The museum “Panorama of the Defence of Sevastopol 1854-55” is dedicated to the Siege of Sevastopol by British, French, Turkish and Sardinian allies. 

The fourfold superior allies forces landed at Eupatoria on 14 September 1854, intending to make a triumphal march to Sevastopol, the base of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. But siege took a year of bloody fighting and costs heavy and unreasonable allied casualties (102,000 killed, wounded, and died from disease).

It is a must-see museum of Crimea with realistic scenes of the battle of Malakhov Battery that was a part of the Crimean (Western) war. The panorama painting depicts one day of the 349-day heroic defence of Sevastopol. 

The museum was created by professor of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts France Rubaud in 1905 to mark the 50th-year anniversary of the defence of Sevastopol. The 115 m long and 4 m high panoramic painting was placed in a specially designed building. 

The panorama creates an illusion of transporting the viewer into a virtual reality of real battle on the 6th of June 1855, creating the perception of being physically present in the middle of the Malakhov Battery.

The viewer can observe the various scenes of the battle all around from different viewing angles.