Odessa is referred to as the "Pearl of the Black Sea" is the 3rd largest city in Ukraine, the largest city along the Black Sea, and the most important city of Ukraine for trade. Odessa’s mild climate, warm waters and sunlit beaches attract hundreds of thousands of people year around. Its shady lanes, beautiful lightly pastel buildings and cozy squares impart to the city a certain air of intimacy.
The Potemkin Stairs
The Potemkin Stairs (named after the rebellious battleship Potyomkin) are a formal entrance into the city from the direction of the sea. The stairs leading from Prymorsky Boulevard down to the sea were constructed from 1837 through 1841 to the design of the architect F. Bofford. This imposing monument numbers 192 stairsarranged in ten flights and flanked by two-metre thick parapets. The difference in width between the highest (13.4 m) and the lowest (21.6 m) flights produces an optical illusion that enhances the grandeur of the structure.
The Potemkin Stairs
Odessa Opera House
Magnificent Odessa Opera and Ballet Theater is once echoed with concerts conducted by Peter Tchaikovsky and ballets featuring Anna Pavlova. The interior of this impressive structure, which ranks in grandeur with Milan’s La Scala and Moscow’s Bolshoi, is richly decorated in Louis XVI style. Exquisite inside decor in the style of Viennese baroque blended with elements of the Italian Renaissance and French rococo, sculptural groups taken from Greek mythology, the stucco moldings and guilt friezes combined with the red velvet of the seats and boxes — all this tends to create a special atmosphere.
