Kafa is a city that has experienced its rise and fall, sheltering representatives of different nations on its land, having a rich history and very beautiful nature. It was originally called Theodosia, references to which can be found in Homer’s poem “The Odyssey”. In different historical periods, the cafe was a center of trade and was repeatedly drowned in blood... The city, like a phoenix, rose from the ashes and was rebuilt in spite of all its enemies. Today Feodosia is a wonderful resort that receives a huge number of tourists.
Ancient history of the city
There is practically no reliable information left about the first settlers of Kafa, only myths and legends. It is known that at the end of the 6th century BC. e. from Miletus they came to the bay. The colonists liked the area, so they stopped here and founded a trading port. Thanks to trade, Kafa grew and became rich in a short time. The city already in the 4th century BC. e. competed with the influential Panticapaeum. Of course, it wasn't without troubles. For several decades, the Bosporan kingdom attacked Feodosia, trying to subjugate it. The city experienced ups and downs, it suffered greatly in the middle of the 4th century AD. e. after the invasion of the Huns. Up to the XII century. the future Kafa lay in ruins.
Settlement of the Genoese
In the 13th century, Kafa came into the possession of merchants from Genoa. Feodosia at that time belonged to the Tatars. The merchants bought a piece of land from them and named it Kafa. They very quickly rebuilt the city, defending it with a powerful fortification with high walls and towers, as well as a huge moat filled with water. The favorable geographical position allowed the Cafe to become a major port; it was here that trade routes leading to the West and East intersected. Merchants transported furs, wheat, jewelry, salt, wax, oriental spices and, of course, slaves. Here was the largest slave market in Crimea.
Life in the Cafe could not be called calm: the Genoese were constantly at war with the Tatars and their competitors - the Venetian merchants. Despite well-planned attacks by enemies, the city survived, rebuilt and continued trading. People of various nationalities lived here: Greeks, Armenians, Russians, Tatars, Jews and others.
War with the Turks
In 1475, Kafa completely passed to the Turks. The city was first devastated, but as soon as the conquerors realized how profitable it could be, they immediately rebuilt it. Kafa continued to be a major trading port; up to four hundred ships could stop here at the same time. The main commodity was slaves. In 1616, an army of Cossacks came here, freed their compatriots from captivity and completely defeated the Turkish fleet. There were also raids in 1628 and 1675.
Joining Russia
In 1783, Kafa passed to the Russians. The city, which had been considered Turkish for three centuries, now belonged to Empress Catherine II and again renamed it Feodosia. From that time on, a period of devastation began. The former great and rich port could no longer recover, the buildings were destroyed, trade with other countries was stopped. The Russians freed the city from duties, but this did little to save it. Only at the end of the 19th century did Feodosia begin to come to life and develop a resort area.
At first, the city suffered from the consequences of the First World War, but then, during the formation of Soviet power, it was no easier. But gradually the former Kafa began to turn into an industrial center. A brick and hydro-lime factory, a meat processing plant, a tobacco and knitting factory appeared here. The city of Feodosia suffered greatly during the Second World War; only in 1944 did people begin to rebuild it little by little.
Modern Feodosia
Today the city is a major cultural and industrial center of Crimea. Feodosia is visited annually by tourists from Asia and Europe, who are attracted by the local health resorts, good beaches, and also very tasty wines.
The first settlements on the site of modern Feodosia appeared about 10 thousand years ago, during the Neolithic era. At numerous sites of primitive people in the vicinity of the city, flint arrowheads and spears, stone chisels, scrapers and other tools were discovered. In the 1st millennium BC. e. Tribes of the Cimmerians, Scythians, and Taurians lived in this area. Traces of Scythian material culture were discovered in burial mounds in the vicinity of Feodosia.
The history of Feodosia proper begins in the 6th century BC. e., when merchants from the Greek city of Miletus founded a small trading post on the shore of a convenient bay. The settlement was named, which translated from Greek means “given by God.” Quite soon, the trading post turned into a large polis, establishing trade and political ties with other Greek city-states and surrounding tribes.
