The Voronstov family owned the palace for three generations until, during the October Revolution of 1921, the palace was nationalised and then converted into a museum. As well as the possessions of the Vorontsov familly, the museum also showed the estates of the Romanovs, Yusupovs and Stroganovs.
The Second World War saw the German's occupying the castle and, following that, Winston Churchill residing in it during the Yalta Conference. For several years after this, the palace was used by the Soviet Secret Police and as a trade sanatorium. It was not until 1956 that the palace once again became a museum.
In 1965, the palace was inducted into the "Alupka Palace-Park Complex". This is a national historical preservation group that also includes the Massandra Palace which was built for the Russian Tsar Alexander III.
Attached to the palace is a 99 acre park which was designed by German landscape gardener Carolus Keebach. It was created in the first half of the 19th century in the style of an ampitheatre. The park was designed to deliberately incorporate the landscape's vegetation, mountain springs and rocky masses alongside the many foreign plant species brought into it.
In modern times, the park still contains over 200 exotic tree and shrub species, including palm trees, laurels, cypresses and even olive trees.
Visitors to the park will find it split into two halves, the upper half housing the mountain springs as well as the native forest of the region. A particular point of note is the Fountain of Trilby, which was placed in the park in 1829.
The lower park has been modeled in the style of an Italian Renaissance garden. It features three pairs of Medici lions, leading up to the palace's southern façade.