The Nikita Botanical Garden, Begun on Crimea’s Southern Coast in 1812
On the southern coast of the Crimean Peninsula, east of Yalta, the Nikita Botanical Garden is a plant-research institution begun in 1812. This article traces the career of its first director, Steven, the timeline from the 19th century, when it opened schools for fruit growing and viticulture, through the Soviet period, to the independent Ukrainian Academy of Agrarian Sciences, along with the shifting names of the garden itself.
On the southern coast of the Crimean Peninsula, about 4.5 km east of the town of Yalta, lies the Nikita Botanical Garden (Нікітський ботанічний сад). The Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine (IEU), published by the University of Alberta’s Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS), describes it as a research institution begun in 1812, meant to gather useful and beautiful plants from the Mediterranean and Asia and spread them across the southern region.
Gathering and growing plants, selecting varieties of fruit trees, grapevines, and medicinal herbs, opening agricultural schools — over more than 200 years, the garden’s work and its affiliation changed many times. This article traces who founded the garden, its timeline, and the shifting names of both the garden and the village where it stands, based on sources readable as of September 2026. Crimea’s terrain is covered in our article on Ukraine’s land and water, and Crimea’s indigenous people are covered in our article on the indigenous peoples law.
A Garden Meant to Gather Plants and Spread Them Across the South
According to IEU, the garden was founded, and its first director from 1812 to 1826, by the botanist Christian von Steven. Steven was also an official who supervised silkworm cultivation in the southern Russian Empire. IEU writes that the garden’s founding was pushed forward by Duc de Richelieu (Armand-Emmanuel du Plessis), the governor of the southern region then called “New Russia.”
IEU continues that the garden went on to establish, one after another, a collection of fruit-tree varieties (1817), a horticultural school (1823, closed in 1921), a school for viticulture and winemaking (1828), fields of tobacco and medicinal herbs, and a botanical archive and meteorological station (1908). In its entry on Yalta, IEU also writes that this garden and its winemaking school provided specialized guidance to the vineyards and tobacco fields spreading along the southern coast.
How Sources Differ on the Career of the First Director, Steven
A biographical record of plant collectors compiled by the Natural History Museum in London (published via JSTOR Global Plants) gives Steven’s dates as 1781-1863, states he was born in Hamina, Finland, studied in Jena and St. Petersburg, and earned a doctorate in medicine in St. Petersburg in 1798. It goes on to say that he later moved to the Caucasus and Crimea for his work supervising silk cultivation, and made Simferopol his base until his death. His insect specimens, it says, went to Moscow University, and his plant specimens went to the University of Helsinki in 1861.
The two sources also differ. IEU gives his term as director as 1812-1826, while the Natural History Museum’s record gives it as until 1827. On where he studied, IEU says “Sweden and Germany,” while the Natural History Museum’s record says “Jena and St. Petersburg.” IEU calls Steven “of Swiss descent,” while the Natural History Museum’s record calls him “a Finnish botanist.”
A 200-Year Timeline of the Garden
| Year | Event | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1812 | The garden is founded. Steven is its first director | IEU; Natural History Museum, London record |
| 1817 | Begins collecting fruit-tree varieties (IEU calls it the first pomological collection in the Russian Empire) | IEU |
| 1823 | Opens a horticultural school (closed in 1921) | IEU |
| 1827 | Hartwiss becomes director (until 1860) | IEU |
| 1828 | Establishes a school for viticulture and winemaking | IEU |
| 1890 | Begins publishing the garden’s bulletin (later a research journal) | IEU |
| 1908 | Establishes a botanical archive and meteorological station | IEU |
| 1920 | Area is roughly 136 ha | IEU |
| 1924 | Designated an all-Union Soviet research institution | IEU |
| 1973 | The Martian Cape nature reserve is created (under the garden’s management) | IEU |
| After 1991 | Becomes an institution of the Ukrainian Academy of Agrarian Sciences | IEU |
| 1996 | Establishes a greenhouse for cacti and succulents | IEU |
| 2000 | Name becomes “Nikita Botanical Garden — National Scientific Center” | National Academy of Agrarian Sciences member profile |
IEU writes that, in the Soviet period, the garden expanded under the USSR’s Ministry of Agriculture and the All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences, reaching nearly 1,000 ha in area and 1,300 staff. There were 15 research departments and laboratories and four affiliated experimental farms, and in the 1980s roughly 120 researchers worked to develop ornamental plants, fruit and nut trees, medicinal herbs, and plants used for fragrance materials, for spreading across southern Ukraine, Moldova, the Caucasus, and Central Asia.
