Odessa, a free city, a world city, in Ukraine is a legendary port that has left its mark on cinema, literature and the arts has been inscribed on the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) World Heritage List.
Odessa is a port city on the Black Sea in southern Ukraine. It’s known for its beaches and 19th-century architecture, including the Odessa Opera and Ballet Theater.
Odessa was established in 1794 by the Empress Catherine the Great on land conquered from the Ottoman Empire on the site of the Black Sea fortress town of Khadzhibei.
To be included in the world heritage list Ukraine’s President Zelensky submitted an application in October 2022.
After the evaluation the historic centre of the port city of Odessa was endorsed to the list that commits the 194 States Parties of the Convention not to undertake any deliberate step that may directly or indirectly damage the World Heritage site.
In the middle of the nineteenth century, Odessa became a center of Jewish life and attracted many maskilim: proponents of the Haskalah, the Jewish Enlightenment that began to take hold in eastern European cities and towns.
Odesa has also been inscribed on the danger list of World Heritage along with 50-more sites that need help to protect.
UNESCO has assisted for the digitization of nearly 1,000 works of art and of the formal collection of the Odesa State Archives.
