Attractions of Odesa district

The Genocide Museum "Territory of Memory" in Odesa opened in 2024 by Odesa Holocaust Research Center. The institution is located in the place of the Central Post Office in the center of the city.

The exposition reveals the history of the appearance of the term genocide, the fate of its authorship by Raphael Lemkin, the essence of the concept of the crime of genocide in international law, the tragic pages of the Holocaust and the history of salvation, the themes of the Armenian and Roma genocide, the Holodomor in Ukraine, the deportation of the Crimean Tatars, the genocides of the 21st century. A separate location is dedicated to the Russian-Ukrainian war.

The miniatures represent the railway station from which the Tatars were deported, the powder warehouses where Odesa Jews were burned, the episode of mass shooting and torture in Buch, the destroyed drama theater in Mariupol, Zmeyiny Island and the destruction of the Moscow cruiser.

The modern interactive exhibition space makes extensive use of multimedia digital technologies. A special emotional atmosphere is created with the help of point lighting. The multifunctional museum space includes a library and a discussion platform.

Vasyl Tayirov Institute of Viticulture and Winemaking was established on the outskirts of Odesa in 1905 as an experimental farm "Vinemaking station of Russian winegrowers and winemakers".

The initiator of its creation was the editor of the magazine "Herald of winemaking", an enthusiast of grape culture, Vasyl Tayirov. At the first stage, a small basement was equipped, and a library was assembled. In the period from 1910 to 1912, the construction of a complex of station premises was completed on the banks of the Sukhy Estuary. An experimental vineyard (3 hectares) was established and a seedling grafting workshop was built to develop viticulture issues.

In 1931, the station was reorganized into the Ukrainian Research Institute of Viticulture and Winemaking. For its 100th anniversary, a museum of grapes and wine was opened, which tells about the main directions of development of the domestic winemaking school.

The exposition presents Vasyl Tayirov's personal belongings, lifetime editions of scientific works, old laboratory equipment, gifts of the institute.

Excursions with tastings are held.

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.

Today, there is a 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 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.

The legendary Hotel Londonsky is located in the center of Odesa on Prymorsky Boulevard.

The building in the style of the early Italian Renaissance was designed by the architect Frants Boffo.

At one time, the Brazilian emperor Don Pedro II, Oleksandr Kuprin, Anton Chekhov, Theodore Drayzer, Volodymyr Mayakovskyi, Leonid Utyosov, Robert Lyuyis Stivenson, Isidora Dunkan, Ivan Ayvazovskyi, Dmytro Shostakovych and many other celebrities of the XIX-XX centuries stayed here. Hotel Londonsky still remains one of the most prestigious hotels in Odesa.

The Summer Garden with a fountain and old plane trees, where a summer cafe is open, is particularly cozy (it is better to book a table in advance for the evening).

"House with Atlanteans" in Odesa is considered one of the most beautiful residential buildings not only in the city, but also in the whole country.

The complex of profitable buildings on Mykoly Hoholya Street was created in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by architects Lev Vlodek and Semen Landesman. The houses belonged to the Falts-Feyn family, the founders of the "Askania-Nova" nature reserve.

The "House with Atlanteans" became especially popular thanks to the statues of the sculptor Tovy Fishel that decorate it. The figures of the mighty Atlanteans, bent under the weight of the star globe, became the business card of Odesa.

On the house opposite you can also see Atlanteans supporting the balcony.

The House-wall or Flat House is the former profitable house of Rafalovych, which attracts tourists with its unique architectural feature.

When looking at it from a certain angle, a complete illusion is created that the building has only one wall - the facade. The best perspective on this optical effect opens from the intersection of Vorontsovsky Lane and Prymorsky Boulevard.

In 2013, Rafalovych's House-wall was recognized as an architectural monument of local importance in Ukraine.

The Museum of Interesting Science in Odesa is the first science-entertainment interactive museum in the south of Ukraine, where more than 130 unique interactive exhibits from the world of science have been collected.

If in other museums you can't even touch the valuable exhibits, here 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 museum is to show schoolchildren and students that even the most difficult problems and the longest formulas can be fascinating, you just have to look at them from a different angle.

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

The museum's laboratory hosts a Tesla show every day, and chemistry and physics shows are also being actively developed. In the planetarium, sessions of informative scientific films about space take place every hour.

In the summer of 2023, a Russian rocket destroyed the premises of the Museum of Interesting Science on Taras Shevchenko Avenue in Odesa. But with the exception of special rooms, the museum team managed to save almost all of its exhibits and after 7 months the museum moved part of its exposition to a new location and opened its first branch - the Experimentarium.

And already on April 12, 2024, he resumed his work in a new place - in the shopping center Arkadiya City, where you can see 50 more exhibits. Also, in the renovated Museum of Interesting Science, they plan to open a completely new exhibition "The World under a Microscope".