In 355 BC. e. Feodosia is captured by the Bosporan ruler Leukon I. The city became the most important grain granary of the Bosporan kingdom, and the city port became the second most important after the capital - Panticapaeum (modern Kerch). Over the next 300 years, the city experienced an era of economic growth and cultural prosperity.
During the decline of the Greek colonies in Crimea at the turn of the old and new eras, many Greek cities on the peninsula were captured by Roman legions. The city was going through hard times, and at the end of the 4th century it was destroyed by the nomadic tribe of the Huns. In subsequent centuries, on the site of Feodosia there was a small Alan settlement of Ardabda (Semibozhnaya). At the end of the 7th - beginning of the 8th centuries, the Khazars invaded the peninsula, as a result of which many Christian settlements disappeared. The Khazars also capture Ardabda. Then, for several centuries, Feodosia became a Byzantine fortification.
In 1223, after the Tatars captured the peninsula, the territory of Feodosia became part of the Crimean ulus of the Golden Horde. However, soon Genoese merchants acquired a section of the coast of Feodosia Bay from the Tatars and founded a trading settlement here, which they gave the name Kafa (Kaffa). To protect the city from uninvited guests, they erected a powerful fortress, the walls and towers of which have survived to this day. The Genoese owned the city for two centuries and during this time made it the administrative center of their vast Crimean possessions. At this time, Kafa is the largest trading port of the northern Black Sea region. Trade routes between the West and the East pass through it. The multinational city, whose population reaches 80 thousand people, mints its own coin and is not inferior to the most important European capitals in terms of living standards.
In the XIII-XV centuries, Kafa became the center of the slave trade. The Caen slave market was notorious throughout Europe. Numerous documents have been preserved indicating that “living goods” - slaves - were the main object of trade for the Genoese.
After the fall of Constantinople in 1453 and the death of Byzantium, the city began to lose its commercial importance. In 1475, Kafa was captured by the Ottoman Turks, who renamed it Kefe. The residence of the Sultan's governor in Crimea was built in the city, at which a large garrison was located. The Turks thoroughly rebuilt the city in their own way, decorating it with mosques, minarets, and oriental bathhouse buildings.
Starting from the second half of the 16th century, Russian squads undertook military campaigns against the Crimean Khanate, including against the Turkish fortress of Kefe. Two centuries later, the city still becomes Russian. In 1771, during the Russian-Turkish War, the fortress was taken by the army of Prince V.M. Dolgorukov. In 1783, Crimea was annexed to the Russian Empire, and a year later the ancient name was returned to the city. In 1787, Feodosia, with the rights of a county town, became part of the Tauride province.
For several decades, life in the city practically came to a standstill. And only at the end of the 19th century, after the railway line from Dzhankoy was laid and the construction of the port was completed, Feodosia turned into a large trading port, through which Crimean and Little Russian wheat was exported in large quantities, as well as oil discovered in the vicinity of Feodosia. Soon, an iron foundry, three tobacco factories, a brick and tile factory, a confectionery factory and other industries began operating in the city. As Feodosia developed, it gradually lost its centuries-old appearance. Many old buildings were dismantled into stones, from which new houses were built. At the same time, the resort development of Feodosia began. Many wealthy Crimeans build their dachas and villas on the shores of the Feodosia Bay.
During the Civil War of 1918-1920, the city alternately belonged to whites and reds. The last units of the White Army left Feodosia on November 17, 1920. Soviet power was finally established in the city, which resulted in mass executions of ordinary people suspected of involvement in the “counter-revolution.”
In 1921, the first health resort was opened in the city. The city began to develop as a medical resort. During the Great Patriotic War, Feodosia was occupied by German troops. During the Kerch-Feodosia landing operation on December 29-30, 1941, the enemy was briefly pushed out of the city. Feodosia was completely liberated from the Germans only on April 13, 1944. During the bombing of the city, many archaeological and architectural monuments were destroyed.
After the war, enterprises of the military-industrial complex began to operate in Feodosia. The city was closed to foreigners. In 1972, construction of the Feodosia branch of the North Crimean Canal was completed, and ten years later the city was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree. In recent years, Feodosia has been actively developing the resort and tourism and excursion industries.
