A view of the Genoese fortress at Balaklava

Balaklava is a city on the Crimean peninsula, now part of the Ukraine. The ruins of the fortress depicted on the top of a rocky hill were built by Genoese merchants who used the city as a trading post. During the Crimean War the Anglo-French-Ottoman alliance suffered a massive defeat there in 1854.
For a similar view of Balaklava and the Genoese fortress see also Bossoli's Balaklava, signed and dated 1856, last recorded in a private collection in Turin (Cinquanti'anni di vita europea nei disegni e nei dipinti di Carlo Bossoli, exhib. cat., Lugano, 1974, p. 35, no. 178, illus.).