Swallow's Nest is a mock-medieval castle near Yalta, in Crimea, Ukraine. It was built between 1911–1912 near Gaspra, on top of 40-meter (130 ft) high Aurora Cliff, to a Neo-Gothic design by the Russian architect Leonid Sherwood. The castle overlooks Ai–Todor cape of the Black Sea, accessible from the Atlantic Ocean, and is located near the remnants of the Roman castrum of Charax. Swallow's Nest is one of the most spectacular visitor attractions in Crimea.
The building is compact in size (20 m long by 10 m wide; 65 ft by 33 ft). Its original design envisioned a foyer, guest room, stairway to the tower, and two bedrooms on two different levels within the tower. The interior of the guest room is decorated with wooden panels; the walls of the rest of the rooms are stuccoed and painted. An observation deck rings the building, providing a view of the sea, and Yalta's distant shoreline.
In 1927, Swallow's Nest survived a serious earthquake rated at 6 to 7 on the Richter scale.[7] The building was not damaged, except for some small decorative items that were thrown into the sea along with a small portion of the cliff. However, the cliff itself developed a huge crack. For a long time Swallow's Nest was closed to the public due to the damage suffered in that quake. The building remained closed for almost forty years.
