Potocki Palace in Odesa: A Classicist Palace and Art Museum
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.3
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Ukraine
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- Eras represented
- Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Russian
- Site type
- Domestic
- Remains
- Elite Residence
On this page12 sections
History
Potocki Palace in Odesa is a Classicist palace in Ukraine, a style inspired by the forms and proportions of ancient Greek and Roman architecture. Construction began after Countess Olha Narishkina, née Pototska, acquired the property in 1823, and the building is generally dated to 1823–1826 or 1823–1828. It became one of Odesa’s early notable architectural monuments and now houses the Odesa Art Museum.
From merchant’s plot to noble residence
The original plot lay between Sofiia Street and the sea. On 18 April 1805, the city granted it to Martin Katolikov, a second-guild Odesa merchant. A plan from 1822 shows two rectangular buildings along the street line, corresponding to service buildings that remain on the property.
On 28 June 1823, Olha Narishkina purchased the plot and adjoining parcels numbered 493, 494, 496, 497, and 498. Work on the palace soon followed. Francesco Boffo, an architect active in nineteenth-century Odesa, has been credited with designing and building it between 1823 and 1826. Another attribution identifies the architect as unknown and Boffo as the supervising architect, while Luigi Rusca is associated with sketches for the palace. Construction documents were issued on 17 April 1828.
Changes of ownership and municipal use
On 28 January 1850, Narishkina sold the Sofia Street property to retired cavalry captain Stanislav Yurievich. After his death, it passed to his son Felix Yurievich, a nobleman. Odesa mayor Hryhorii Marazli bought the property from Felix on 14 April 1888 for 140,000 rubles while settling the former owner’s 150,000-ruble debt to the City Credit Society.
In October 1889, Marazli offered part of the estate to the city for public institutions, including public-reading facilities, a school, a fine-arts museum, a museum of applied knowledge, and a museum of the Imperial Odesa Society of History and Antiquities. The city council approved the gift on 6 November 1889, but the transfer took place on 30 March 1892. It included a left-hand plot with auxiliary buildings, measuring 335 square sazhens, and a central plot containing the palace, measuring 861 square sazhens. The transferred property was valued at 100,000 rubles.
Marazli retained the right-hand section with additional auxiliary buildings and the full slope behind the palace down to Prymorska Street. The Imperial Odesa Society of History and Antiquities declined to move into the palace, and a separate building was instead constructed for the Odesa branch of the Imperial Russian Technical Society on Kniazivska Street.
Public institutions and later history
Architect Yurii Dmytrenko designed an auditorium for public readings in 1890. Linked to the palace’s left wing and lit from above, it was completed on 20 June 1891. The space later became an exhibition hall of the Odesa Art Museum. A household exhibition held on the grounds in 1885 attracted 186,000 visitors, with its pavilions placed behind the palace.
Mykola Tolvinsky prepared a reconstruction and repair project estimated at 57,000 rubles, then revised it as a less expensive adaptation after the planned institutional use changed. Inspection found that the facades and interiors needed repair because sections of plaster had fallen away. In 1898, municipal funds supported the purchase of paintings and the creation of a caretaker’s apartment. Civil engineer E. Mesner designed the adaptation of the premises for an art museum and caretaker’s accommodation, with an estimated cost of 950 rubles.
A City Pedagogical Museum with a kindergarten for children’s physical education opened on 22 October 1898. A second free public reading room opened on 21 October 1899, followed by the Museum of the Fine Arts Society on 24 October. The decorative grotto beneath the palace is dated to 1895.
Parts of the remaining Marazli property later passed to charitable organizations. The Odesa Society for Establishing Night Shelters received one section on 17 August 1900, and the Society for Aid to the Poor of Odesa received another on 21 September 1905. Marazli retained the Sofia Street plot and the land behind the palace, without access to Prymorska Street.
After Marazli died in 1907, the retained property passed to Oleksandr Safonov, who died in 1908. It then passed to Petro Tolstoy, who died on 1 December 1918. During the October Revolution, the property was sold, and Tolstoy’s widow left the former Russian Empire. After Soviet rule was established, the former Tolstoy property was nationalized and incorporated into the museum. Potocki Palace is protected as a monument of architecture of national significance of Ukraine.
Remains
Grounds and surviving buildings
Palace and formal forecourt
The palace stands at 5a Sofia Street on a property extending between the street and the sea. A slope behind the building descends toward Prymorska Street. The grounds are separated from the street by a metal fence. In front of the palace, the cour d’honneur, or formal forecourt defined by the building and its wings or boundary structures, contains a large circular flowerbed. Stone posts protect it from carriage wheels, and matching posts line the ramp leading to the main entrance.
Auxiliary wings and rear grounds
The western part of the property contains auxiliary wings and buildings. A passage between the palace grounds and the neighboring plot on the left leads toward the area behind the palace. The earlier 1822 plan’s two rectangular street-line buildings correspond to the service buildings on the property today.
Adapted and underground spaces
Former public-reading auditorium
The former public-reading auditorium is attached to the palace’s left wing. Its upper lighting and separate entrance from the courtyard reflect its original public function. It is now used as an exhibition hall by the Odesa Art Museum.
Grotto and basement gallery
A decorative grotto survives beneath the palace, with its entrance inside the building near the main entrance. An external entrance leads to the basement between the western wings. Before the Soviet period, this basement housed a drinking establishment. Fragments of its interior paintings remain, and the premises are now occupied by the Yellow Giants gallery.
Preserved interiors
The palace retains its authentic interior plan. The principal entrance from the vestibule into the hall is closed. Part of the second-floor flooring is faced with mosaic tiles featuring antique themes, while painted decoration survives on the lantern of the central second-floor hall.
Nearby sites
