Attractions of Odesa

The Museum of Odesa Modern Art was founded in 2008 by businessman, intellectual and philanthropist Vadym Morokhovskyi. During its existence, the museum changed its location several times, until in 20025 it opened in its current premises - in a two-story mansion near the Catholic Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The Museum of Odesa Modern Art exposition is based on a unique collection of works of the "second wave of the Odessa avant-garde" by Mykhailo Knobel, which was significantly expanded during the museum's existence. Of particular interest are works of nonconformist art of the 1960s - 1970s and the "New Southern Wave" of the late 20th century.

The Museum of Odesa Modern Art has an exhibition space and a gallery, which hosts contemporary art exhibitions, conferences, and various art projects. There is a small cafe and shop on the ground floor. There is also an underground storage room for visitors.

The Museum "Foreign Writers in Odesa" was officially founded in Odesa on January 1, 2025 as a result of the reorganization of the former Oleksandr Pushkin Literary and Memorial Museum in Odessa in compliance with the Law of Ukraine "On Decolonization".

The museum is located in the historic building of the former Hotel du Nord in the center of Odesa. It is a branch of the Odesa Literary Museum.

The exposition of the Museum "Foreign Writers in Odesa" should cover the biographies and works of at least two dozen world-famous writers who visited and lived in Odesa at different times in the 19th and 20th centuries. These include, for example, famous American writers Mark Twain and Theodore Dreiser, Romanian classic Mihai Eminescu, Oleksandr Green, Ivan Bunin, etc.

On the evening of Friday, January 31, 2025, the Russians fired Iskander ballistic missiles at Odesa. The strike hit the historic city center. Seven people were injured. 19 architectural monuments included in the UNESCO World Heritage List were seriously damaged, including the Museum of Foreign Writers in Odesa. The museum building suffered significant damage: windows and doors were broken, and the roof and walls were seriously damaged.

Due to the consequences of the Russian missile strike, the "Foreign Writers in Odesa" museum's re-exhibition has been postponed indefinitely.

The "Steppe Ukraine" Museum was established in Odesa in 1925. Ukrainian folk culture was represented by collections of embroidery, carpets, ceramics, toys that came from the Black Sea region, Podillya, Middle Dnipro, Polissya, etc. The museum's collections numbered about two thousand exhibits. As a result of the Soviet authorities' curtailment of the policy of "Ukrainization" and local history research, the museum was closed in 1931, a significant part of the museum's collection was transferred to the Odesa Historical and Local Lore Museum, and most of the museum's employees were repressed.

After Ukraine gained independence, in April 2006, the Steppe Ukraine Museum was revived as a branch of the Odesa Historical and Local Lore Museum.

The first part of the museum's exposition tells about the creation of "Steppe Ukraine", its founders and activists, and the traditions of museum work. Here, the traditional interior of a Ukrainian manor house is recreated.

In the second part of the exhibition, through the creation of residential complexes, an idea of ​​the material and spiritual culture of the main ethnic groups of the region is given - Old Believers, Greeks, Jews, Karaites, Moldovans, Gagauzes, Bulgarian and German colonists. The main element of each complex is a national costume, around which are placed weaving products, dishes, furniture, household tools, and products of decorative and applied art.

The memorial house-museum of the outstanding Ukrainian academician Volodymyr Filatov is located in Odesa on Frantsuzky Boulevard next to the Institute of Eye Diseases founded by him.

The exposition of the house-museum introduces not only the personality and activities of Filatov, but also the cultural and historical context of the late 19th - mid-20th centuries - the dwelling itself, furniture, personal belongings of the scientist are exhibits reflecting the life and everyday life of that period. The exposition contains unique photographs, manuscripts, letters, rare publications, personal belongings and photographic materials of the family of Academician Filatov.

In addition to the house-museum, the Museum-Exhibition Complex named after Volodymyr Filatov also includes the Academician's Cabinet-Museum, located in the main building of the Institute of Eye Diseases.

The original building of the Arab Cultural Center in Odesa has every chance of becoming an architectural monument.

