To Odesa With Love

Odesa. Marine Terminal

For some, Odesa begins with the marine terminal, but for me it begins with the railway station.

Odesa. Railway Station

On the platform a recording of the familiar song about "the city in blooming acacias" is playing, and at once you plunge into the atmosphere of this hospitable, sunny city.

Odesa. Panteleimonivska St.

With every visit you discover so much that is new and unexplored.

Odesa. The harbour waters

Yes, Odesa can be many things. It is like this,

Odesa. The "Palmira" residential complex

Odesa. The "Crown of New Arcadia" residential complex

and like this,

Odesa. The Shah's Palace. 1852

Odesa. The Vorontsov Palace. 1828

and like this.

Odesa. Zhukovskoho St., 45

Odesa. Pushkinska St., 81

But it is always enchanting,

romantic,

City Garden. The rotunda and the fountain

poetic,

Odesa. Cathedral Square

wondrous,

Odesa. The Belvedere. 1826

unsurpassed,

Odesa. The weathervane on the Shah's Palace

magical,

Odesa. The weathervane on Pushkinska Street

magnanimous,

unfathomable.

Odesa. Deribasivska St. The "Grand Moscow" Hotel

This is exactly why we love it, admire it and take pride in it.

Odesa. The harbour waters

And it is not only acacias and poplars that have made the sunny city green. This time I noticed for the first time that century-old plane trees grow along Pushkinska Street. With their gracefully curved branches they form a kind of tunnel, and I walked through it, turning my head this way and that, taking in everything around me.

Odesa. Pushkinska St.

This time I paid particular attention to the monuments to the city's founders and to all those without whom this pearl of the Black Sea would not be as captivating as we all know it to be. No one has spoken of Odesa better than the poet. Alexander Pushkin, staying in this cultural centre of the Russian Empire in 1823, dedicated these lines to it:

"There all breathes of Europe,wafts of it,

everything glitters with the South and teems

with living variety."

On the street that bears his name, the sun of Russian poetry invites you into his literary memorial museum.

Odesa. The monument to A. S. Pushkin beside the literary memorial museum

Tilting my head back, I studied the balconies — an architectural element that can tell you a great deal about the history of a city, of a street, and something about the owners of a building.

Here the architects' creative ideas and flights of fancy are boundless.

The projecting platforms on the buildings' facades have the most varied railings, made of all sorts of materials.

Odesans tried to build balconies of every shape — rectangular, arched, triangular — so they could step out onto them both to show themselves off and to look at others. At the start of Deribasivska Street stands a monument to "the first builder of Odesa — Jose de Ribas".

Odesa. The monument to Jose de Ribas

He is shown at his full height with a spade in his hand, for which the townsfolk nicknamed him "the treasure hunter". To see the bust of Ludwik Zamenhof, I had to step into the courtyard of house No. 3 on Deribasivska Street. The creator of the Esperanto language never visited the port city, but the sculptor Blazhkov received a commission to make a monument to him. The work went unclaimed, and since 1959 the sculpted likeness of the inventor of this international means of communication has adorned the courtyard where the author of the piece once lived.

Odesa. The bust of Ludwik Zamenhof

And the balconies never cease to amaze with their decorative details.

Refined railings, filigree grillework and intricate canopies symbolise the wealth and status of the flats' owners.

In the City Garden, on the bench beside Leonid Utyosov, there is room for a companion to sit.

Odesa. City Garden. The monument to Leonid Utyosov

While Kisa stands there with his hat held out,

Odesa. The sculpture of Kisa Vorobyaninov

and Osya keeps an eye on how much their coffers will grow from the alms,

Odesa. The sculpture of Ostap Bender

another chair from the Gambs set is used by visitors to the Southern Palmyra for selfies on the smallest square in Ukraine — the square named after Ostap Bender.

City Garden. The twelfth chair on the square named after Ostap Bender

Despite the fleeting nature of time and its effect on the townsfolk's way of life, beneath the street clock, which showed the exact time, couples dance again and again and musicians play.

City Garden. The street clock. The "Odesa Time" monument

So that no one forgets to call their family and their loved ones, the telephone booth is always at the service of anyone whose mobile has gone flat.

A telephone booth with a payphone

At the Fishing Spot it is still deserted in March.

Odesa. The Fishing Spot

The miniature library has not been restocked with tomes.

Odesa. City Garden. The street library

In this spot the grandmasters never break off their matches on the chess and draughts boards.

