An exhibition of valuables stolen by the Nazis will be presented in Bakhchisaray

Restoration work in the Khan’s palace, the only example of Crimean Tatar architecture dating back to the 16th-18th centuries, began in 2020, and is planned to be completed in 2025. The total amount of funding allocated for repairs and restoration of the palace ensemble of the Khan’s Palace is 3.6 billion rubles. In total, 10 of the 16 objects of the palace have been restored.

At the end of the year we plan to open several exhibitions in the room where the harem was located under the Crimean khans. It has already been restored, and we are starting to fill it with exhibits. For the first time in Russian Crimea, a collection of ethnographic objects stolen during the Great Patriotic War and returned to the Bakhchisarai Palace Museum by the Vienna Museum of Ethnology under the restitution program in 2009 will be presentedSeytumerova said.

According to her, the collection consists of jewelry from the 18th — early 20th centuries: silver belts, gilded ribbon, women’s headdress — a fez with a silver top, men’s wedding belts, tobacco pouches, cuffs for women’s dresses, garters for socks with gold plated, decorative towels for decoration houses, religious objects of the Crimean Karaites, and a total of 65 objects.

Family values

In two of the three rooms of the former harem building that has survived to this day, there will be exhibitions dedicated to family values ​​in the Muslim family — both Crimean rulers and ordinary residents.

“A harem does not mean a place of voluptuousness, as many people believe. This was the safest area for the family and the most closed area from prying eyes in the khan’s chambers, where mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters of khans lived, who also had their own way of life. Therefore, through household items, we want to convey to people how important the family is, how relationships were built in it, how the Crimean Tatars lived,” notes Seytumerova.

Among the exhibits are antique carpets, gold embroidery, women’s, children’s and men’s clothing, metal objects: jugs, trays, candlesticks, lanterns.

She said that the Crimean khans had a special attitude towards women, she had quite a lot of rights, and men listened to her. Mothers, wives, and older sisters of the khan were advisers to the ruler and bore the title anabeim, which means mother-mistress. They discussed government issues with her, including foreign policy. Letters have been preserved when the khan’s wives addressed directly to the rulers of Moscow and Poland, that is, they carried out diplomatic work. The mistress mother took part in meetings of the state council (divan) of the khanate and had the right to vote.

About the palace

Bakhchisaray is translated as “palace in the garden”, the palace later gave its name to the city. The palace complex was built in the 16th century; the total area of ​​the complex was previously more than 14 hectares, not counting the park complex; now it is no more than 4 hectares. It was the residence of the rulers of the Crimean Khanate in the 16th-18th centuries. The palace was repeatedly looted and destroyed at different times. The winter palace, three of the four harem buildings, five marble baths have not reached our time, and palace utensils have been stolen.