Odessa is a city in southwestern Ukraine, a major port on the Black Sea, and the administrative centre of the country's Odessa Oblast. Odessa population in 2004 was 1,012,500.
Odessa was a free port (porto franco) from 1819–1858. During the Soviet period Odessa was the most important port of trade in the U.S.S.R. and a Soviet naval base. On January 1, 2000 the Quarantine Pier of Odessa trade sea port was declared a free port and free economic zone for a term of 25 years.
Odessa is a warm water port, but of limited military value. Turkey's control of the Dardanelles and Bosphorus has enabled NATO to control water traffic between Odessa and the Mediterranean Sea.
Odessa hosts two important ports: Odessa itself and Yuzhny (also an internationally important oil terminal), situated in
the city's suburbs. Another important port, Illichivs'k (or Ilyichyovsk), is located in the same oblast, to the south-west of Odessa. Together they represent a major transportation junction integrated with railways. Odessa's oil- and chemical-processing facilities are connected to Russia's and EU's respective networks by strategic pipelines.
Odessa is the fifth-largest city in Ukraine and its most important trading city. In the 19th century it was the third city of Imperial Russia, after Moscow and St. Petersburg. Its historical architecture has a flavor more Mediterranean than Russian, having been heavily influenced by French and Italian styles. Odessa has always possessed a spirit of freedom and ironic humour, probably by virtue of its location and its willingness to accept and tolerate people of many different backgrounds.
In 1905 Odessa was the site of a workers' uprising supported by the crew of the Russian battleship Potemkin (also see Battleship Potemkin uprising) and Lenin's Iskra. Sergei Eisenstein's famous motion picture The Battleship Potemkin commemorated the uprising and included a scene where hundreds of Odessan citizens were murdered on the great stone staircase (now popularly known as the "Potemkin Steps"), in one of the most famous scenes in motion picture history. At the top of the steps, which lead down to the port, stands a statue of Richelieu. The actual massacre took place in streets nearby, not on the steps themselves, but the movie caused many to visit Odessa to see the site of the "slaughter". The "Odessa Steps" continue to be a tourist attraction in Odessa. The film was made at Odessa's Cinema Factory, one of the oldest cinema studios in the former Soviet Union.
Culture :
Odessa is a popular tourist destination, with many therapeutic resorts in and around the city.
The Tolstoy, Vorontsov, and Potocki families owned palaces in Odessa, which can still be visited.
The writer Isaac Babel was born Odessa, which has also produced several famous musicians, including the violinists Nathan Milstein, Mischa Elman and David Oistrakh, and the pianists Benno Moiseiwitsch, Sviatoslav Richter and Emil Gilels. The chess player Efim Geller was born in Odessa.
Most of the city's 19th century houses were built of limestone mined nearby. Abandoned mines were later used and broadened by local smugglers. This created a complicated labyrinth of underground tunnels beneath Odessa, known as "catacombs". They are a now a great attraction for extreme tourists. Such tours, however, are not officially sanctioned and are dangerous because the layout of the catacombs has not been fully mapped and the tunnels themselves are unsafe. These tunnels are a primary reason why subway was never built in Odessa. sources:
Odessa Image : hong-gia.com
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Odessa is a city in southwestern Ukraine, a major port on the Black Sea, and the administrative centre of the country's Odessa Oblast. Odessa population in 2004 was 1,012,500.