City, capital of Odesa region, in Ukraine, a port on Odesa Bay of the Black Sea. Territory is 160 square km. Population constitutes 1,122,000 inhabitants. The third largest Ukrainian city after Kiev and Kharkiv, a major industrial, cultural, scientific, and resort center in the Northern Black Sea region. Russians, Ukrainians, and Jews predominate in Odesa's cosmopolitan population.

By European standards, Odesa is a young city. It was founded in 1794 by Catherine the Great, when the Russian Queen decided her empire could use a port on the Black Sea. A colony from ancient Greece may have once occupied the site of the city, and Crimean Tatars traded there in the 14th century.
Odesa has quickly developed into a center of international trade, industry, and science. By its hundredth anniversary (1894), Odesa occupied the 4th place in the Russian Empire in size and economic power - after St. Petersburg, Moscow and Warsaw. The city suffered heavy damage during World War II, and many residents were killed by the occupying German and Romanian armies. The extraction of shell-limestone to construct those buildings resulted in Odessa's labyrinthine underground, from which partisans operated during World War II.

Nowadays, Odesa is a home for 1.1 million people, and growing. Its development as a seacoast resort community has contributed to a population that has almost tripled over the last hundred years. A mild climate, plenty of beaches, and the Black Sea attract thousands of tourists to Odesa throughout the year, earning it the title of "Southern Palmira.

Odesa is the largest seaport of Ukraine as well as an important rail junction and highway hub. Odessa is a major industrial center. Grain, sugar, machinery, coal, petroleum products, cement, metals, jute, and timber are the chief items of trade at the port of Odesa, which is the leading Ukrainian Black Sea port. Odesa is also a naval base and the home port of fishing and an Antarctic whaling fleet. The city's industries include shipbuilding, oil refining, machine building, metalworking, food processing, and the manufacture of chemicals, machine tools, clothing, and products made of wood, jute, and silk. The relatively mild climate of Odesa draws visitors to the city’s many resorts. Large health resorts are located nearby.

Odesians are proud of their architectural and cultural heritage. Odesa has a university (est. 1865), an opera and ballet theater (1809), a historical museum (1825), a municipal library (1830), an astronomical observatory (1871), an opera house (1883–87), and a picture gallery (1898), other museums and theaters. Besides a university, students are attracted to several institutions of higher education in the city, including medical schools, a marine academy, and a music conservatory.
Famous men such as Mechnikov (medicine), Bunin (writer), and Pushkin (poet) made their home here at one time or another. Local buildings were done up in a variety of styles ranging from Renaissance to Art Nouveau.

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