Odessa is a big city of Ukraine, it is the capital of the province of the same name; 1.115.000 inhabitants. Odessa (also spelled Odesa in Spanish) is a city of Ukraine and the Black Sea port.

 

Odessa is the fifth biggest city of Ukraine and the most important commercial city of the country. In addition, Odessa is the most important and biggest city along the Black Sea.

 

The architectural fashion style of Odessa, inclined by the French’s and Italians, gives to the city a Mediterranean style.

 

Odessa was formally founded in the year 1794 as a naval seaport, designed by the Spanish (and Rear Admiral of the Russian Navy) Jose Ribas and the Dutch engineer Franz Volan. The name selected for the city was based in the old Greek colony of Odessos and in the year 1795, the Queen Catherine II changed the gender of the city to female Odessa.

 

During the year 1823-1824, the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin lived in Odessa and wrote some letters. His letters describe Odessa as "the great Russian city where you can feel Europe style, can speak French and find European newspapers".

 

Between the years 1853-1856 through the Crimean War, the city was attacked by the British and also French naval forces, but without success.

 

In the year 1905, Odessa lived the workers revolution, and after the Bolshevik revolution of 1917 during the First World War, Odessa was occupied. In the year 1920, the Communists took the control of the city and included in the Soviet Socialist Republic of Ukraine, later part of the old USSR. The celebrated movie the Battleship Potemkin refers to this event, and includes one of the most famous scenes in the history of the cinema, where hundreds of civilians Russians are killed in a stone stairway. The massacre never occurred in reality, but the film finished realistic, so many people thinks that the massacre was real and for many years the Odessa steps were a tourist attraction in Odessa.

 

Between the years 1921-1922, the people of Odessa suffered severely because of war. Between the years1941–1944, the city of Odessa was taken and occupied by German and Romanian forces. Roughly 280,000 people (mostly Jewish) were killed or deported. Odessa was liberated by the Soviet army forces in April of the year 1944. During the years 1960 and 1970, the city raised very fast. In 1991, Ukraine became an independent State, after the fall of communism.

 

Odessa at the present has 1.1 million of inhabitants. The most important city industry includes oil refining, shipbuilding chemical, food industries and metallurgical. The city host a naval base and fishing fleet.

 

Odessa is frequently named as the Pearl of the Black Sea.