The church on the 400m high rock at Foros looks straight out over the Black Sea, and down at the resort where Gorbachev was on holiday at his dacha when the military coup took place in Moscow. He was held under house arrest here, while the news media gave out the lie that he was sick and receiving medical treatment in Crimea.

Times have moved on - the political map has been re-drawn and Crimea is no longer a soviet fiefdom.

The dacha remains, and is now the official holiday residence of the President of Ukraine.

The church looks more like something out of a fairytale in winter. In summer it's surrounded by lush green vegetation and the sea sparkles just beyond. Primary colours predominate. But in January the sea merges with the sky and the sunlight filters into pastels in the cool air.

The Church of the Resurrection of Christ was built in 1892 . 4 years earlier, Tsar Alexander III and his family had been returning to St Petersburg from Crimea when the train he was in was involved in a major rail crash. Most of the train was derailed, but the carriage carrying the Imperial family remained unscathed on the tracks.

The construction of the church was funded by a rich local tea merchant, A.G.Kuznetsov, in gratitude for to God for saving the Tsar and his family.

7 years after the 1917 revolution the church was closed, and its priest sent to Siberia. The church was vandalised , some of the murals were painted over, and the church was turned into a snackbar for visiting tourists until 1969, when this too closed, and the church was abandoned.

In 1992 Gorbachev's reforms enabled the church to be given back to the community, and after lengthy restoration work it has re-opened . Services are now held regularly.