The Kostyantyn Paustovsky Memorial Museum is located in a building on a quiet seaside street in Odesa, right above Langheron.

The writer lived in the janitor's house of the neighboring house, which has not been preserved, from 1920 to 1922, during the Odesa period of his work.

The museum was opened in 1998 on the initiative of the public organization "Paustovsky World Society". The main exposition is dedicated to Paustovsky's book "The Time of Great Expectations" written in Odesa. It has more than 1,000 exhibits, including manuscripts, photographs, household items (beginning of the 20th century) and personal belongings of the author. In particular, the model of the janitor's house described by Paustovsky and the model of the motor ship "Kostyantyn Paustovsky" are presented.

Everyone can try to type "SOS" in Morse code using the famous telegraph key, as well as touch the hand washing machine used by Kostyantyn Heorhiyovych while fishing in the village of Sanzhiika.

The Memorial of the Heroic Defense of Odesa was opened in 1975 on the site of the 411 coastal battery that defended the city in 1941 during the offensive of Romanian troops.

Located on the southern outskirts of Odesa.

The memorial complex includes a museum, an outdoor exhibition of military equipment, a coastal defense battery, and a park.

The Museum of Military Glory and the Afghan War was opened in the premises of the Odesa Regional Union of Afghanistan Veterans in 2014, on the 25th anniversary of the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan.

The museum exposition includes 450 exhibits. These are Afghan newspapers, talk books, Afghan money, photographs, as well as samples of weapons and military equipment: anti-tank and anti-personnel mines, body armor, helmets, gas masks, etc.

The monument to the orange that saved Odesa is a modern monument in the center of the city.

The development of Odesa at the end of the 18th century directly depended on the completion of the construction of the sea port initiated by Catherine II, but during the reign of Emperor Paul I, funding stopped. In order to express to the tsar his "loyal diligence" and to ask for a loan of 250,000 rubles, the magistrate sent to St. Petersburg a train with the first oranges that arrived at the port in early February. At the end of winter, southern fruits fell to the tsar's court, money was allocated for the completion of the port, and Odesa was saved.

The savior orange moment was installed on Duma Square in 2004, but soon they decided to move it to Mykhaylo Zhvanetsky Boulevard.

The monument is an orange placed on a pedestal with the peel removed from one half and several segments removed. Instead of these particles, the figure of the Russian Emperor Paul I is inserted inside the orange. The sculptural composition includes three horses harnessed to the orange. The most famous buildings of Odesa are located on the orangery: the Opera House, the Transfiguration Cathedral, the colonnade of the Vorontsov Palace.

The monument to Empress Catherine II and her associates (Platon Zubov, Hryhoriy Potomkin, Frants de Volan, Yosyp Derybas) was erected for the 100th anniversary of the Odesa.

In Soviet times, it was replaced by a monument to the Potemkinites.

The revival of the monument in 2007 was accompanied by protests by national patriots who opposed the perpetuation of the memory of the oppressor who eliminated Ukraine's independence.

On December 28, 2022, during the full-scale Russian-Ukrainian war, by the decision of the Odesa City Council, the monument to Catherine was dismantled and transferred to the Odesa Art Museum.

Mother-in-Law Bridge is the popular name of the pedestrian bridge over the Viyskovy descent in Odesa, which connects Prymorsky Boulevard with Zhvanetsky Boulevard.

According to legend, the bridge was built in 1969 by the order of the first secretary of the Odesa regional committee of the Communist Party, Mykhaylo Sinytsia, so that it would be more convenient for him to get from the boulevard through the ravine while visiting his mother-in-law.

The bridge vibrates noticeably underfoot when there is a large crowd of people. According to tradition, the newlyweds leave locks on the railings of the Mother-in-Law Bridge, symbolizing the strength of the marriage.

Nearby, there is a mini-reserve "Corner of Old Odesa", in which various elements of the city's decor are collected.

The Museum "Secrets of Underground Odesa" tells about the famous Odesa catacombs, on which stands the whole city. Their total length is estimated at about 2.5 thousand kilometers.

Most of Odesa's catacombs are underground quarries, in which the building stone rakushnyak, which was used to build most of the city's buildings, was mined. The system of catacombs also includes cavities of natural origin - karst and dilatancy caves.

At various times, the catacombs served as transshipment bases for smugglers, "raspberries" for gangs, places to gather underground, shelters for guerrilla and sabotage units, bomb shelters.

The museum in the dungeons on Moldavanka was established in 2013 by the military-historical club "Military Valor". Entering the catacombs, visitors are immersed in the past of the city. Here you can see the anti-nuclear bunker, go through the flooded part, visit the wild catacombs, visit the guerrilla parking lot and bandit raspberries and more.