| The winding streets and old wooden houses of Hurzuf, backed by Mt Roman-Kosh (1545 meters), are a magnet for artists and writers. The town is about 18 km north-east of Yalta, built around a picturesque little bay with a rocky massif called the Genoese Cliff at its eastern end. The 565-meter hump of Bear Mountain looms along the coast to the east, protruding out into the sea. The town once had a substantial Tatar population, but today the tight pack of wooden houses is somewhat marred by ugly development higher up, and the nice long beach is spoiled by concrete walls and elevated piers that subdivide it.
Behind the bathing beaches just west of the town center are the iron gates of Hurzursky Park which contains a bunch of sanatoria, some friendly red squirrels and busts of artistic figures associated with Crimea. Several of the 19th-century sanatoria in the park are stunning wooden structures wth splendid detailing. The main dining hall of the Hurzufsky Sanatorium, formerly an elite restaurant, has beautiful ornate wooden vaults. Next to the sanatorium is a former hotel (now housing a military sanatorium) with carved wooden balconies and a sculptural fountain in front. On the opposite side of the same park to the west is Pushkin in Crimea Museum. The museum is housed in the dacha of the Duc de Richelieu, former governor of Odessa. The museum has a nice selection of exhibits concerning Pushkin and the history of Hurzuf, including some Tatar artifacts.
Stretching east from the old bus station in the center of the town is Leningradskaya street, the curving, picturesque main street with overhanging wooden balconies and a few cafes and odd shops. Tschekhova street runs parallel to the Tschekhov dacha, now a museum near the foot of the Genoese Cliff with a pretty little garden overlooking a small cove.
On the Genoese Cliff are the remains of a 6th to 15th-century clifftop fortress founded by the Byzantines and rebuilt by Genoese. Signs say it’s dangerous to climb on the crag, but a little path round to the left leads through a rock tunnel to the sea-cliff edge.
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