Odesa. City Garden. Chess and draughts

Balconies are not only a mark of irrepressible design ideas.

They are also a place to relax and for small flower beds that any day now will burst into bright colours.

And for now, on the eve of the 8th of March, the trees have blossomed with artificial hearts.

Odesa. Cathedral Square

A great many hothouse bouquets are for sale, but the ones I always find dearer are those sold by the old ladies — because they are ashamed to beg, and so they grow charming violets for our delight.

These balconies serve as the ballet studios of the choreography school where our future prima ballerinas train.

Odesa. The choreography school

I wish for them to conquer the most famous stages,

Odesa. The Opera and Ballet Theatre

and for the finest theatre balconies to be filled with admirers of their talent.

The queen of silent cinema, Poltava-born Vira Kholodna, lived part of her creative life in Odesa, where she was much loved.

Odesa. The "Odesa" cinema

The actress's life was cut short suddenly at the age of 26. Her funeral service was held in the Cathedral of the Transfiguration of the Saviour, to which admirers of the beauty came in an endless stream.

Odesa. The Cathedral of the Transfiguration of the Saviour

Odesans immortalised the memory of the world-famous screen star by naming a square after her and erecting a graceful sculpture.

Odesa. The monument to Vira Kholodna

In Vira Kholodna Park it is impossible to walk past the very touching monument to Valentin Kataev's literary heroes — Petya and Gavrik. We all come from childhood, and we all pored over the novella "A White Sail Gleams", dreaming of far-off journeys.

Odesa. The monument to Petya and Gavrik

In the centre of Cathedral Square, since 1863, rises the monument to Prince S. M. Vorontsov, with battle reliefs on its pedestal.

Odesa. The monument to S. M. Vorontsov

Souvenir shops are free museums. As a keepsake of Odesa-mama, besides the trivial striped sailor shirts you can buy paintings on maritime themes or national costume.

What are wares painted in the Khokhloma style doing here? We have our own Petrykivka painting in the Dnipropetrovsk region.

How wonderful it is that Odesans have preserved the marvellous decorative details of the old buildings, raised in a variety of styles, and try not to drape these masterpieces of architecture with advertising banners.

Specialists of world renown worked on the refinement and charm of this little Paris.

I should note that everywhere a springtime revival of tidying-up was in full swing. On Tyraspolska Square the tram tracks were being replaced using noise-absorbing technology — for Odesa is a tram city.

On the Potemkin Stairs — a wholesale reconstruction.

Odesa. The reconstruction of the Potemkin Stairs

Because of it, the Duke de Richelieu is temporarily denied his view of the harbour, and the city's guests the descent to the marine terminal down this historic landmark.

Odesa. The monument to the Duke de Richelieu

For this I used the stairs down to the Polish Descent, which have a second name — the "Stairs of the Dead". One of the gloomiest places in Odesa acquired this name because of a chilling story about a woman-maniac who, in the 19th century, killed around 20 men.

Odesa. The "Stairs of the Dead"

But that is not a story for the 8th of March. On the eve of the holiday I would rather recall the city's romantic corners.

The Mother-in-Law's Bridge got its name because of its length. Newlyweds traditionally weigh it down with padlocks, which the municipal services then saw off.

Odesa. The Mother-in-Law's Bridge

There is a special structure for the newlyweds — probably so that, when a husband comes home tipsy, the wives will remember the padlocks and, in their minds, use them to shut his mouth.

The "Lovers' Heart" structure

This bridge, 516 m long, is called the Cable-Stayed Bridge.

Although in Ukraine the city of sleeping lions is said to be Lviv, in Odesa these stone kings of the beasts are to be found in no small number.

Another notable monument to the founders of Odesa. Above her associates rises the figure of Catherine II, whose decree marked the beginning of the construction of the city and the port.

The monument to the founders of Odesa

And on the grounds of the marine terminal I saw a very tender image of a modern woman. The monument by the sculptor O. Tokariev is dedicated to all the sailors' wives who see their loved ones off and wait for them.

The monument to sailors' wives

I thank the people of Odesa for their hospitality and for a wonderful mood — the artist on Cathedral Square for letting me gaze upon his beautiful canvases and for the stories about them, the saxophonist in "Arcadia" for a talented rendition of a medley,

the parking attendant on Catherine Square for a friendly chat and for offering to take a photograph of me, smiling and delighted.

To take a stroll around the city, you can use more than just public transport.

But I prefer walking tours, and I share my wonderful impressions of our beloved Odesa.