Outstanding historical architecture, laughter, luxury hotels, first-class restaurants and nightclubs, sophistication, friendly atmosphere and magnificent sunny beaches – all this is Odessa!

Ukraine’s largest merchant port, Odessa, is located in a bay in the northwestern corner of the Black Sea, between the Dnieper and Dniester estuaries. It was founded by Catherine the Great in 1794, on the site of the former Greek colony of Odessos. The Greek colony was devastated by the Hun Turks in the 3rd and 4th centuries, and eleven centuries passed before people came to live here again. First the trading city of Kachibei arose, and later the Turks turned it into the mighty fortress of Khajibei.

In 1789, the fortress fell to the Turks by a Russian naval force under Captain Joseph de Ribas. De Ribas, a Catalan nobleman, won the Empress’s favor by distinguishing himself in the Russian service. He demonstrated his courage and his military skills when he participated in the assault on Izmail, another Turkish stronghold on the Danube, of which Byron gives a picturesque account in Don Juan. Shortly after, in 1794, de Ribas had the idea of ​​converting Khajibei into a Russian naval base. Catherine’s new city and port, Odessa, had just been established when de Ribas died in 1800. Odessa’s main street, Deribasovskaya, is named after him.

At that time, after the French Revolution, Catherine the Great voluntarily accepted the supporters of the French regime in the service of Russia and it was Armand Emmanuel du Plessis Duc de Richelieu, who in 1803 was appointed the first Governor-General of Odessa and all of the North. Black Sea coast, then called “New Russia”. A descendant of the famous Cardinal Richelieu from the reign of King Louis XII he worked very hard on the development of the port during his twelve years in office. Ordinary houses began to be built from the local yellow “shell” limestone and the intensive quarrying that continued over the next century left a vast and tangled network of catacombs beneath the city, like those in Rome. During World War II they sheltered guerrilla brigades that neither the German nor the Romanian forces could dislodge.

In 1815, the Duke of Richelieu returned to France. A monument to him, made in 1828 by the Russian sculptor Ivan Martos, was erected in Odessa on Primorsky Boulevard overlooking the Odessa port and 192 steps leading to the sea. The Odessa Steps are immortalized in Sergei Eisenstein’s classic film Battleship Potemkin and are called the Potemkin Steps.

Odessa’s heyday was under the third governor, the Russian Anglophile Mikhail Vorontsov, in the years up to the mid-19th century, by which time the burgeoning city rivaled other large cities in the Russian Empire, ranking fourth after Saint Petersburg, Moscow and Warsaw in wealth and population. A line of passenger steamships was established, and the first newspaper, in both Russian and French, came out in 1827. Many of Odessa’s architectural features date from the Vorontsov Governorate period. Some of them are: the Potemkin Stairs, the Palace of the Governor General, the Stock Exchange and the Naryshkina Palace. Three years before his death in 1856, the city erected a monument to Vorontsov.

Although the free port status had been abolished in 1849, Odessa continued to prosper. Its turnover was comparable to that of Saint Petersburg, Russia’s main port, and banking and smuggling flourished. The nouveau riche put their wealth on display by beautifying Odessa: the new Stock Exchange (1889) and the Opera House (1887) were destined to surpass their European counterparts in splendor, particularly those in Vienna. Nothing was too good for Odessa: if a touring opera company was invited, it had to be the best Italy had to offer. Many famous artists have performed on the stage since 1887, including P. Tchaikovsky, N. Rimsky-Korsakov, S. Rachmaninoff, P. Sarasate, F. Chaliapin, S. Grushelnitskaya, A. Nezhdanova, L. Sobinov, T. Ruffo, Batistini, Jeraldoni, A. Pavlova and many others. The Odessa National Academic Opera and Ballet Theater is the oldest theater in Ukraine. The most recent renovation of the theater was successfully completed in 2007 with the preservation of its Neo-Baroque style, luxurious Rococo hall and unique acoustics.

In this wealthy city, jewelry was very fashionable and jewelers had a brisk trade. One of the most cunning of them, Rukhomovsky, caused quite a stir among the artistic authorities of Europe. In 1896, he offered to the Vienna Museum what he claimed to be a golden tiara of the Scythian king Saitafern, supposedly found among the ruins of the ancient Greek city of Olbia. The museum was saved from purchasing a forgery only by the prohibitive price demanded, but the tiara, after experts declared it genuine, was bought in France for 200,000 francs. The truth came to light in 1903. The tiara was transferred from the Louvre to the Museum of Decorative Art but soon returned to the Louvre, to be hidden in one of its vaults.

In the revolutionary years, 1910 – 1920, a group of young original writers and poets arose in Odessa, including Isaak Babel and Yuri Olesha, whose early ironic works are now considered classics of Soviet literature. After the city’s suffering in World War II, Odessa became a grimmer city and emigrants in the 1970s transferred much of Odessa’s distinctive humor to Israel and New York, where there is now a “Little Odessa.” in Brighton Beach. But the satirical tradition has not completely died out and some of today’s best Soviet satirists are natives of this sunny and welcoming city with its magnificent harbor and splendid old streets.

Since the early 19th century, the port of Odessa has attracted bold and enterprising people of all nationalities, and Odessa has become a lively mix of Greeks, Italians, Jews, Russians, sailors, and visitors from around the world. They all contributed their specific brand of humor. Since 1972, Odessa has hosted the annual international festival of comedy and humor films, Humorina, in which the winning entry receives a small copy of the duke’s statue. Many of the ex-USSR generations know Odessa Mom As the “capital of humor” itself, Odessa, humor and distinctive local dialect, something not many cities have. Odessa has been and always will be famous for its pranks.

Outstanding historical architecture, laughter, luxurious hotels, top-class restaurants and clubs, sophistication, a friendly atmosphere and magnificent sunny beaches – all this is Odessa!