Odessa Museum of Western and Eastern Art

The impressive building of the Museum of Western and Eastern Art (or the Abaza Palace) was built in 1856-1858. renowned architect Ludwig Otto in an eclectic style - the elements of empire and rococo are successfully combined with the features of French baroque, creating a special festive atmosphere. In the XX century, it was transformed into an art museum. Currently, there is a huge collection of paintings, sculptures, china, furniture and much more. Exhibitions include ancient, Western European and Eastern art, as well as a Western European collection of exhibits. One of the most famous buildings in Odessa, which attracts tourists to South Palmyra.

The palace, built on the corner of Pushkinskaya and Grecheskaya streets, attracts attention with a spectacular facade with a bay window. But the most impressive part of the building is inside, just behind the main entrance group, and includes an ornate lobby with a large marble staircase leading to the second floor (the house also has a wooden spiral fire escape).

All the interiors of the Abaza palace are perfectly combined with rich stucco molding, carvings, bronze fittings and elegant decoration. The lobby is decorated with Renaissance elements (stucco ceilings), baroque (columns supported by caryatids) and rococo (sculpture). One of the rooms on the right, equipped with a fireplace, is made in the Empire style. Four central halls are decorated with stucco, covered with gold leaf. The Italian hall has a spherical ceiling.

At that time, the palace was built by order of the merchant Alexander Abaza, whose coat of arms (the head of the steppe bull) still adorns the gates on Greek Street. The house, designed for balls and receptions, quickly became a tourist attraction in Odessa, but a few years later a city high school appeared here, and after the revolution a museum. During the Second World War, the palace was not damaged, since the head of the Romanian occupation forces lived here.

Today Odessa Museum of Western and Eastern Art is one of the best museums of modern art in Ukraine and one of three, in whose collections only the art of Western Europe and the East is represented. It has the status of a monument of architecture of national importance.

The collection does not claim to be an exhaustive representation of all the main periods of the history of art, but contains a number of brilliant works by outstanding artists.