Lusta

Lusta lies on Crimea's southern coast, beneath the mountain passes that lead toward the interior. Its fortress, Aluston, was founded under the Byzantine emperor Justinian in the sixth century. A small fortified town grew beside the sea, and the walls were rebuilt by successive rulers as control of the coast changed hands.

The Genoese governed Lusta from 1381 until 1475, when the Ottomans took the town. In the 1420s a second defensive line was added, and in the 1460s the outer walls were rebuilt and strengthened with towers. Under Ottoman rule the fortress was destroyed and the settlement became a village. In 1774 fighting near Alushta during the Russo-Ottoman War left the Russian officer Mikhail Kutuzov gravely wounded; the village passed to the Crimean Khanate and then to Russia in 1783.