On the garden after independence, IEU states that the species, varieties, and hybrids of plants it has collected exceed 50,000, its library holds over 207,700 items, and its collection of Crimean plant specimens exceeds 121,446 sheets.
The Shifting Names of the Garden and the Village
The garden’s name has changed along with its affiliation. According to the Encyclopedia of Modern Ukraine (ЕСУ, volume 23, 2021), compiled by an institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the garden began in 1812 as the “Crimean State Garden” (Кримський казенний сад); it was called the “Imperial Nikita Botanical Garden” from 1820, the “Imperial Nikita Garden” from 1912, and the “Nikita Botanical Garden” from 1920. It became a state garden from 1922, and, ЕСУ writes, bore Molotov’s name from 1935 to 1957.
On the period after independence, according to the member profile from Ukraine’s National Academy of Agrarian Sciences, as of 1999 the garden was the “State Nikita Botanical Garden” (Державний Нікітський ботанічний сад), part of the Ukrainian Academy of Agrarian Sciences, and it has called itself the “Nikita Botanical Garden — National Scientific Center” (Нікітський ботанічний сад — Національний науковий центр) since 2000. Ukraine’s national encyclopedia, the Great Ukrainian Encyclopedia (ВУЕ), also uses this name as its headword as of September 2026.
The name of the village where the garden stands has also changed once. According to IEU, the village of Nikita was called “Botanichne” (Ботанічне, meaning “botanical”) from 1971 to 1991, and has since returned to its original name.
Under Russian Occupation Since 2014
According to IEU, after Russia occupied Crimea in 2014, the occupation authority Russia installed there (which IEU refers to as the “Republic of Crimea”) placed the garden under its own “Ministry of Education, Science and Youth,” and the garden was further placed under the jurisdiction of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2015 and Russia’s Ministry of Science and Higher Education in 2018 (ЕСУ dates the transfer to the Russian Academy of Sciences to 2014). Article 9 of Ukraine’s law “On Ensuring the Rights and Freedoms of Citizens and the Legal Regime in the Temporarily Occupied Territory of Ukraine” (No. 1207-VII) treats as void any decision made, without legal basis, by a body created in occupied territory. As of September 2026, Ukraine’s National Academy of Agrarian Sciences still lists the garden as one of the institutions in its plant-growing division (Japan’s position of not recognizing Russia’s “annexation” of Crimea is covered in our article on Japan’s position).
