Odessa: Potemkin Stairs and the Black Sea
Travel guide · editorialA travel warning is in effect for all of Ukraine because of Russia's war of aggression, and Odessa has repeatedly been the target of missile and drone attacks. This profile introduces a city you can explore on a future trip to Odessa, once the situation allows: a port city on the Black Sea with an opera house, acacia-lined avenues, and a legendary sense of humor.
A City Out of Nothing
Odessa was founded in 1794 by decree of Catherine the Great on the site of an Ottoman fortress. The Duke of Richelieu, a French émigré, shaped the city's neoclassical look as governor, laying out streets in a checkerboard pattern. As a free port, Odessa attracted Greeks, Italians, Jews, Armenians, Germans, and Bulgarians, and became one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the Russian Empire. This is where Isaac Babel's stories about the gangsters of Moldavanka were set, and Sergei Eisenstein's film "Battleship Potemkin" made the harbor stairs world famous. In 2023, UNESCO inscribed the historic center on the World Heritage List and, at the same time, on the List of World Heritage in Danger.
Sights in Odessa
The Potemkin Stairs, with their 192 steps, lead from Primorsky Boulevard down to the port; thanks to an optical trick, you see only the landings from above. At the top stands the monument to the Duke of Richelieu. The Opera and Ballet Theater, built in the Viennese neo-Baroque style and designed by Fellner and Helmer, is considered one of the most beautiful in Europe. Deribasivska Street is the main promenade, lined with cafés and leading to the City Garden. The Passage, a covered 19th-century shopping arcade, and the Transfiguration Cathedral, rebuilt after its destruction and damaged again in 2023, are also part of the center. Beneath the city stretch the catacombs, a labyrinth of hundreds of kilometers of former quarries.
Food and Life in Odessa
The cuisine reflects the city's multiethnic history: stuffed fish, herring forshmak, eggplant caviar, fish soup, and freshly caught barabulka, small red mullet from the Black Sea. The Privoz Market is one of the largest markets in Ukraine and a feast for all the senses. In summer, life played out on the beaches of Arkadia and Lanzheron, with clubs and beach bars. The humor of Odessans is proverbial, and every year on April 1 the city celebrates Humorina.
Neighborhoods and Beaches
The Old Town in the Prymorskyi District, with its acacia-lined avenues, is the heart of the city. To the south lie Arkadia, with its beachfront promenade, and the Fontan area, where beach sections are named after tram stops. Northwest of the center is Moldavanka, the legendary gangster quarter from Babel's stories. Shevchenko Park offers a view of the port.
Getting Around Odessa
Odessa Airport has been closed to civilian flights since February 2022; at present you can reach the city only overland, for example by train from Kyiv or via the Republic of Moldova. Trams and trolleybuses connect the center with the beach neighborhoods, including the line to Arkadia in the Prymorskyi District. In peacetime, the best time to visit was from June to September; spring and fall are mild and quieter.