Potemkin Stairs
When it was a construction of Odessa, the sea was approaching the cliff, at the base of which they began to build a port. People could go to the sea by the steep path. Prince Vorontsov has decided to present a gift to his wife Elizabeth, and ordered to build a stair on this place. Another version says that the Prince Vorontsov planned to build a ladder to the visit of Tsar Nikolay I, but the construction was delayed. Today we can admire the grand structure, consisting initially of 200 steps. Subsequently, due to expansion of the port several stages were destroyed. At the moment, the stairs consist of 192 steps and has a name of Potemkin.
Potemkin Stairs is one of the ten most beautiful buildings in Europe. The uniqueness of construction is that, when viewed from the bottom up to the stairs you will see only a continuous cascade of steps. If you look at the top of the stairs, the whole of its width seems the same, but actually the bottom of the stairs is almost two times wider than the top. The Stairs were erected for nearly five years, from 1837 to 1841, and designed by architects Francesco Boffo, Melnikov and Pottier. Despite the large number of steps to climb the Potemkin stairs easily enough, so many prefer to walk by Odessa Stairs, rather than ascend by funicular, which is built around. And this is another unique construction - due to ideal angle between the sites and the availability of flights of stairs, climbing the stairs is not just easy, and even fun.
Stairs had different names and became known as Potemkin only after the war. In the film "Battleship Potemkin" is a favorite at the time, there were a lot of episodes about Odessa Stairs, since after about a quarter-century people started to call Stairs the same name. Potemkin stairs connect the city with the sea. Walking up the Potemkin stairs you just get on the Primorskiy Boulevard, where the hotel Londonskaya is located. During the celebration of the day of the city the Stairs is a concert podium. Here come the famous show business celebrities with their concerts. For residents and visitors they are always free. Each year there is a marathon over the Stairs, today`s record is -22.8 seconds. Also Potemkin Stairs is the "Eighth Wonder of the World".