The large Moorish-style house was built in 2001 at the expense of Arab businessman Adnan Kivan. The mosque stands out strongly in the urban development and is a real eastern pearl of Odesa.

When entering the prayer hall, men and women must remove their shoes, and women are issued long robes with hoods. In the prayer hall, openwork elm on the stair railings and architectural elements make the interior decoration of the mosque elegant and airy. Apart from a few small bookshelves on both sides of the hall, there is no other furniture. The entire floor is covered with a soft carpet, the pattern of which seems to divide the carpet into equal squares, which serve as conventional delimitation of the seats for those who pray. Under the ceiling, the main decoration is a large crystal chandelier shining with hundreds of lights.

The Arab Cultural Center in Odesa is open for tours that introduce visitors to Arab culture. There is an Arabic language school and a library.

The Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is the main Roman Catholic church of Odesa.

Its construction began in 1848 according to the project of Franchesko Morandi with the support of the governor of the Novorossiya region, Count Vorontsov. Before that, there was a small church in the city, built in 1822 according to the project of Giovanni Frapolli on the territory that was allocated to Catholics in 1805 by the first mayor of Odesa, Dyuk de Rishelye.

In 1935, the church was closed, a local history museum was placed in it, and after the Second World War - a sports complex. The marble altars were destroyed, the shape of the Gothic windows was changed, and the stone vaults were destroyed.

Only in 1991, the church was returned to the Catholic community of the city. General of the infantry Count Oleksandr Lanzheron is buried here.

The Bread Museum in Odesa was opened in 2008 on the occasion of its 10th anniversary by "Odeskyi korovai" on the basis of the bakery No. 4. In 2009, the museum received the status of a "People's Museum".

The museum exposition introduces visitors to the history of the development of bread baking in the Odesa region and the history of the creation and operation of the bakery enterprises "Odeskyi korovai".

The museum stores documents, photographs and other materials related to bread baking, about the activities of the bakery factories. Some of the materials are copies from the city archive, private collections of citizens and the local history museum. Thematic stands collect unique materials: decrees of the mayors of Odesa from the end of the 18th century, the Statutes of the bakery enterprise, old recipes and technologies for making bread, documents and photographs from the period of World War II and the post-war period.

The Museum of Bread systematically organizes thematic exhibitions: "Bread of War", "Easter Pastries", "Christmas Baking", etc.

Odesa cultural and health complex "Nemo" is located in the center of the city, on the beach "Lanzheron ".

Includes a dolphinarium, an oceanarium and a hotel. Opened in 2005 for International Children's Day.

The complex meets international standards, keeping marine mammals meets all conventions and requirements. The large demonstration hall is open in the warm season and can accommodate up to 900 spectators (closed in winter, it can accommodate 600 spectators). Visitors are offered swimming with dolphins, dolphin therapy sessions.

The exposition of the oceanarium consists of two departments. The aquarium features inhabitants of fresh and sea water, more than 100 species of fish and more than 50 species of invertebrates.

The basis of the exotarium was Serhiy Duz's long-term collection, which includes more than 40 species of amphibians and reptiles and more than 60 species of terrestrial invertebrates, as well as one of the best collections of tropical butterflies in Ukraine, which includes more than 1,000 specimens.

The Experimentarium is the first branch of the Odesa Museum of Interesting Science. It opened at the end of January 2024 in the Atrium shopping center after the destruction of the main space of the Museum of Interesting Science on Shevchenko Avenue in the summer of 2023 by a Russian missile strike.

The museum team managed to save almost all of its exhibits, with the exception of special rooms, and after only 7 months, the Museum moved part of its exposition to a new location and continued its work as an Experimentarium with 23 exhibits of the collection. Now everyone who wants to can visit this space in the Atrium shopping center, which helps children to distract themselves from the war for 1.5-2 hours with scientific experiments.

If in other museums you can't even touch the valuable exhibits, then in the Experimentarium you can not only touch, check, feel and see everything in action. Both children and adults can conduct interesting experiments and unusual experiments.

The main task of the Experimentarium is to show schoolchildren and students that even the most difficult tasks and the longest formulas can be exciting, if you just look at them from a different angle.

