Everyone who has read Green's books will remember the city of Zurbagan, invented by the writer and described by him in many works. This is a fairy tale city, a song city, an island city, where you can relax your heart and soul at any time of your life for free.
The city is so poetic and legendary that romantic travelers are still looking for its prototype, streets, and a map. According to the stories of Alexander Green "Running on the Waves", "The Golden Chain" and dozens of others, it can be assumed that this seaside town had a real prototype. It is believed that this is Sevastopol or one of the majestic ports of ships on the Black Sea coast.
The fictional history of Zurbagan
The Pelasgi city was founded. They sailed to the Euxine Pontus, pursued in the Aegean by tree-toothed shrimps, which gnawed at the bottoms of wooden ships. In the Black Sea, frosts happened, and shrimp died from them. Ships in the sea got up on runners, lifting the bottom to the surface. So the shrimps, unable to breathe, unclenched their treacherous jaws and in batches poured onto the ice from the bottom of the ship.
The Pelasgians gave the saving city the name Iphigenia - after the magically saved daughter of King Agamemnon. She was going to be sacrificed to the gods of the Trojan war. But Iphigenia became the first settler of the Black Sea coast.
The girl was so beautiful that she fell in love with everyone. Among them was the poor young man Gigey. To conquer her, he promised Iphigenia to get a hundred precious pearls from the sea with one breath while diving. In return, she had to agree to accept his hand and heart.
The young man knew a place where seafood was plentiful and every shell must have pearls. The young man caught only 99 shells. And even when removing the pearls, it turned out that the first of them was hollow. But the last shell contained three pearls at once. And Iphigenia agreed to the marriage, falling in love with him for perseverance and fulfilled desire.
In the city of Zurbagan, a marble column has survived, on which the statues of Hygei and Iphigenia are carved. In their hands are the hammer and sickle, with which they opened the sea shells.
The Turks called the composition "Qur bakan", which translates as "a huge pillar". No one dared to demolish the monument in the entire long history of the seaside town. Much later, the marble column was transported and installed at the Exhibition of Economic Achievements in Moscow.
In 1777, a Russian fort was erected in Zurbagan with huge cannons made of copper smelted from coffee Turks. The fort is very impregnable and has always been on guard for protection from enemies.
Honored people in the city of Zurbagan
- Jerome Perron from the story "The Golden Chain". Famous pirate of the 17th century. He became famous for collecting all the treasures available to him only in order to put them in a huge cannon and shoot from it for the joy of everyone. Yes, people, even fictional characters, have their own cockroaches in their heads.
- Assol Korabolnaya (Korabelskaya) from the story "Scarlet Sails". A romantic girl who is waiting for her tender love, gazing into the distance of the sea in search of a large ship with scarlet sails.
- Drood from Green's Shining World. He is the world famous circus dome levitator.
- Alik Rainbow from the musical film "Above the Rainbow" (1986). This is a very famous boy who has an excellent imagination, he himself composes poems and songs. He studied well in school, but in physical education he fell short.
Once Alik Raduga imagined that he had freed the magic Siren from captivity, which, as a gratitude, fulfilled his most cherished wish - the boy learned to jump like an Olympic athlete. But Alik had to fulfill an obligatory condition - never to lie to anyone. In a physical education lesson, the child showed his ability, and he was sent to the competition. There he demonstrated a jump of 195 cm in height. But Alik had to take the blame of Dasha's friend upon himself, having lied, and he lost his gift. Now he could only compete on his own. But training and perseverance allowed the hero of the film to achieve true victories.
"Zurbagan" - this is how, based on the story "Scarlet Sails", the song is called, which sounds in this sea fairy tale-film. The song is performed by Vladimir Presnyakov Jr., who, by the way, is also now a revered person in a fictional city.
Sevastopol or not?
According to researchers, the legendary Zurbagan in Green's books is described in exactly the same way as Sevastopol, the city of warships and fresh fish, looks like. It was Sevastopol that was inspired by Alexander Grin, describing his mirror reflection in the Black Sea water in literary works.