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Kafa: Kafa is the name of the city of Feodosia in the 12th-15th centuries, in Russian sources until the 18th century. see Genoese fortress in Feodosia. Kafa people in Ethiopia Kafa is an ancient Kabardian folk mass dance ... Wikipedia
Name of the city of Feodosia in Crimea, other Russian. Cafe, Skaz. Mom. 49, Afan. Nikit., as well as Shambinago, PM 72 et seq.; Wed Greek Καφᾶς (Const. Bagr., De adm. imp. 53), it. Caffa (XIV century; see Vasmer, Iranier 72). Wed. Arab. tour. kafa skull (Radlov 2, 459) ... Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language by Max Vasmer
- (Kaffa) the name of the city of Feodosia in Crimea from the 2nd half. 13th century, renamed in 1783 ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary
KAFA (Kaffa), the name of the city of Feodosia in Crimea from the 2nd half. 13th century, renamed in 1783 ... encyclopedic Dictionary
I Kafa is an ancient Kabardian folk mass dance. The pace is moderate. Musical time signature is 6/8 or 3/4. Performed in pairs. The dancers are accompanied by a woman on the harmonica. Without interrupting the game, she also joins in the dance. K. begins and... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia
Cafe- Kefe from the ancient Italian “skull”, the medieval name of Feodosia... Toponymic Dictionary of Crimea
"Kaffa" request is redirected here; see also other meanings. This article should be Wikified. Please format it according to the rules for formatting articles... Wikipedia
Landscapes of the city of Feodosia. Legend: Delta-marine plain ... Wikipedia
The city came under the control of the Roman (Byzantine) Empire, was captured by the Khazars in the 6th century, and then again transferred to Byzantium. Over the next centuries it existed as a small village, which came under the influence of the Golden Horde in the 13th century.
Kaffa - the capital of the Genoese Crimea
From 1266, over about two centuries (until 1475), the Genoese created a prosperous trading port city of Caffa (Greek) on the site of the destroyed Feodosia. Καφᾶς , Italian Caffa, tour. kafa (“skull”), also Old Persian. kaōfa - (“mountain ridge”).
In 1308, Kaffa was besieged and assaulted by the Khan of the Golden Horde, Tokhta. However, the Genoese managed to agree with his successor Khan Uzbek on the existence of the colony. Since 1313, the city was governed in Genoa by a special council Gazaria Office(Officium Gazariae), and in Caffa directly by the consul with the help of the council of pharmacists (trustees) and the council of elders.
In 1346-1347 the city was besieged by the troops of Khan Janibek.
In the same year, Caffa became one of the first European cities on the path of the Black Death, the second plague pandemic. With ships and rats, the plague spread further to Constantinople and the Mediterranean ports. .
Despite periodic wars, the Genoese maintained generally allied relations with the Golden Horde khans, who were formally the supreme rulers of the territories of the colonies, granting them complete self-government within the walls of the cities, and appointing a special prefect from the natives of the Crimea to govern the rural district of the Kafinian possessions.
Around 1474, the city was visited by Afanasy Nikitin, who mentioned it in his travel notes “Walking across the Three Seas”.
Temples of Kaffa
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Feodosia kenassa |
Kefe - residence of the Turkish governor
The main type of trade in Caffa in the 15th-16th centuries. was the slave trade. Most of the yasyr, which the Crimean Khan captured during raids on the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Grand Duchy of Moscow and later the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, were sold here. Sometimes up to several tens of thousands of slaves passed through Kaffa during the season. Even under Bogdan Khmelnitsky, the capture of yasyr by the Crimean Khan in Ukraine was prescribed in an agreement with the Cossacks. In the 17th-18th centuries, with the strengthening of borders, the slave trade began to decrease.
The traditional wine trade declined due to Islamic restrictions, although it was allowed for Christians in the Ottoman domains.
An important industry in the vicinity of Kafa was the extraction of self-salt in natural estuaries.
