Sevastopol was founded one year before Simferopol, in 1773. It was chosen as a navy base for the Russian Black Sea Fleet because there are many big and calm bays around the area.
The city grew quickly and always was military. It was closed twice during Soviet time and people could get there with special permit only.
Sevastopol is city-hero. There were two terrible wars: Crimean war in 1854-55 and WW2 and both times Sevastopol had heroic defences.
There are some places lanced with Crimean war and most impressive is Panorama - great picture about the war.
There are also many of monuments about WW2. Sevastopol was completely destroyed during the last war and all buildings in downtown were build in 1944-1954 years.
