Odessa - the Capital of Humour

ODESSA

“ah, Odessa, pearl on the Sea...” - those are words from very famous song, “Have not you been to Odessa? ...Oh, you lost a lot..”, it is the city you have to visit, because Odessa deserves your attention and your time.
Odessa is one of the biggest cities and the largest seaport of Ukraine. City's population is nearly 1027000 persons. It has well-developed business, travel and entertainment infrastructure. It was founded in 1794 by Katherine the Second with the purpose of establishing a mighty seaport, fortifying southern borders of the Russian Empire.
Citizens of Odessa are very proud of Odessa's unique architectural and cultural heritages. There is University which was found in 1865, famous Theatre of Opera and Ballet (1809), Museum of History (1825), City Library (1830), Astronomic Observatory (1871), Gallery of Art (1898) and other monuments to the past.
Odessa is well-known as capital of humor, every year there are different kind of humor festivals there in Odessa.
Odessa is one of the largest resort centres in Ukraine. The climate of this region differs from other regions with softness and moderation. The combination of kindly climate, the warm sea, beautiful sandy beaches - all this creates perfect conditions for having a rest, tourism and mending people's health. Odessa's resorts popularity grows every year, and resorts' zones such as Carolina-Bugaz, Zatoka are good combination of price and quality. Odessa has one of the most healthy climates. The summer lasts up to 145 days a year.

What to see in Odessa?

The Potemkin Stairs (named after the rebellious battleship “Potyomkin”) are so called “official entrance” into the city from the sea side. The stairs were constructed between 1937 and 1841 by the architect F.Bofford and lead from Prymorsky Boulevard down to the sea. It counts 192 stairs and the legend says that if you want to get a piece of luck and fulfillment of all your darling dreams, you should go down and up the stairs by your feet, all 192 steps.

Deribasovskaya Street is the very heart of Odessa city. It is the most beloved cobblestoned street of citizens and visitors to Odessa which has its own unique character and architecture, always crowded with people, leisurely sitting on the terraces of numerous cafes and restaurants at any time of day and night in any season. This street leads to the City Gardens with its charming singing fountain, the old summerhouse and the sculpture of lions and lioness.

Odessa Opera House

Odessa Opera and Ballet Theatre is deservedly considered to be among the most beautiful Theaters in Ukraine, it is famous with concerts conducted by Peter Tchaikovsky and ballets featuring Anna Pavlova. The impressive interior of the theatre building is richly decorated in Louis XVI style, combined Italian Renaissance and French rococo styles and it is often compared with Milan's La Scala. The sculptural groups taken from Greek mythology.

Laokoon

Laokoon is in front of the Archeological Museum and it is the sculptural ensemble copied from famous paintings of El Greco which is in Washington Museum now. Laokoon was the Greek pagan priest, who didn't please Poseidon – the god of seas, who sent snakes upon Laokoon and his sons...

City Hall

City Hall is the place of the former old Stock Exchange in Odessa situated on the Prymorskiy Boulevard. Trading has always been the main source of Odessa budget income, so it is only natural that the Stock Exchange building occupied the foreground of the city and was further converted into the City Council and Mayor place.

Spaso-Preobrazhenskiy cathedral

It was founded in 1795, just one year after the founding of Odessa, The cathedral became one of the biggest in that period of time. It was almost 50 meters wide and over 100 meters long. It could accommodated over 10,000 people and was the pride of Odessa. While Soviet occupation in 1932 the cathedral was closed down and the square where it was located was officially renamed for Soviet Army square. But soon after closing the cathedral was cowardly destroyed after Stalin order in 1936, it was dynamited in the night. The church has begun to be rebuilt since 1999.

Odessa also has other epithetic names such as “the southern Palmira”, “the Black Sea Babylon”, “The Capital of The South”, and it is not in vain, because when there was not city yet there and only the first people who watched this even then predicted brilliant future to the city, maybe they foresaw the birth of happy "golden city".

WE INVITE YOU TO SEE THE PEARL OF THE BLACK SEA!