Johann Thunmann, who visited the Crimean Khanate in the 18th century, speaking about the city, noted:
| Keffe, or Kaffa, in Greek "Kafas" is the largest and most important city in Crimea. It is called Kyrym-Istanbuli and Yarym-Istanbuli, i.e. Crimean Constantinople and semi-Constantinople. It lies on the slope of a deserted, rocky, sandy hill, on the seashore, and has a long and narrow shape. It has high walls and towers, now much ruined, two fortified castles, about 4,000 houses and many mosques; all but one of them look bad. Until recently, the Greeks had twelve churches here, the Armenians - 32, and the Catholics one - St. Petra. But this last one and many others are now in ruins. |
Population of Kefe in the 16th century
The city of Kefe was divided into an inner fortress, an outer fortress and a suburb. The internal fortress was called “Frankish” (Turkish: Frenk hisarı). The Ottomans called all Western Europeans (Italians, Spaniards, French, Germans, English) Franks. The city administration was located in the inner fortress. In the outer fortress, which was also called Birun, lived artisans, traders, musicians, etc. Outside the fortress, in the suburbs, also called Khaki, lived the common people.
Christians and Jews were not allowed to live in the inner fortress, only in the outer and suburbs.
The Muslim population was divided into two categories: those who paid taxes to the treasury (osm. hane-i avarız) and those exempt from them (hane-i gayrı-ez avarız). The second category included officials, military men, teachers and scientists, as well as very poor people who were unable to pay taxes.
Population of the Muslim quarters (mahallas) of the city in 1542. Quarters were named after the quarter mosque, and mosques were almost always named after the person who built it, or who was the imam there.
- Inner fortress
- Quarter / families / bachelors / not paying taxes
- Nasuh Reis Mosque / 10 / 2 / 7
- Khoja Jafer Mosque / 16 / 6 / 6
- Khoja Shaban Mosque / - / - / 3
- Musalla Mosque / 9 / 4 / 5
- Atchy Mahmud Mosque / 21 / 11 / 8
- Haji Kishver Mosque / 21 / 6 / 4
- Balat Mosque / - / - / 3
- Chenelu Mosque / 55 / 16 / 12
- Merjan Agha Mosque / 20 / 18 / 17
- Haji Nebi Cathedral Mosque / 7 / - / 1
- Outer fortress
- Yenicheri Khalil Mosque / 53 / 16 / 19
- Daghtasyan Mosque / 19 / 4 / 2
- Khoja Jafer Mosque / 41 / 5 / 8
- Sinan Agha Mosque / 25 / 5 / 3
- Kebir Mosque / 39 / 5 / 8
- Cathedral Mosque of Jedid-Der Golbashi / 35 / 18 / 9
- Khatun Mosque / 72 / 16 / 6
- Seyyid Balak Mosque / 32 / 10 / 2
- Khoja Veli Mosque / 54 / 11 / 7
- Serbazar Mosque / 46 / 22 / 10
- Merjan Agha Mosque / 71 / 13 / 11
- Aktash Mosque / 34 / 7 / 5
- Shirvani Mosque / 36 / 9 / 5
- Janjan Mosque / 24 / 4 / 6
- Khoja Hasan Mosque / 4 / 7 / 1
- Nayreddin Mosque / 28 / 8 / 6
- Hasan Ruban Mosque / 47 / 6 / 4
- Kasim Pasha Cathedral Mosque / 67 / 24 / 13
- Uryandede Mosque / 22 / - / 3
- Suburb
- Ahmed Hayat Mosque / 33 / 14 / 3
- Sinan Agha Mosque / 34 / 7 / 10
- Beylihafiz Mosque / 21 / 1 / 2
- Ebul Kemal Mosque / 71 / 3 / 3
- Katib Sinanfakih Mosque / 26 / 6 / 3
- Hamza-i Bosna Mosque / 36 / 14 / 4
- Hyusameddin Mosque / 64 / 16 / 16
Population of the Armenian-Greek quarters of the city in 1542 (Armenians and Greeks settled mixed). All Orthodox Christians were considered Greeks, except Russians (including Georgians, Bulgarians, Serbs, Romanians).
