Odessa with a P: Port, Portal and 2 smoking cannons.

      (This is a response to the previous post by John)

     The fact that I will start a discussion about something that I have never seen before is all John’s fault. I‘m talking about the Eiffel Tower which he compared to the Potyomkin Stairs, which would definitely lose out in terms of height, size and the ability to observe a good view. According to these mentioned parameters, the new title of Eiffel Tower should rather be given to the glass & steel hotel “Odessa” in the center of the sea port: sky-blue, sky-high (both in height and prices).

Sea port, “Odessa” hotel

                                   
     I bet somebody would find it exiting that in front of the building there is a cannon pointed at the entrance like a symbol of perishable life. This is typical for Odessa with its specific sense of humor that is known all over Ukraine.

Seaport, a cannon right in front of the “Odessa” hotel

                The Hotel’s location is very poor though if you’re a tourist without your own yacht or jet because all the beaches are very far away.

Various yachts could be an attraction for unpretentious port visitors like me, who associate them with a “sweet life”

     Even though you’re more interested in downtown activities, every time you want to go to there you’ve got to climb up the much talked-about stairs.

View of the hotel and port from Potyomkin stairs

                           I don’t like the transliteration John suggested, even though Microsoft Word thinks that I’m wrong. It should be pronounced “Potyomkin”, not “PotEmkin”, but you can find it both ways in the information sources.
     What are the stairs of my dreams that are perfect as a tourist-attraction? At first, I would consider it fascinating if they offered a nice panoramic view during observing which causes you to try to catch your breath and have butterflies in your stomach. And secondly, they might give you adrenalin of stones rolling from feet into the precipice, because the stairs are high, old and have been there since, for example, times of the Roman Empire. Furthermore, there is some heroic feeling of getting through obstacles in the face of 1000 steps or so. This all is definitely not about the Potyomkin stairs. They do not seem marvelous at any point of view except for some historical associations, so I don’t know what all the people are making a fuss about.
     Primorsky Boulevard, situated perpendicularly to Potyomkin steps, a place for lazy ice-cream eaters and souvenir sellers during the hottest hours of the day, is more amusing than stairs and represented by mixture of culture artifacts partly mentioned by John. There are monuments of different times and significance, one more cannon, P.D.A. on benches, a pillar which shows the distance to any city you would like to know or rather never wanted to know (this is the best spot for ridiculous photos), remains of an ancient settlement covered with glass cupola what makes it look like a cage of hidden or escaped dangerous animals etc. I especially liked the “Lonely girl” portal (walk on the right if you you’re standing back to stairs), white pillars of which nowadays are disfigured by profound writings.
     According to the legend, the wife of a seaman was waiting looking for him from this hill. And every year they would add one more pillar to the “portal.” Modern inscriptions may explain who the guy she was expecting to come back was:

 Primorsky park. Lonely portal. Poor example, but the funniest things, of course, were written in Russian

   

     The situation of anticipating, the quintessence of all sea port cities’ mood, is also expressed in the statue of a girl with a “baggage” in the port which looks strange with the view of urban scenery behind:

 Seaport: Sailor’s Wife monument

                                               

     As opposed to compromising the romance of the “Lonely girl” portal by political, musical and not very polite discussions written on its pillars, the Mother-in-law bridge, which is next to it, at the right end of boulevard if you stand back to the sea, has somehow turned into a romantic place with a large amount of locks hung there in the symbol of eternal love.

Mother in-law-bridge under the burden of “love” locks

                     Posted by Helen

Odessa, Z to A, --- That is “Potemkin” with a “T”.

The Potemkin Steps are to Odessa what the Eiffel tower is to Paris. They became famous because of the horrific scene shot there that was part of the 1925 silent movie, The Battleship Potemkin. Of course, the bloodshed on the steps was actually some motion picture make-believe. The killings happened in different locations.

Actually, maybe I should start off with the correct name of this attraction. Last year my brother made a slideshow of our trip through Eastern Europe. He titled one of the slides “The Potemkin Stairs”. I corrected him and said it was actually the “Potemkin Steps”.  He followed with a link that supported his version of the name. At this point, I was confused but actually things got worse. I did a little research and found out that essentially we were both sort of right. Or wrong if you are a half empty sort of person.

Today they are officially known as the Primorsky Stairs but they were originally called the Boulevard Steps. The name was changed first in Soviet times and then changed again when Ukraine received her independence. Today most people in Odessa use the former Soviet name, the Petemkin Stairs but my Ukrainian guide book calls them the Potemkin Steps. I will not even bring up the Russian or Ukrainian spellings.

 Anyway the “Odessa Steps” originally had 200 steps but over time they were reduced by eight. Supposedly, if you count the steps and they do not add up to 192 then these are the number of sins that you have recently committed. I will not tell you how many steps that Helen counted but I think it would be a good time for her to go to confession. The steps/stairs have a couple of cool optical allusions. One of them is that looking down it is possible to only see the 10 landings and looking up from the bottom you might only see the steps. There is a cable railway to one side of the steps. This was originally built in 1906. It was replaced by an escalator in 1970 and then a funicular returned in 2004.

 At the top of the steps, you have a wonderful view of the port and the Odessa Hotel. At one time this was the principal port for the largest country in the world. It was possible to board a ship to any destination across the globe. Also here is a bronze statue of Duc de Richelieo. He was the person, who designed the city under Catherine the Great and served as the first governor, (1803-1814). He was a royalist that escaped from France during the French Revolution but who returned home in 1814. The statue was erected in 1828. If you think of a “T” with the stem going down the stairs then there are interesting items at both ends of the top line. On the left side you would walk along the bul (boulevard ) Prymorsky until you reach the City Hall which was built around 1830. (I believe in my guided walking tours I actually called this the Mayor’s house. Please don’t tell my brothers about my error!) There is also a monument to Alexander Pushkin here as well as a cannon that was captured from the French ship, “Tiger” during the Crimean War. (At this point you are just down a hill from a large fountain which is next to the Opera House but we will talk about that in the next post of this series.)

    Going in the other direction would bring you to the unrestored Vorontsov Palace which was built in 1826. There is also a foot bridge here known as the Mother in Law’s bridge. This was built in the 1950s by a communist official. It is said that it was built so it would be easier for his mother in law to visit by some people but the opposing view is that it was constructed so it was less likely she would have to spend the night. Naturally, this bridge is covered by love-locks that have swept Europe since the early part of this century. This custom is thought to have started in China. Couples attach locks and throw away the key to symbolize their never ending love. I have never seen this in America.

  To finish off my “T” let me talk about the statue of Catherine the Great. This is directly up the street (toward the city center) from the steps. There was a statue to honor the sailors of the battleship Potemkin here but it was replaced with the one of the Empress in 2007. Catherine brought this region of Ukraine into the Russian Empire so the Russians seem to like the current statue. However, the Ukrainians, the Tatars and Cossacks who were oppressed during her reign seem to favor the former one. It is said to be in storage so it may find a new home somewhere else in the city sometime in the future.

             Posted by John