The heart of the city lies not in its middle but at the shore, where a lovely park runs along a limestone bluff overlooking the harbor. The economic and cultural and emotional lifeblood of Odessa flows to here and from here, the port which is the reason it exists, and which gives the city its character.
The park, a strip of pavement, grass and trees lined with benches, runs for several city blocks between the wide boulevard and the bluff. A broad set of stairs, the Potemkin Steps, leads up from the harbor to a semi-circular plaza facing the sea.
There, atop the stairway stands a bronze statue of Duc Armand de Richelieu, the Father of Odessa, standing with his right arm outstretched, pointing toward the Black Sea. In his left hand he carries a rolled-up scroll which is the subject of an old Odessan joke, having to do with the Crimean War. If you stand in the proper spot, slightly behind the statue and to his right, the seaward end of the bronze s…
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