Odessa is a comparatively young city but the territory it occupies has a long and illustrating history.

Wonderful climate, warm sea and favorable climate since long ago attached here numerous conquerors and these lauds were rapidly devastated by those self invited guests.
14th, 15th centuries were the period of formation of three fraternal Slavonic nationalities – Russ, Ukrainian, Belarusian which originated on the basis of our old Russian nation.

Our city was built after the special order of Catherine the Great II as the southern window of Russia to Europe, a big commercial port and cultural center as well. The day of the foundation of Odessa is considered the second of September, 1794.

A plaque on the wall beside the Terminal commemorates these events, it reads: “On this place on September 2nd 1794 the foundation of the first buildings that marked the beginning of the port and the city of Odessa were laid out”

The actual founder of Odessa was the great Russian military leader A.Suvorov who chose this comfortable bay for the construction of Odessa harbor.

• Some say that Catherine II taking into consideration the favorable situation of the town insisted on its construction here in spite of the fact that it was “quite away of the river”. She used the to pronounce in French “assido” – “enough water”, which in fact was not so, because Odessa was built far from the rivers. To express its paradox people read this word in reverse order and thus got the word “Odessa”.

• Some explain the name of Odessa, saying it was fashionable at the end of the 18th century to call the new town of the Northern Black sea coast Greek names. The word Odessos meant a big trade road, which the town intended to be and is now.

• Historians of that time supposed that on the place of Odessa there was a Greek colony “Odessos” and it was decided to give the new town this name. Later on it turned out that that it was a mistake, for Odessos was founded on the peace of Varna in Bulgaria.