Sources and article record
Sources and references
- Nikita Botanical Gardenヤルタの東4.5km、1812年の設立、スティーヴン〈1812〜26年〉、リシュリュー公、1817・1823・1828・1908年の施設、ハルトヴィス〈1827〜60年〉、1890年の紀要、1920年の136ha、1924年、ソ連時代の規模、1973年のマルチヤン岬、独立後のUAAN、5万超の収集、蔵書20万7,700点、標本12万1,446枚、1996年の温室、ニキータ村の改称〈1971〜91年〉、2014年以降の占領当局による管轄の変更。執筆 Ihor Stebelsky、2024年更新. Location 4.5km east of Yalta, founded 1812, Steven (1812-26), Duc de Richelieu, facilities of 1817/1823/1828/1908, Hartwiss (1827-60), the 1890 bulletin, 136 ha in 1920, 1924, the Soviet-era scale, the 1973 Martian Cape, UAAN after independence, over 50,000 collected specimens, library of 207,700 items, 121,446 herbarium sheets, the 1996 greenhouse, the village's renaming (1971-91), and the change in jurisdiction under the occupation authority from 2014. Written by Ihor Stebelsky, updated 2024
Published by Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine（CIUS） · Checked: 2026-09-27 - Botanical gardenヤルタのニキータ植物園は1812年設立。紙の第1巻〈1984年〉の再録. The Nikita Botanical Garden in Yalta founded 1812. Reprinted from print volume 1, 1984
Published by Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine（CIUS） · Checked: 2026-09-27 - Yaltaニキータ植物園〈1812年〉とワイン造りの学校が南の海岸のぶどう園などに手引きを与えたこと. The Nikita Botanical Garden (1812) and its winemaking school providing guidance to vineyards on the southern coast
Published by Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine（CIUS） · Checked: 2026-09-27 - Steven, Christian von (1781-1863)ハミナ生まれ、イエナとサンクトペテルブルクで学び1798年に医学博士、養蚕の監督、1812年にニキータ植物園を創設し1827年まで園長、シンフェロポリ、標本の行き先. Born in Hamina, studied in Jena and St. Petersburg, medical doctorate 1798, supervisor of silk cultivation, founded the Nikita Botanical Garden in 1812 and directed it until 1827, Simferopol, and where his specimens went
Published by Natural History Museum (BM)／JSTOR Global Plants · Checked: 2026-09-27 - ЄЖОВ Валерій Микитович1999年から「Державний Нікітський ботанічний сад УААН」の所長、2000年から「Нікітський ботанічний сад — Національний науковий центр」. Director of the "State Nikita Botanical Garden of UAAN" from 1999, renamed "Nikita Botanical Garden — National Scientific Center" from 2000
Published by Національна академія аграрних наук України · Checked: 2026-09-27 - Відділення НААН植物栽培部門の機関として「Нікітський ботанічний сад – Національний науковий центр」を掲げる. Lists "Nikita Botanical Garden — National Scientific Center" as an institution of the plant-growing division
Published by Національна академія аграрних наук України · Checked: 2026-09-27 - Нікітський ботанічний сад「Нікітський ботанічний сад — Національний науковий центр НААН України」、смт Нікіта. "Nikita Botanical Garden — National Scientific Center of NAAS of Ukraine"; the settlement of Nikita
Published by Велика українська енциклопедія（国立学術機関「百科事典出版所」） · Checked: 2026-09-27 - Закон України «Про забезпечення прав і свобод громадян та правовий режим на тимчасово окупованій території України» № 1207-VII2014年4月15日。第9条。2024年5月19日の版. Law of Ukraine on ensuring citizens' rights/freedoms and the legal regime in temporarily occupied territory, No. 1207-VII, April 15, 2014, Article 9. Version of May 19, 2024
Published by Верховна Рада України（法令データベース） · Checked: 2026-09-27 - Нікітський ботанічний сад НААНУ1812年にスティーヴン〈園長〉が「Кримський казенний сад」として創設、1820年・1912年・1920年・1922年・1935〜57年の名前、2000年から国立科学センター、1973年のマルチヤン岬、所長 В. Єжов〈1999〜2014年〉、2014年にロシア科学アカデミーへ。著者 В. М. Єжов、М. П. Литвинов。第23巻、2021年12月. Founded 1812 by Steven (director) as the "Crimean State Garden"; names from 1820/1912/1920/1922/1935-57; National Scientific Center from 2000; the 1973 Martian Cape; director V. Yezhov (1999-2014); transfer to the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2014. Authors V. M. Yezhov, M. P. Lytvynov. Volume 23, December 2021
Published by Енциклопедія Сучасної України（ウクライナ国立科学アカデミー百科事典研究所） · Checked: 2026-09-28
If you find an error in this article, please tell us via Corrections. Once we have checked it, we will record in the article what was corrected and why.