Qualla: Alushta https://qualla.com/alushta en-us © 2026 Bendyline Thu, 23 Jul 2026 20:34:09 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: Alushta https://qualla.com/alushta Alushta: Introduction https://qualla.com/alushta/ A single square medieval tower still stands above the beaches of Alushta, wrapped now by the balconies and rooftops of a modern resort town. It is easy to walk past. The tourists on the seafront promenade, the Naberezhnaya, are mostly looking the other way, toward the water and the row of converted boat docks that now serve as sand. But that tower, and the shattered walls around it, are the reason a town exists here at all. This stretch of Crimea's southern coast has been worth defending since the sixth century, and Alushta grew up in the shadow of the fortress that did the defending.

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]]> Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/z/b/q/alushta-wk/szbq-alushta-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Alushta: Justinian's Watch https://qualla.com/alushta/ The fortress was called Aluston, and it was built around the sixth century AD on the orders of the Byzantine emperor Justinian, positioned to watch the Angar Pass, the mountain gap that funnels traffic down from the Crimean interior to the sea. For an empire trying to hold a dist...

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]]> Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/z/b/q/alushta-wk/szbq-alushta-justinians-watch.mp3 0:06 2 full Alushta: Lusta of the Genoese https://qualla.com/alushta/ In 1239 the Mongols swept through and destroyed the fortress, but the site was too valuable to abandon, and it rose again. By the late fourteenth century the merchant republic of Genoa had taken the town, calling it Lusta, and they rebuilt the stronghold with three towers and ins...

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]]> Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/z/b/q/alushta-wk/szbq-alushta-lusta-of-the-genoese.mp3 0:06 3 full Alushta: The Carnival by the Sea https://qualla.com/alushta/ Modern Alushta wears its history lightly. It is a summer resort, unpretentious and a little chaotic, where the old harbor docks have been given over to swimmers and the seafront turns into something close to a carnival when the season peaks. People come to swim, to eat, and to be...

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]]> Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/z/b/q/alushta-wk/szbq-alushta-the-carnival-by-the-sea.mp3 0:06 4 full Alushta: Gateway to the High Country https://qualla.com/alushta/ Alushta's greatest asset may be what lies just beyond it. The town sits at the foot of the mountains, and the same Angar Pass that once made it worth fortifying now makes it a doorway to some of Crimea's most striking landscapes. A short way inland rises the tent-shaped mass of C...

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]]> Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/z/b/q/alushta-wk/szbq-alushta-gateway-to-the-high-country.mp3 0:06 5 full