The 192 steps of the Potemkine Escalier are rich in history and the symbol of the city of Odessa in Ukraine
Rendu famous by epic film The Cuirassé Potemkine of Sergei Eisenstein, who was shot there in 1925, stairs of Potemkine , is the most emblematic symbol of the city of Odessa, the third city of Ukraine. It is a monumental staircase located on the sea side of the city and considered as the official entrance of Odessa for whoever comes from the sea. Odessa being located on a plateau overlooking the coast, the city needed direct access to the port located just below. Before the stairs were built, windy trails and rough wooden stairs were the only access to the harbour.
Flickr – dmytrok
In 1837, the construction of a “mass staircase” was decided. The Italian architect Francesco Boffo received the task of designing the stairs and the responsibility for building the stairs was entrusted to an English engineer named Upton. The stairs were built between 1837 and 1841 with grey-green sandstone rock imported from the Austrian port of Trieste (today in Italy). The staircase extends over 142 metres and stands at 27 metres, and originally included 200 steps. The staircase has been designed so precisely that it creates a optical illusion so that someone at the top sees only a series of bearings, while someone at the bottom of the stairs sees only the small steps and only them.
In 1933, the eroded stairs were repaired and the sandstone was replaced by pink-grey granite, and the bearings were covered with asphalt. The 8 lowest steps are now lost under the sand when the port has been expanded, which reduces the number of steps to 192 . On the left side of the staircase, a funicular was built in 1906 to carry people. After 50 years of operation, the funicular was disappointed and was later replaced by an escalator built in 1970.
Flickr – Jean & Nathalie
The staircase is officially known to date as the Primorsky staircase , but these marches have known various names such as the “walks of the Boulevard”, “Escalier Géant”, or “Escalier Richelieu”. It was necessary to wait until 1955, after the Soviet revolution, for the Primorsky stairways to be renamed "Poemkin Squad" to honour the 30th anniversary of the film "Le Cuirassé Potemkine", which presented a dramatic version of the mutiny that took place in 1905 when the crew members of the film "Le Cuirassé Potemkine" Russian cooked Potemkine rebelled against their officers of the Tsarist regime. It was on these stairs that the soldiers opened fire on the population on 14 June 1905.
After Ukrainian independence, and as many streets to Odessa , the name of Escalier du Potemkine has taken over his original name, Escaliers Primorsky. Most Odessites still refer to the staircase with its Soviet name. Note that the film The Cuirassé Potemkine was chosen in 1958 as the best film of all time by 117 international reviews during the universal exhibition in Brussels.
Flickr – Marco Fieber
Flickr – Dave Proffer
Flickr – MeRyan
Wikimedia – Pat Berger
Flickr – Clay Gilliland
A scene of the film "Le Cuirassé Potemkine" – Wikimedia
Flickr – Matt Shalvatis
Loading comments ...