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Odessa
is regional and cultural centre, a sea port on the Black Sea, the
capital of humour.
The biography of Odessa is full with the historic events reflected
in the names of almost 1400 streets, squares, avenues, boulevards,
the monuments of history. Every year Odessa is visited by 100,000 of
tourists from abroad.
It was
founded by Ekaterina II in 1794 when Russian empress decided that
Russia needs the port on the Black Sea for the expansion of contacts
with Europe. Very long ago there was an Ancient Greek settlement on
the territory where present day Odessa is. After that here lived the
Crimean Tatars. Later they were changed by Ottoman Turks who founded
here the Hajibey fortress. And on its place Odessa was built.
Within the
short period the city not only got to become “the Southern window
from Ukraine to Europe” with a splendid
harbour
on the Black Sea but also the outstanding cultural centre. There are
7 theatres in the city, Philarmonia, circus, The House Opera and
Ballet.
On the 1st
of April Odessa turns into a stage for a merry festival – the Day of
Humour. Bright carnivals, funny performances, colourful decorations
in Deribasovskaya St., the concerts of famous humourists in the
theatres, and the festive salutes at night. Almost in the same way
the Day of the City is celebrated (on the 2nd of
September).
Also Odessa
is famous with its bright and active night life. Lots of the discos
and clubs, casinos, restaurants and bars with various cuisine work
all the night and their doors are open for the visitors and guests
from abroad till the very morning. Very often in Odessa take place
the concerts of famous music performers and DJs, different festivals
and club celebrations.
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Excursion survey of our Odessa places of interest
Opera and Ballet Theatre
The 2nd of the
three most beautiful Opera Theatres in Europe and is included into
the 7 Wonders of Ukraine. It is built in Vienna barocco style. Its
front side is decorated with the sculptures of Greek mythology
heroes and the sculptural portraits of famous classical composers.
Was built in the very beginning of Odessa history - in 1809 - by the
French architect Tomas de Tomont.
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Primorsky Boulevard
From Dumskaya Square (where
the building of City Council and the old gun are, also there is a
monument to Alexander Pushkin) along the sea vault Primorsky
boulevard stretches itself. This alley is a very popular place for
having a walk along – the wonderful sea and port view, the raws of
trees are along with benches near them, and an open air museum of
Ancient Greek settlement that was found about a year ago right under
the Primorsky blvrd. In the central part of it you can see the
monument to Duke de Richelieu and the Potemkin Stairs with a
wonderful view of the sea and Passenger Terminal of Odessa Sea Port.
In the end of this boulevard
there is a magnificent colonnade (the palace belvedere) and Vorontsov’s Palace.
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Potyomkin Stairs
In the central part of Primorsky blvrd in front of Duke monument
there are the Potemkin Stairs. They were built as the main entrance
to the Odessa city from the sea. These stairs impresses with its
size – 192 steps, and its length is 142 meters. And if to look at it
from the downstairs, in perspective it looks even more impressive,
because it was planned by the architects to make its width
downstairs wider than its upper width.
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The monument to Duke de Richelieu
Upstairs the Potemkin Stairs
there is a monument to Duke de Richelieu, the founder of Odessa.
Duke has become the famous symbol of Odessa and its culture. People
meet near this monument, take photos on its background and enjoy in
general the view of Passenger Terminal of the Sea port and Potemkin
Stairs from there.
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Odessa Sea Port (Passenger Terminal)
Going down the Potemkin
Stairs you can get to the passenger terminal of Odessa Sea Port with
its ships, ferries, yachts, the fresh breeze and lots of the sea
around. There is a big and luxurious hotel “Odessa” on its
territory, a small church and some modern monuments.
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Tyoschin Bridge
Right behind the Vorontsov’s
Palace and its colonnade you will see the Tyoschin Bridge. It is
very popular between the people who are getting married or simply
want to fix their love swears. You will see the thousands of small
and not very small locks on its rails – these locks symbolize that
those couples swore to each other in their eternal love. Also if to
jump on this bridge you will feel how it trembles a little. From
this bridge there is an impressive view to the vaults, the street
and crossroad downstairs the bridge, the sea and industrial part of
the port. After passing the bridge along, you get into the old part
of Odessa with a small Gorbaty Bridge to the left. The
Odessians believe – if to walk under it and think of the sincere
wish you want to be realized – for sure it will realize!
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Odessa Dolphinarium and oceanarium NEMO
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“Nemo” is the biggest and the only Dolphinarium in Ukraine that
works all the year round. And it is the first dolphinarium in Europe
that arranges the night shows – light show, acrobats, fireworks on
water – all this with unforgotten dolphins and amusing and funny fur
seals!
In
summer the shows take place in the open air and in winter you can
enjoy the show that in the warm, cozy, decorated in the tropical
style, big covered swimming pool.
The
night show lasts for 1,5 hour. The daytime show – for 1 hour.
You
will get the bright and merry impressions and will get the charge of
the wonderful mood for the whole year!
In the oceanarium-tropicarium of Odessa Dolphinarium you can see the
aquariums with the different species of salt and fresh water fishes
of our planet, the big and wonderfully decorated aquariums, for
fishes and terrarium animals there everything is arranged to make
the conditions very close to their natural environment. A very
exclusive exhibition, it is very
captivating and
interesting!
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Odessa ZOO
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Odessa ZOO was founded in 1937 on the territory of Illyicha Park.
