Crimee.- Soudak. – Dessin de Grandsire. / Crimee.- Theodosie.- Dessin de Grandsire.

Title

Crimee.- Soudak. – Dessin de Grandsire. / Crimee.- Theodosie.- Dessin de Grandsire.

Description

Two views on one sheet. The upper view shows the town of Soudak in the Crimea, today a seaside resort on the Black Sea. Below is the town of Théodosie in the Crimea.

ca. 1880

Artist

Grandsire

Historical Description

Sudak is a city in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. Sudak was allegedly founded by Alans in 212 AD and was known under the Greek name Sugdeja. In the 6th century, a fortress was built on the orders of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I (482-565). Sudak was an archbishopric of the Roman Catholic Church, from which the titular archbishopric of Sugdaea dates back. Sudak became a de facto Venetian colony in 1204. The Franciscan William of Rubruk landed here in 1253 to begin his journey to the Far East of Asia. In 1260, the brothers Maffeo and Niccolò Polo, father of the famous medieval China traveler Marco Polo, visited their brother Marco the Elder in the Venetian Soldaia on their first trading trip to the Mongol Empire. In the 13th to 14th centuries, the town was plundered and destroyed several times by Tatar-Mongols. In 1783, Sudak and the entire Crimea became part of the Russian Empire. From 1991 to 2014, Sudak was part of independent Ukraine.