Alexander III, the Peacemaker, has bought this small French style romantic castle as a hunting house for himself in the end of XIX century. The tsar valued cosiness and tranquillity at home so he liked the castle with its small rooms and narrow winding stairs where he never cared of some more space. Instead, trying to keep the air of a French chalet, he ordered to refurbish the castle so it might be used for peaceful family rest instead of living in luxurious Riviera Palaces of South Crimea. His sudden and early death left the castle deserted for a while until when it had been refurbished by the order of Nikolas II in the memory of his father. While belonging Romanovs, the castle was used only a couple of times as an accommodation for the tsars. After October Revolution the castle had been nationalized and after the WW II it was known as a Stalin’s Dacha – a favourite summer residence for Stalin and Communist party leaders.
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The Massandra Palace was a residence of Emperor Alexander III of Russia in Massandra, south coast of Crimea.
Construction of the building started in 1881 and was funded by the son of Mikhail Semyonovich Vorontsov, Semyon Mikhailovich who recently returned from the 1877-78 Russo-Turkish War. The construction of the palace that was initially designed by French architect Étienne Bouchard in the Louis XIII style was soon suspended after the death of Prince Semyon Mikhailovich Vorontsov.
In 1889 the unfinished palace was bought by the Russian Imperial Domains Agency (see Удельное ведомство) for Alexander III of Russia. The construction was renewed on design of Russian architect Maximilian Messmacher. After finishing of construction, it became one of the official Imperial residences, however no members of the Imperial family ever stayed at the residence over night rather preferring the neighboring Levadia Palace.
After the October Revolution and before the World War II, the residence was used as a government sanatorium "Proletarian Health" for people ill with tuberculosis.
After the World War II it was used as a state cottage (dacha) under the name "Stalinskaya".
After the fall of the Soviet Union, Massandra Palace was used as one of the Ukrainian official residences where were signed the Massandra Accords in 1993.
In 2014 after the Russian annexation of Crimea, the residence was taken over by the Russian Presidential Affairs Administration.