Abstract: The subject of the study is ethnic cultural codes that are broadcast in the visual semiosis of decorative and applied art and architecture of the Crimea. The object of the study is architecture and decorative and applied art of various ethnic groups of the Crimea. The research uses methods of semantic, semiotic and artistic analysis of traditional images, the method of analysis of previous studies, the method of synthesis in conclusions regarding the formation of a unified Crimean style in visual semiosis. In the study, the author considers aspects of the topic: morphology and semantics of the elements of the visual semiosis of the Crimea and their belonging to a particular code of ethnic cultures; polyethnicity in the formation of the Crimean style of architectural and subject decor. The emphasis is placed on the multiculturality of the Crimea in the process of forming a semiotic universe in the visual semiosis. The main conclusions of the study are:
1. Crimea is a multicultural ecumene due to its geographical location, the interaction of ethnic groups on its territory generated various cultural processes, ranging from reception to integration, which led to the formation of a unique Crimean style in the visual arts. The elements of this style were the details of the ethnic art of various peoples who inhabited the Crimea from the first centuries of our era to the present.
2. Ethnic cultural codes defining the identification of the presence of a certain national artistic culture in the unified Crimean semiosis of architecture and decorative and applied art are elements and symbols characteristic of the traditional semiosis of a particular ethnic group. Over time, they have changed and experienced mutual influence, but the most persistent of them are still identified as belonging to a certain national and/or religious culture.
3. The scientific novelty of the research consists in the fact that the author for the first time conducts a semantic analysis of pictorial symbols in the visual semiosis of Crimea, identifies individual ethnic cultural codes, analyzes their genesis, commonality and differences of elements as part of a single Crimean stylistics.