Masandra

Masandra. Map: IX-15. A town smt (2001 pop 7,235) on the Black Sea coast in the Crimea (see Crimean southern shore). Lying only 5 km from Yalta, it is administered by Yalta's municipal council. Masandra was first mentioned in historical documents in the mid-18th century. It attained smt status in 1941. The town is known as a health resort and as the home of the main winery of the Masandra Wine-Making Complex (see Wine-making industry). On its outskirts is the famous Nikita Botanical Garden. Traces of Taurian burial mounds and ancient settlements, catacombs from the 1st to 3rd centuries, and the ruins of a 12th- to 15th-century monastery are found near Masandra.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993).]