Steamboat Agents. North German Lloyd and German Levant Line, McNabb, Rougier, & Co.; Russian Steam Navigation & Trading Co., Lansherónowskaya 5; Austrian Lloyd, Regir; Società Nazionale, Vitale & Gallian; Messageries Maritimes, C. Muntz.
Theatres. Town Theatre (Pl. 29; D, 5), Theatre Square, operas and dramas; Sibiryakóv Theatre (‘Theatre’; Pl. C, 4), corner of Khersónskaya and Kónnaya, for operas and plays.—Pleasure Resorts. Hôt. du Nord; Alexander Park (p. [568]); Arkadia (p. [568]); Little Fountain (p. [568]).—Circus Truzzi (Pl. 4; C, 4), also a theatre of varieties.—English Club (Pl. 6; D, 5).
English Church, Remeslennaya 15 (Pl. D, 6, 7).
Sights (one day or less). Nikoláyevsky Boulevard and Monument of Catharine (p. [567]); drive through Yekateríninskaya, Preobrashénskaya, Deribássovskaya. and Púshkinskaya (as far as the Exchange); Alexander Park (p. [568]) and Lansherón (p. [568]).
Odessa (154 ft.), in the province of Khersón, is the chief commercial and industrial place on the Black Sea and the fourth-largest town of the Russian Empire (pop. 500,000, including at least 175,000 Jews). It is the seat of an archbishop of the Greek church and of a modern Russian University, and it is the headquarters of the 8th army-corps. It lies in 46°28′ N. lat. and 30°45′ E. long, and extends for a distance of about 4 M. over the elevated and treeless steppe. The winter climate is consequently very severe (mean temperature in Jan. 25° Fahr., July 73°, annual mean 49°). Its wide and well-paved streets, crossing each other at right angles and generally planted with trees, make it one of the most regularly laid out and most handsome cities in Russia. Attractive parks have been as it were wrested from the barren soil by dint of untiring perseverance and unstinted care.
The rescript in which Catharine II. ordered the foundation of the town was dated May, 1794, and its foundation-stone was laid by Admiral J. de Ribas in August of the same year. The new city, which sprang up on the site of the small Tartar and Turkish village of Chadshibéy, was probably named after the Sarmatian harbour of Odessos which is said to have lain in this neighbourhood. From 1817 to 1859 Odessa was a free harbour. It was greatly improved by the efforts of two of its governors, the Duc de Richelieu (1803–14) and Prince Vorontsóv (1823–54). During the Crimean war the town was attacked unsuccessfully by the British and French fleets in 1854, and the blockade by Turkish war-ships in 1876–7 was equally fruitless. The excesses of the revolution of 1905 were nowhere more ghastly than at Odessa.
The Harbour (347 acres in area), which in winter has sometimes to be kept open by ice-breakers, consists of an outer harbour (154 acres) and five inner basins. Effective protection against all sea-winds is afforded by a breakwater (1334 yds. long), the quarantine mole (1120 yds. long), and the so-called roadstead mole (710 yds. long), forming a continuation of the last. The so-called Quarantine Harbour (Pl. E, F, 5) is for foreign vessels; the New Harbour (Pl. E, 4), between the Platonovsky and New moles, and the Coal Harbour (Pl. D, E, 4) are for Russian traders; the Practical Harbour (Pl. D, 3, 4) is for coasting vessels. To the N. of the town, opposite the suburb of Peressyp, where a second breakwater and new docks are projected, lies the Petroleum Harbour.
Opposite the New Mole (Pl. E, 4) is a massive Flight of Granite Steps (193 in number) ascending to the level of the town. It is adjoined by a wire-rope elevator (3 or 2 cop.).
The finest feature of this part of the town is the *Nikoláyevsky Boulevard (Pl. D, E, 4, 5), a broad street ¼ M. in length, which stretches along the margin of the plateau above the harbour, commanding an unimpeded view of the sea. It is bounded on one side by a series of handsome buildings, on the other by four rows of trees and pleasant grounds. In spring this is the rendezvous of the fashionable world, just as the Deribássovskaya (p. [567]) is in winter. Towards the N. the houses end with the Vorontsóv Palace. The Imperial Palace (Pl. D, 5) is also the residence of the general in command of the Odessa Military District. At the entrance to the Yekateríninskaya a bronze statue of the Duc de Richelieu (Pl. 32; see above) was erected in 1826.
A little to the S.W., in Catharine Square, rises the Monument of Empress Catharine II. (Pl. 31; D, 4), by Dmítrenko and Popóv (1900). Round the pedestal bearing the bronze statue of the empress are figures of Prince Potémkin (in front), Count Súbov (on the right), Col. de Volant (left), and Admiral J. de Ribas (at the back). The monument is 35 ft. high.