An attractive location in the center of the old city

An attractive location in the center of the old city

The Kaffa Inn is located in the historical, cultural and entertaining center of Feodosia. Next to the Kaffa Inn there are cafes, restaurants, discotheques, night clubs and architectural monuments.

Within 10 minutes on foot there is a city beach. Feodosia (in Greek the name means “given by God”) is a  Russian resort and a port city near the Black sea on the southeast coast of Crimea.

It is a modern transport hub where many roadways, railways and seaways cross. There is an airport for all types of planes 130 kilometers away from the city.

Landmarks within walking distance from the inn

The most famous landmarks of Feodosia are medieval sites: several towers (the Tower of Saint Kostantin, the Dokovaya and Round Towers and the Tower of Foma) and the ruins of the Genoese Fortress (walls fragments and the well-preserved Crisco and Saint Clemens Towers). Among other medieval sites there are also Armenian churches of John the Baptist, Saint Sergey (the base of this church’s architectural composition is a rectangle with an altar jog and a round vault; in the church’s walls there are a lot of flagstones with inscriptions in Armenian), Saint George and the Archangels Michael and Gabriel (built in 1408, it was made from the local quarry stone and topped with a octagonal dome) and the Armenian fountain.

The only preserved Muslim house of worship built during the reign of the Ottoman Sultans is the mosque of Mufti-Jami. It was built in 1623 from big ashlar stones. The mosque was rebuilt several times. Having studied the fragments of the original building, experts came to the conclusion that the architecture of the mosque had been influenced by the Byzantine style and the prominent Turkish architect Sinan.

The history of Feodosia

Feodosia was founded by Greek colonists from Miletus in the sixth century BC. Since 355 BC the city has become a part of the Bosporan Kingdom, an ancient slave country in the north Black Sea region near the Cimmerian Bosporus (now known as the Kerch Strait).

It was destroyed by Huns during the Dark Ages in the fourth century. During this period the region was inhabited by Alans, Iranian tribes of Sarmatian origin,the ancestors of modern Ossetian. This is why the settlement got the Alanian name of Ardabda which means “the place of seven gods”. In the fifth century the city became a part of the Byzantine Empire. In the sixth century it was captured by Khazars, semi-nomadic Turkic people, but later became a part of the Byzantine Empire again. During the next centuries it became controlled by the Golden Horde reigned by descendants of Jochi, the eldest son of Genghis Khan.

Later the place was bought by Genoese merchants (Genoa is a port city in the north of Italy) who founded a prospering commercial port city of Kaffa that monopolized trade in the Black Sea and became the main port and a center of Genoese colonies administration in the North Black Sea region. The population of the city was more than 70000 people, there was a theater and a mint. At that time the city was flourishing.

In 1475 Kaffa was annexed by Ottoman forces, as well as all other Genoese colonies. The city became one of the Turkish Black Sea ports. It had the biggest slave market in the North Black Sea region where thousands of slaves captured by Turkish during their raids to Ukrainian, Russian and Polish lands were sold every year. During the Ottoman rule the city was often called Kyuchuk-Istanbul – Small Istanbul – because of its importance and big population. In 1682 there were 4000 houses in the city: 3200 of them were Muslim and 800 – Christian. During the Turkish rule the significance of the city was declining gradually, as well as its population, even though it remained a fortified point.

In 1771 Feodosia was captured by Russians and in 1774 it became the part of Russia according to the treaty of Kucuk Kaynarca. In 1787 Feodosia was included into the Taurida Oblast (a province of the Russian Empire) and was visited by empress Catherine the Second. In 1798 the city was declared porto-franko for 30 years (which means that it became a port with free import and export of commodities without customs duties). In 1802 the district administration was moved to Feodosia and a governor’s office was established there (however, it was abolished in 1827). In 1804 the city got its ancient name of Feodosia. It was an insignificant city until 1892, when it was connected with Russian interior provinces by the railroad. In 1778, during the Crimean Christian population resettlement to Pryazovia organized by the Russian government, 5511 Armenians, 1648 Greeks and 24 Georgians left Kefe. The population of Feodosia was: 3700 in 1829, 4500 in 1838, 8400 in 1861, 10600 in 1874 and 17000 in 1894.

In the nineteenth century the famous marine painter Ivan Aivazovsky lived and worked in Feodosia. In 1892-1895 a branch line from Dzhankoy, a city of republican subordination in the north of Crimea, to Feodosia was built. In 1899 a new port was built and it led to the industrial development of the city. In 1897 27238 people (15995 men and 11243 women) lived in Feodosia: 1600 Russians, 3200 Tatars, 3000 Jews, 1700 Crimean Karaites, 1500 Armenians and 1800 people of other nationalities.

In the first years of the Soviet Union the population of Feodosia declined (35400 people in 1921 and 28700 in 1926). Later it was developing as an industrial center according to the five-years plans.

During the Great Patriotic War Feodosia was occupied by the German army in November, 1941. On the 26-30^th  of December the Red Army landing force reached Feodosia, and the city became Soviet again. On the 18^th of January the German troops occupied Feodosia for the second time. During the Red Army general offensive in the end of 1943 the city was liberated. Feodosia got the Order of the Patriotic War, 1^st class. Intense battles destroyed a great part of the city.

In 1954 the Crimean Oblast (including Feodosia) became a part of the Ukrainian Soviet Republic. In the early 1970^th the city got the health resort status. In 2014 Feodosia became a part of Russia.