Attractions of Odesa

Arkadiya is a resort area of ​​the city, the Odesa Riviera, the center of night life.

It is famous for its modern, well-equipped beaches and a large number of restaurants, night clubs and other entertainment facilities that work around the clock during the holiday season.

In the park territory of Arkadiya by the sea there are hotels, sanatoriums, holiday homes, a hydrotherapy center, and a resort clinic.

The building was built in the style of classicism (architect Franz Boffo) for the Odesa Commodity Exchange. The main facade is decorated with 12 columns and sculptures. Later, the City Duma (now the Odesa City Council) was located here.

On the square in front of the City Duma, an ancient 250-pound trophy cast-iron cannon from the sunken English steam frigate "Tiger" has been installed in memory of the Crimean War.

The monument to Pushkin, created in 1888 at the expense of the townspeople, was installed at the beginning of Prymorsky Boulevard with its back to the Duma (according to legend, this is how the townspeople expressed their attitude to the city authorities, who allocated not a penny from the budget for the monument).

The country's first Contraband museum was opened in Odesa by businessman and former military man Oleksandr Otdyelnov.

The museum is located in the basement of an old house on Evropeyskaya Street. The museum's exposition contains more than 150 items of confiscated contraband and illustrations of the methods of their illegal import.

In particular, you can see porcelain services with heroin inside, cocaine caches in various objects, car doors stuffed with cigarette packs, a model of an underground passage dug under the state border near Uzhhorod.

Visitors are also introduced to how smugglers used the Odessa catacombs.

ATTENTION! The Contraband Museum ceased operations in 2021.

The arcade and two towers of the Quarantine, as well as the remains of the Andriyivskyi bastion - all that remains of the defense structures of the Odesa fortress.

The earthen fortress was laid in 1793-1794 by General Oleksandr Suvorov after the destruction of the Turkish fortress Khadzhybey. A quarantine with a long wall and two towers at its ends was built next to it in 1807. Two more walls went down to Quarantine Harbor. The fortress existed for less than 20 years, was legally liquidated in 1811 "as recognized as incapable of defense" and handed over to Quarantine.

Currently, the Chornomorets stadium is located on the site of the Suvorov fortress in the Central Park of Culture and Recreation named after Taras Shevchenko. A part of the arcade of the Quarantine Wall has been preserved, the Powder Tower adjacent to it, the separate Mortuary Tower (it had a morgue), as well as the Andriyivsky Bastion of the Odesa Fortress, on which the Oleksandrivska Column was later installed (1891).

A picturesque panorama of the seaport opens from the arcade.

The Port of Odesa is one of the largest seaports in Eastern Europe, and was the largest in the Russian Empire. The construction of a new port at the Khadzhibey fortress, which was captured by Russian troops, started the city. Completely reconstructed in 1968.

In front of the building of the sea station, a sculpture of Ernst Unknown "The Golden Child" was installed, on the pier there is a monument to the sailor's wife. The tower of the high-rise "Odesa" hotel (2001) rises above the naval station. At the end of the pier - the church of Saint Nicholas, a new yacht club. On the territory there is a museum of open-air anchors.

The neo-Gothic building on a steep slope at the very beginning of Hoholya Street is called the Shah Palace in Odesa, because it was once rented by the Persian Shah.

The palace was built in 1851-1852 according to the project of the architect Feliks Gonsorovsky for the Polish nobleman Zenona Bzhozovsky, and the last owner was Count Yosyp Shenbek. Part of the premises was rented out.

From 1909 to 1917, the Persian Shah Mohammad Ali, who fled to Odesa from the revolution in Iran, lived in the palace. According to legend, with the beginning of the revolution in Russia, he also left the country, this time abandoning his harem.

During Soviet times, the "Shah Palace" housed the House of Folk Art. For some time, the restored building was occupied by the main office of the Maritime Transport Bank. Currently - the office of the transfer company "Eximnaftoprodukt".

The Palace of the Governor-General of the Novorossiya Region Mykhaylo Vorontsov in Odesa was built in 1827 in the Empire style according to the project and under the direction of the architect Frants Boffo.

The interiors of the palace, designed by the outstanding sculptor and painter Karl Scotti, are the best examples of the preserved interiors of Odesa from the empire era. Prince Vorontsov arranged elegant balls here.

During Soviet times, the premises of the Vorontsov Palace were occupied by the Palace of Children and Students.

The belvedere colonnade on the embankment is considered one of the symbols of Odesa. In 1994, the "Day and Night" fountain by Mykhaylo Reva was installed nearby.

In May 2022, during the Russian-Ukrainian war, the Vorontsov Palace was damaged by Russian missile fire.

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.