Also spelled Odessa, this city of is just over a million (Ukraine´s third largest) is a five-hour drive from Kyiv (just over seven by train) and was founded in 1794 during the reign of Catherine the Great, though its roots extend back to an ancient Greek colony and later medieval Slavic settlement. Today it’s a popular summer resort destination (its best known beach is called Lanzheron) with a population around a million and typical of many port cities, a mix of different cultures.
Among the top local cultural/historical attractions: the neoclassical, Orthodox Spaso-Preobrazhenskiy (Transfiguration) Cathedral on Sobornaya Square, founded in 1794 and rebuilt in 2005 after Stalin had it torn down in the 1930s; the Opera and Ballet House, considered one of the world’s most beautiful theaters, constructed in 1884 by Viennese architects with an Italian baroque façade and a grand, Renaissance-style entrance; underground catacombs, tunnels originally mined for limestone used to build the city in the early days, with a museum documenting its history (including its use during World War II by partisans against the Nazis).
Streets not to miss: pedestrian shopping thoroughfare Derybasivska; picturesque Deribasovksaya, lined with cafés (and while here, check out the Pasazh, a magnificent 19th-century covered passageway); and cobblestone Primorsky Boulevard, framed by tall trees and lined with magnificent buildings.
There are several good museums, such as one – at nearly 200 years one of Ukraine’s oldest archaeology museums, which specializes in the Black Sea region. Another showcases the apartment where Russia’s most celebrated poet, Aleksandr Pushkin, lived for 13 months in exile. And the Odessa Fine Arts Museum, housed in a neoclassical 19th-century aristocratic palace, displays an impressive collection of Ukrainian and Russian art.
The nightlife here is also buzzing, both downtown and on the waterfront (particularly in summer, when a seafront cluster of bars, cafés, restaurants, and rollicking, Ibiza-style clubs called Arkadia is quite the hotspot).
Read more about this and more in my post Ukraine Tourism and the War - Plus a Look at its Aweome Allures for Visitors.
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