- Quarter | families | | bachelors | | families in which the husband, the head of the family, has died |
- |arm.|gr.| |arm.|gr.| |arm.|gr.|
- Toros | 77 | 76 | | 16 | 13 | | 16 | 6 |
- Kharoseb | 54 | 31 | | 11 | - | | 9 | - |
- Menkenad | 30 |121| | 2 | 25 | | 5 | 31 |
- Iskender | 84 | 15 | | 25 | 2 | | 15 | - |
- Vasil | 64 | 25 | | 18 | 4 | | 11 | 5 |
- Tashtaban | 46 | 12 | | 10 | 1 | | 7 | 2 |
- Gurcu | 87 | - | | 14 | - | | 4 | - |
- Bayati | 68 | - | | 10 | - | | 9 | - |
- Enes Bay |129 | 27 | | 21 | 5 | | 9 | 7 |
- Ali Yuzbash | - | 44 | | - | 7 | | - | 15 |
- Grigör |117| - | | 20 | - | | 16 | - |
- Kybos |146| - | | 43 | - | | 14 | - |
- Sajlu |112 | - | | 18 | - | | 10 | - |
- Trabzon Community | - | 64 | | - | - | | - | - |
Other non-Muslims in 1542:
- Quarter/Community | families | bachelors | families in which the husband, the head of the family, has died |
- Jewish community Efrench | 8 | 6 | - |
- Jewish community | 81 |29|15|
- Circassian community | 3 | - | - |
- Russian community | 27 | 1 | 3 |
Feodosia within the Russian Empire
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| Dacha "Victoria" | The building of the Feodosia Museum of Antiquities (not preserved) | Dacha of tobacco merchant Stamboli |
Feodosia city government
Feodosia district
World War I
On October 16 (29), 1914, during a sudden raid of the Ottoman fleet on the Black Sea coast of Russia, which later became known as the “Sevastopol Reveille,” the light cruiser “
Ancient Feodosia fell in the 4th century. AD during the invasion of the Huns. In the centuries that followed, life barely glimmered here. In the XIII-XIV centuries. on the ruins of the ancient city of the Hellenes, a new one arose, called Cafe; for two centuries it was owned by the Genoese.
One of the tragic events in the history of Europe is connected with Kafa - the plague epidemic in 1347-1351. In 1347, a plague broke out among the Golden Horde troops of Dzhenibek, who were laying siege to Kafa, claiming the lives of tens of thousands of soldiers. Unable to take possession of the fortress, the Tatars, using catapults, began to throw the corpses of the dead over the defensive walls into the city. The disease broke into Cafa, and the Genoese were forced to leave the fortress, fleeing on ships. Where they stopped on the way to Genoa, pockets of a terrible disease arose. The plague claimed 75 million human lives - a quarter of the population of Europe. This epidemic is mentioned in the Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio.
In the Middle Ages, Kafa was the main trading port of the Northern Black Sea region. It was also notorious as the main center of the slave trade in Crimea.
During the heyday of the medieval city, the population was approximately the same as in today's Feodosia - about 70-100 thousand people.
It was a multinational city, distinguished by religious diversity: in the 15th century. there were 17 Catholic churches, 2 monasteries, more than 40 Armenian churches, Orthodox churches, synagogues, and Muslim mosques.
In the summer of 1475, Cafa was captured by the Ottoman Turks. The city was renamed Keffe and became the center of the Crimean province of the Turkish Sultan. Here was the residence of the Sultan's governor in Crimea.
The Turks, who destroyed many buildings during the capture of Kafa, thoroughly rebuilt the city in their own way, decorating it with mosques, minarets, and oriental bathhouse buildings.
Keffe was still the main slave market in Crimea. “Seagulls” of Zaporozhye Cossacks appeared more than once at the walls of Keffe. In 1616, for example, the Cossacks, under the leadership of Hetman Konashevich-Sagaidachny, captured Sinop and Trebizond, and then with a sudden blow destroyed the entire Turkish fleet stationed in the bay and, having taken Keffe by storm, freed several thousand slaves intended for sale into slavery. The Cossacks took possession of the fortress and later rescued their compatriots from captivity.