 93%

The plum is by far the dominant tree on the orchard registers (hazelnuts are a distant second with 14% of the tree population). Plums were widespread and prominent, with an average of 224 trees in the collected gardens of each village (whereas the average number of apple trees was 25).

Where are the Orchards?
Move your cursor over the map below. White rectangles will appear showing the locations of villages with orchards containing plum trees.
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Masandra There were 23 orchards at Masandra (Massandra), all previously owned by Greeks. (Hundreds of Greeks left this village in 1778.)

Massandra was among the estate properties of Prince Mikhail Semyonovich Vorontsov, Governor-General of New Russia (Novorossiya) and Bessarabia from 1823 until 1844. Largely by virtue of its productive vineyards and orchards, by the end of the nineteenth century Massandra had become the economic crown jewel of Vorontsov’s holdings, while Alupka, with its ostentatious palace, acquired the most fame.