A year after the Russian invasion, the jewels of the “Pearl of the Black Sea” were evacuated. The old town is under UNESCO protection. Statues are protected, while other monuments symbols of Russia fade from the public space, giving way to the Ukrainian identity of multicultural Odessa.
By Pauline Hofmann and Pierre-Yves Thienpont
Special envoys to Odessa (Ukraine)
Il thrones, majestic in its khaki green, right in the middle of the old town of Odessa, recently listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This hotel and its Art Deco style windows will wait until the end of the war to be renovated. Beneath this six-storey beauty, a couple is smooching on a bench. Behind them, another couple awaits better days to reunite: a copper lion and lioness. Wisely packaged in sandbags that puke a little, themselves surrounded by anthracite boxes, these 19th century statues, by Auguste Cain, are protected from the bombings, which have, for the time being, relatively spared the so strategic “Pearl of the Black Sea”. An hour earlier, an anti-aircraft alert had deafened the city, without disturbing its daily life. Over the past year, Ukrainians have heard others.
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