The Experimentarium aims to teach subjects of the natural cycle: physics, chemistry, biology, geology, astronomy, mathematics and many other fields of knowledge.

On April 12, 2024, the Museum of Interesting Science resumed its work at a new location in the Primorsky district of Odesa.

The Odesa Football Museum is located in the Chornomorets Stadium complex. Opened in 2012 after the reconstruction of the stadium.

The exposition tells about the history of Odesa football and FC "Chornomorets" since the founding of the club in 1936. Photos of all football players who played for the club, coaches, the first matches with the participation of the Chornomorets team are presented.

The form of players of different periods, boots, goalkeeper gloves, balls, etc. is of the greatest interest.

During the tour you can visit the bowl of the stadium, locker rooms, technical areas, conference hall.

A branch of the Greek Cultural Foundation (Athens) was opened in Odesa in 1994 in a historic building, where in 1814 a secret revolutionary-patriotic organization "Filiki Eteria" was established, which was engaged in preparing the national liberation movement in Greece. 

The museum was founded in 1979 as a department of the Odesa Historical and Local Lore Museum. The completion of construction work and the transfer of the Museum to its historical site were made possible thanks to the contribution of Greek organizations in Odesa.

The museum's exposition demonstrates the activities and life of the Greek colony in Odesa in the pre-revolutionary period.

Later, a new local history department was opened with objects that recreate the interior of the house of the former mayor of Odesa and a famous public figure, Hrihoriy Marazli, in the premises of which the museum is now located.

The Museum of the History of Fire Protection of Odesa operates on the territory of the Third State Fire and Rescue Department of the city, where a fire and technical exhibition operated for 20 years, and now the history of fire protection of the Odesa region from the beginning of its foundation to the present has been collected here.

In the hall of memory of the Chornobyl accident, a diorama "Explosion at the Fourth Power Unit of the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant" is installed, made according to the sketches of the specialist of the Main Directorate of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in the Odesa region Larysa Leonova.

Among the exhibits of the museum's exposition you can see models of ancient and modern fire equipment, a horse-drawn barrel train, a manual fire pump of the 19th century, real fire equipment, archival photographs of the 18th-19th centuries, and reduced copies of fire equipment.

Only group tours are held by prior arrangement.

The Museum of the History of the Jews of Odesa "Migdal-Shorashim" was opened on the initiative of the Migdal Jewish Community Center in Odesa.

His exhibition is located in a small apartment and reflects the history of the Jewish community, which is inextricably linked with the culture of Odesa.

The permanent exhibition of the "Migdal-Shorashim" Museum includes about a thousand items: documents, photographs, books, newspapers, postcards, religious and household items, musical instruments, works of art, etc.

The Holy Assumption Monastery is the most famous abode in Odesa, founded by Metropolitan Havryil.

Since 1946, the summer residence of the Moscow Patriarchs was located here, the monastery was named Patriarchy, and the Odesa Theological Seminary was transferred here. The building of the patriarchal residence has been preserved on the territory.

The first stone temple was built in 1825 on the site of a wooden one (it was later destroyed by the Bolsheviks). In 1834, a second monastery church with a bell tower was built in honor of the icon of the Mother of God "Life-giving Source" (now Uspensky) with the funds donated to the temple by the Odesa merchant Dariya Kharlambu.

Currently, the Holy Assumption Monastery houses the miraculous icon of the Mother of God "The Milkmaid", painted by Athos monks in the 17th century.

The Holy Trinity Greek Church was built according to the project of architects Dzhovanni Frapolli and Arkadiy Todorov in the style of classicism.

Founded in 1795, it was intended for the Greek community of the city, and was originally made of wood. In 1804, the solemn laying of the stone temple took place, the construction lasted 4 years. In 1821, the Patriarch of Constantinople Hrihoriy V, who was executed by the Turks, was buried here (later the remains were transferred to Athens).

From 1936 to 1941, the Holy Trinity church was closed.

The oldest temple in the city. The marble floor is partially preserved.

Since January 4, 2006 - the Holy Trinity Cathedral of the Odesa Metropolis of the UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate.