Attractions of Odesa region

The Odesa Museum of History and Local Lore is located in the former palace of industrialist Oleksandr Novikov, built in 1876 according to the project of architect Feliks Honsiorovsky. Late Italian Renaissance forms are used in the architecture.

After the Soviet-Ukrainian war at the beginning of the 20th century, a club, a library, party courses, etc. were located in "Novikov's house".

The first museum exposition about the defense of Odessa was placed here in 1948. And in 1956, the Odesa State Historical and Local Lore Museum was opened.

Now the collection of the museum has about 120 thousand exhibits. The basis of the exposition is made up of documents, printed publications, works of applied and visual arts, numismatic collections, weapons of the XVII-XIX centuries from the collections of the Museum of the Odesa Society of History and Antiquities, the Book Museum, the Museum of Old Odessa and others.

The interior of the ceremonial office of the governor-general of the beginning of the 19th century has been recreated.

The courtyard of the museum with a miniature park and an elegant fountain "Grot" is especially interesting.

The Odesa Municipal Museum of Personal Collections was created on the basis of personal collections of works of art by the famous Soviet climber Oleksandr Bleschunov.

A meeting of the Odesa intelligentsia was held in his communal apartment, whose representatives helped him to collect a collection of paintings and antiques.

In 1989, the collector donated his collections to the city and until his death in 1991 remained head of the museum.

The exposition of the Bleschunov Museum includes the exhibitions "Antiquities", "Buddhist East", "Western Europe", "Muslim East", "Odesa woman" and others.

The first specialized numismatic museum in Ukraine appeared in Odesa on the occasion of the 205th anniversary of the city.

The founder is the oldest public organization in Odesa - Odesa City Society of Collectors.

The museum collection includes more than 2.5 thousand coins and other exhibits. All periods in the history of the origin of civilization and statehood on Ukrainian soil, as well as the history of coinage and money circulation of Ukraine from ancient times to the period of independent development of the state are presented.

Also on display are antique pottery and ancient Rus small sculptures. In particular, metal pendant badges with signs of princely power of the Rurik family.

Odesa Port Museum named after Frants de Volan was founded in 1990 on the initiative of the port worker and collector Mykola Hlib-Koshansky, and was opened for the 200th anniversary of Odesa.

The museum is located in the ancient building of the barge - a night house for port loaders.

The exhibition is based on a unique collection of documents dedicated to the history of the construction and development of the Odesa seaport, founded in 1796 according to the plans of the Dutch engineer Frants de Volan. In particular, de Voland's plans for the development of the city and the harbor are presented.

There is also an exhibition of the naval museum, which was previously located in the building of the Odesa Sea Station. The pride of the museum is several hundred ship models.

Excursions are conducted with a visit to the museum and the port.

The Museum of the History of the Odesa Railway was founded in 1985.

During the existence of the museum, a large number of exhibits have been collected, reflecting the most important events in the history of the formation and development of the railway. These are old archival documents, maps, photographs, various awards, railway equipment, uniforms of past years, flags, models of rolling stock, etc. The museum's exposition reveals all stages of the construction and development of Odesa's railway transport, the labor traditions of many generations of railway workers.

More than 1,200 exhibits are presented to the attention of museum visitors.

The Museum of the Main Office of the National Police of Odesa Region was opened in Odesa in 1980 on the initiative of journalist and investigator Vasyl Davydenko, who during 40 years of service in the internal affairs bodies collected various thematic exhibits. In 1992, the museum received the title of "People's Museum".

The first exposition was presented with weapons of different years, uniforms of law enforcement officers of all ranks, documents of classified cases, as well as an exhibition of the development of the Odesa police in chronological order.

Currently, the museum's funds consist of over 40 thousand exhibits, 7 of which are presented for viewing in 6 halls of the museum. The exposition is divided into several thematic sections. Among the most interesting exhibits are the weapons of the tsarist police, manufactured back in 1848. One of the central stands of the museum is dedicated to the famous Odesa pickpockets and con artists, who, with the help of knowledge of psychology, sleight of hand, and simple card tricks, managed to leave their victims penniless.

Odesa Regional Academic Drama Theater, the oldest theater in the south of Ukraine, was built in 1875 by the merchant Velikanov, and was intended for the performances of the drama troupe beloved by Odesa residents by the famous provincial actor and entrepreneur Mykola Myloslavskyi.

Initially, the theater was named after the owner "Velikanov Theater", but in 1875 Velikanov sold the theater to Feliks Rafalovych, who called it the Russian Theater. Before the Bolshevik coup of 1917, the Russian theater served as the venue for the city's biggest theatrical events. Stars of the world stage played here: Sara Bernard, Volodymyr Davydov, Mariya Zankovetska, Panas Saksahanskyi, Mark Kropyvnytskyi and others. During the years of Soviet power, the state Odesa Russian Drama Theater was finally registered in this building.

In 2003, it opened after almost two years of reconstruction. Having preserved several of the best performances created earlier, the theater has performed a number of new high-profile productions.

On March 2, 2022, in connection with Russia's large-scale military invasion of Ukraine, the theater team made a decision to rename the theater - the word "Russian" was removed from its name.

The Odesa Regional Philharmonic is located in a massive gray building built in 1899 according to a sketch project by the Viennese architect Vikentiy Prohaska, redesigned by the outstanding Italian architect Oleksandr Bernardatstsi in the style of Italian Gothic with elements of the Renaissance.

It was originally built as the New Merchant Exchange. The acoustics of her hall were planned in such a way that the merchants who traded on the stock exchange could not overhear each other's conversations. In 1949, the building of the New Exchange was rebuilt for the Philharmonic, however, according to Odesa residents, the acoustics in it are still bad.

The wooden ceiling of the hall is made without a single nail from Lebanese cedar, gilded and painted. The walls of the hall are decorated with 6 panels by the artist Mykola Karazin.

The Odesa Zoo is located in Preobrazhenskyi Park near the railway station and Pryvoz.

The zoo was founded in Odessa in 1922, and was originally located on Primorsky Boulevard in the area of ​​the lower garden of the Vorontsov Palace. It was opened in the current location in 1937.

The Odesa Zoo contains rare animals listed in the Red Book of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the European Red List and the Red Book of Ukraine - 24 species: Far Eastern leopards, horses, baboons-hamadrils, brown bears, steppe cranes, peregrine falcons, owls and many more others

The Odesa Zoo is the only one in Ukraine where Indian elephants have successfully bred and became the happy parents of three baby elephants.

Excursions are conducted by advance order.

RUSSIAN-UKRAINIAN WAR

On the night of June 10, 2025, a Russian drone attack damaged the technical area of the Odesa Zoo. The explosion killed a domestic ram and damaged the hayloft building. The other animals and zoo employees were unharmed..

Odesa Zoo "Biopark" is another project of the owners of Nemo Dolphinarium. Located on the bypass road in the western part of Odesa, in the "Two Pillars" area.

The zoo is equipped with modern, spacious enclosures designed in accordance with the animals' natural habitat. Giraffes, Himalayan bears, Ussuri tigers, lions, chimpanzees, lemurs, gibbons, llamas, alpacas and others live in the Biopark.

The youngest visitors can interact with domestic animals in the petting zoo. There are playgrounds and animation shows for children, photo zones, public catering points.

The Oleksandrivsky barracks were built in Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi in 1828-1838 by order of the Russian Emperor Oleksandr I in order to strengthen the border of the empire in Bessarabia.

The complex occupies an area of ​​2.6 hectares on the high bank of the Dniester estuary. It consists of officers' buildings and soldiers' barracks in an oriental style.

For a long time, the Oleksandrivsky barracks were used for their intended purpose - they housed a military unit. In 2001, the complex was transferred to the communal ownership of the city and since then it has been gradually falling into disrepair. The main building was destroyed by fire.

The Museum of History and Local Lore of the Ovidiopol Village Council was founded in 1980. Located in the premises of the Slava Culture and Leisure Center.

The exposition covers the history of the region from ancient times. In particular, the archeological collection includes fragments of stucco ware, stone axes and graters, fishing sinkers, bones of animals and fish, as well as unique finds from the excavations of the Adzhyder fortress in Ovidiopol: Chios amphora, red clay pottery crater, two amphorae, two amphorae and a coin of Philip II (father of Oleksandr Makedonsky).

In the hall "Ukrainian room" are collected household items that in ancient times were in every Ukrainian home. The new exposition "Treasures from the attic" presents antiques donated to the museum by citizens.

The Paleontological Museum of the Odesa National University named after Ilya Mechnykov is one of the oldest in Ukraine and is among the top 10 paleontological museums in the world.

In 1865, simultaneously with the founding of the university, a geological department was opened, which had a paleontological department with 318 exhibits. In 1873, the outstanding zoologist and paleontologist Volodymyr Kovalevsky donated the first large author's collection of fossil remains of freshwater mollusks from the south of France. Since then, the paleontological museum has existed as an independent unit.

The museum contains the richest regional collection of fossil remains collected in the south of the East European Platform (Ukraine and Moldova), and unique collections of fossil fauna and flora that are absent in many other paleontological museums in the world.

The exhibits of the paleontological museum are located in three halls with a total area of ​​500 square meters. The museum's collections number over 60 thousand exhibits. The museum's library has over 10 thousand titles, most of which are works by the founders of paleontology and geology.

The museum's collection includes seven complete skeletons of vertebrates that existed in the region - a mastodon, a three-toed horse, a hornless rhinoceros, a Pliocene camel, an elephant, a cave bear, and a mammoth. Of great value are the skeletons of a mososaurus, an ichthyosaurus, a complete skeleton of a sea lily, and a unique skeleton of a dinornis.

The paleontological museum's exposition includes a diorama "Development of Life on Earth." Fifteen sections of the diorama sequentially unfold the main stages of the development of the planet and life on it. Each stage is illustrated by characteristic forms of fossil organisms, paleogeographic diagrams that reflect the position of land and sea.

The paleobotanical department of the museum is widely represented - it exhibits the Carboniferous flora of Donbas and the Neogene flora of Ukraine and Moldova.

The Passage Hotel on Derybasivska Street in Odesa is one of the most beautiful buildings in the city, striking with the sophistication of its architecture and sculptural compositions (architect Lev Vlodek).

From the beginning, the building was designed as a hotel and shopping center. In the courtyard of the Hotel "Passage" there is a whole street with rows of elite shops. The high glass roof above the gallery complements the feeling of immense space and brings light into the building.

"Passage" remains one of the few hotels in the historical center of Odesa, where you can stay relatively inexpensively.

The old building of the Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi Pedagogical Vocational College was built in 1900 for a male gymnasium.

An architectural monument of local importance.

There is a large square in front of the choir, where local residents like to relax.