About Odessa
Just a 10-minute walk from Odessas cruise dock are the Potemkin Steps, famous forever since that memorably dramatic crowd scene in Eisensteins film ‘Battleship Potemkin’. Just 192 long steps but they remain an impressively evocative image of Odessas colourful past as a major cultural centre on the Black Sea coast.
It has long been a popular seaside resort, too, but it is its heritage that makes Ukraines Odessa so popular with cruise visitors with the 19th century five-domed Russo-Byzantine Uspensky Cathedral a particular feast for the eyes, along with the Italian baroque-style Opera House. This 19th century icon is home to the renowned Odessa Ballet while its ornate interior includes a remarkable ceiling decorated with scenes from Shakespeare plays. You can also visit several lavish palaces and excellent museums and see the monument to poet Alexander Pushkins time spent in exile in the city in the 1820s.