Odessa is a prominent cultural centre of Ukraine, famous for its fascinating museums. Informative and unique, they will tell you a lot of interesting things about the city’s history, sea life, prominent historic personalities, fine art and rich culture.
In the very city centre of Odessa we find a beautiful building of the Odessa Art Museum that owns one of the richest and the most interesting collections of artworks in Ukraine. Founded in 1899, it occupies the Pototskiy’s Palace, itself a monument of early 19th century architecture. The museum now houses more than 10 thousand pieces of art, including paintings by some of the best-known Russian and Ukrainian artists of late 19th and early 20th century. There are also remarkable creations of icon creators of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries.
With our expert guide you go through the most interesting halls of the Art Museum including an exposition containing 15 works of the master of seascapes painting, famous Russian marine painter Ivan Aivazovsky.
The final part of the tour is dedicated to the secrets of a mysterious grotto located right under the palace. It’s a tastefully decorated artificial cave with a vaulted ceiling, imitating a natural cave with a waterfall. Here we walk the remaining parts of the corridors those once connected palace with park and the sea-shore and learn the history of one of the oldest palaces of Odessa and the story of its first owner, one of the most beautiful women in Europe, Сountess Sofia Naryshkina who was the youngest daughter of the Pototskiys.