Sightseeing in Odessa - what to see. Complete travel guide

Several years ago the city celebrated its two hundredth birthday. It was founded in 1794 by order of Catherine II. Odessa has always been the main port city of the Black Sea coast. Tourists are attracted by the city’s good traditions and hospitality, beautiful architecture and spacious beaches.

There are really many places for walking in the city, and you can study its streets indefinitely. Here you will find beautiful old mansions and magnificent modern buildings, as well as numerous monuments and fountains. The old part of the city and its main symbol is the Deribasovskaya Street, along which is stretched a large square. Here you will see contemporary artists who show off their works; take a walk among the ancient sculptures and watch beautiful pictures of marine landscapes, portraits and still life pictures.

St. Panteleimon Monastery decorated with fine mosaics and five gleaming domes is one of the city's main attractions. You should definitely walk along the port area, which looks more like a modern city street rather than an old port. There are many modern buildings here, which feature a skillful mix of metal and glass. The Catacombs are one of the main historical monuments of Odessa. This is a real underground city, which complex labyrinth stretches for many kilometers underground. Attending the Catacombs can be done with a guide only, because the tunnels are very complicated and it’s really easy to get lost in them. Copyright www.orangesmile.com

Odessa Opera and Ballet Theatre is considered one of the greatest cultural monuments. Once here were performing Tchaikovsky, Chaliapin and Sobinov. Attending this theater is a dream of theater connoisseur. The most unusual house of Odessa can be found in the Vorontsov Street. This is a building of a triangular shape, which seems to be absolutely flat from some angles. This is a truly unique architectural project, and so you will never find a building like this one anywhere in the world.

An interesting symbol of the city is the Potemkin Stairs. According to historical data, it appeared in this place long before Odessa was founded. The steps lead to the top of a hill on which a Turkish fortress once stood. The Potemkin Stairs have been preserved almost completely; during the last reconstruction in 1933, it lost only 8 of their steps. The whole stairway was asphalted, and beautiful pink granite was used for its finishing. Today on the top of the hill there is a beautiful park where you can walk among the trees, admire some interesting monuments and appreciate the city's panorama.

Another outstanding architectural monument is the Neo-Gothic Shah's Palace. This magnificent building got such a name due to the fact that the Persian Shah Mohammad Ali Shah Qajar had spent several days here. He was forced to flee to Odessa during the revolution in Iran. The beautiful palace built in the middle of the 19th century originally belonged to a Polish aristocrat; today the historic building is privately owned.

A beautiful historic building houses Odessa Museum of Western and Oriental art that opened back in the year 1923. The museum's exposition is considered to be one of the largest in the country. Its walls keep a unique collection of works by European and Asian artists and sculptors, as well as many works of art dating back to ancient times.

Odessa also has a very interesting archaeological museum that was founded a long time ago, in 1825. Currently, the museum halls present unique exhibits that discovered in various parts of the world. A large part of the exposition is devoted to the history of Ancient Egypt, as well as of ancient Rome and Greece. Many people come to this museum just to admire ancient jewelry made of precious metals.

The city's most unusual architectural monument can be called Odessa Passage built back in the 19th century. Today, the beautiful historic building with a glass roof houses a prestigious hotel and several boutiques. In the pre-revolutionary period, it housed the city's most prestigious shops. The main feature of the building is a locomotive adorning its roof.