This territory is a reserved area and it is included into the list
of natural reserves of Ukraine. There are 1590 specimens of 243
spices of animals in Odessa ZOO. More than 60 spices of Odessa ZOO
animals are included to the International Red Book, Red List of
Europe and to the Red Book of Ukraine. Between them are the famous
Indian Elephants, Far East Leopards, Przhevalsky Horses, Turkmen
Koulans, European Moufflons, Hamadryad Hamadryad Baboons, Brown
Bears, Steppe Cranes, Eagle Owls etc. Odessian ZOO is the only ZOO
in Ukraine where the Indian elephants became happy parents of their
3 elephant calfs.
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Odessa Museums
Archeological Museum
To
the right from the Theatre of Opera and Ballet there is the
Archeological museum.
There is a very
rich exhibition of ancient history of civilizations of the North of
Black Sea (South and South East of Ukraine – in 1000 B.C. here were
the ancient city states – Thira, Olvia, Nikonios, Pantikapeos,
Chersonese, and later, the cultures of Scythian tribes, Sarmatian,
and later Slavic since the period of Kiev Russia.), also the
exhibition of Ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome etc.
In
the Golden Stockroom there are the original golden things and coins
(the oldest of them belong to 2000 B.C.), that exhibition is one of
the richest of all the former USSR.
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The Museum of Anchors in the open air
An
interesting exhibition of real anchors is on the territory of the
Sea Port near the Passenger Terminal. On this exhibition are
displayed the various types of anchors – modern and ancient, made
from one piece of iron and of high keeping power, Vikings’
multi-handed anchors, used by Scandinavians as grapnels, and the
other types of anchors.
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Museum of Western and Eastern Arts
The
building of museum is a monument of architecture - a palace built in
1856. Its interiors are decorated with the rich modeling, carving,
furnitured with bronze and gold elements, there are the marble
stairs and columns etc. The rare works of foreign Renaissance,
Baroque, Classical artists are displayed there, there take place
also the exhibitions of modern famous artists from all over the
world.
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Museum of A.S.Pushkin
In
Pushkinskaya St.13 there is a Pushkin Museum. In 20ties of 19th
century this building was a hotel, called “Hotel du Nord”. Since
1823 there lived a famous Russian poet Alexander Pushkin. While
living in Odessa the poet wrote some very famous big poems, 13
lyrical poems and a part of his great poetic work “Evgeny Onegin”.
Odessians are very proud that this poet spent here a part of his
life and worked here on his poems.
It
is not the full list of Odessa museums, we have listed the ones that
are in the down town of Odessa. There are as well in Odessa some
museums of Battle Glory (dedicated to Odessa struggle with
fascists in WW2) and Memorial of 411 Battery, Odessa Arts
Museum (the exhibitions of Russian and Ukrainian artists are
held there), Museum of N.Rerikh (dedicated to art and
spiritual work of Nikolay Rerich, a founder of Agni-Yoga) and etc.
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Odessa Discos and Clubs
There
are lots of night clubs and discotheques in Odessa – the discos with
different styles of music, in most of them the music genres vary
every week or they have the dancing halls with different music
trends – disco of 80ties-90ties, jazz, hip-hop, R’N’B, Latino music,
Eastern (Arabic and Turkish), DJ’s music (the famous CIS and foreign
DJs give their concerts and shows in the greater part of Odessa
discos and clubs) etc. In addition to all the down town clubs and
discos of Odessa, in summer work the summer discos along the sea
line, on the territories of the most famous Odessa beaches. In all
the clubs there are good restaurants and bars with high level of
service.
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Odessa shops, boutiques and trade centres
In all the main streets of
central part of Odessa (Deribasovskaya, Yekaterininskaya,
Rishelyevskaya, Pushkinskaya etc.) you can see many varied shops and
boutiques – fashionable clothes boutiques, sport shops, jewelery and
perfumes boutiques, technics shops and supermarkets, and, of course,
the big trading centres. The two of trading centres are in the very
heart of Odessa, one – “Europe” is in Deribasovskaya St., another
“Afina” is very close to it, in Grecheskaya Square. In these trading
centres you can find everything – the clothes shops, CD/DVD
departments, photo shops, souvenirs&presents boutiques etc., and, of
course, the big food supermarket and some restaurants and not
expensive snack bars in the ground floor. |
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Odessa is as well famous
with its markets and bazars. There are many markets in many parts of Odessa, one
of them – “PRIVOZ” (it is not far from the Railway Station) exists
since the very beginning of Odessa history. This market looks like
the Eastern bazaars – there you can buy not only the fresh fruit and
vegetables and the goods produced and grown by the farmers of Odessa
region (home made cheese and sausage, pastry, varied types of smoked
fish and meat) but also the real spices, domestic things and
souvenirs made by folk craftsmen and so on. Also there are not
expensive departments with clothes, shoes, crockery in such markets.
Not far from Odessa there is the biggest in the Eastern Europe
market called “Syedmoy kilometr” (“The 7th
kilometer”) – on its huge territory you can buy to any taste, not
expensively and in wide assortment summer and winter clothes for
adults and kids, household goods, technics, building and repair
materials and goods. There are also lots of retail sectors. This “7th
kilometer” market is very popular, the people from other cities,
from CIS and from Eastern Europe, and also from Eastern countries
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