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Potemkin Stairs by Oleksandr Malyon – Wikimedia Commons

Top 10 Unknown Facts About Potemkin Stairs

Situated on the seaward side of Ukraine’s third largest city, Odessa. The long outdoor cascade of the Potemkin Stairs is the city’s most iconic landmark. Originally known as the Boulevard steps, the Giant Staircase, or the Richelieu steps, this 27-meter-high staircase was officially designed as the entrance into the Odessa Harbor from the Black Sea.

The top step on the stairway is 12.5 meters (41 feet) wide, and the lowest step is 21.7 meters (70.8 feet) wide. While the staircase only extends for 142 meters, climbing up the flight of stairs was intended to give people the illusion of greater length.

Below are the top 10 Unknown facts about the Potemkin Stairs:

1.Potemkin Stairs Formed The Entrance To Odessa City

Odesa Hafen by Benutzer:AxelHH

For hundreds of years before the construction of the giant staircase, the only access to the harbor was through crude winding roads and rough wooden stairs from the high-perched Odessa.

The Potemkin stairs were constructed to give direct access to Odessa city from the Black Sea port. For this reason, the Potemkin Stairs are considered the most famous landmark of Odessa.

2.The Potemkin Staircase Was Designed By Italian Architect Francesco Boffo And Built By British Engineer John Upton

Following the decision to build a giant staircase in 1837, Italian architect Francesco Boffo, along with Russian architects Avraam Melnikov and Pote, was entrusted with the responsibility of coming up with a design for the stairs.

British engineer John Upton, who had fled England on forgery charges, was in charge of the construction. The stairs were constructed between 1837 and 1841, using greenish-grey sandstone imported from the Austrian port of Trieste, present-day Italy. The construction of the 27-meter-high and 142-meter-long staircase cost 800,000 rubles.

3.The Potemkin Stairs Were Designed To Create An Optical Illusion

Potemkin stairs view from the top by Taivo55-

The staircase was designed to create an optical illusion such that as you climb, you only see the steps, and not the landings, but as you descend, you only see the landings, and not the steps.

The secondary illusion creates a false perspective that the staircase is far larger than it really is because the bottom stairs are wider than the top ones. Looking up, the steps appear to merge into a huge pyramid-shaped mass, and looking down, the staircase does not seem very long.

4.The Potemkin Stairs Were Commissioned By The Regional Governor-general, Prince Mikhail Semyonovich Vorontsov

The regional governor-general of Russia at the time, Prince Mikhail Semyonovich Vorontsov, commissioned the original 200 Potemkin Stairs as a gift to his wife Elisabeth and in order to gain support from the local elites, many of whom lived at the top of the future staircase along Primorsky Boulevard.

5.The Potemkin Stairs Originally Consisted Of 200 Steps

After its construction in 1841, the staircase initially consisted of 200 steps. However, during renovations to extend the Odessa port in 1933, the bottom eight steps were eroded under the sand.

As a result, the original sandstone used for its construction was replaced by rose-grey granite, and the landings were covered with asphalt. This process reduced the number of stairs to 192, with ten landings.

6.There Is A Statue Dedicated To Duc de Richelieu At The Top Of The Potemkin Stairs

At the top of the stairs is the Statue of Duke de Richelieu, the first mayor of Odessa city. The Roman-toga figure was designed between 1754 to 1835 by the Russian sculptor, Ivan Petrovich Martos.

The statue was cast in bronze by Yefimov and finally unveiled in 1826. It is the first monument erected in the city and commemorates the period of growth and prosperity that the French mayor, Duke de Richelieu, ushered in during his 11-year tenure.

7.On The Left Side Of The Staircase, A Funicular Was Built In 1906 To Transport People

In 1906 a funicular was built to move people up and down instead of walking. After 73 years of operation, the dilapidated infrastructure collapsed following breaks caused by revolution, war, and theft of repair funds.

In 1970, the funicular was replaced by an escalator which was later closed in 1997, but a new funicular was opened on September 2, 2005. However, most people prefer to walk up and down the stairs rather than pay UAH 1.50 to ride the funicular. The ups and downs of this funicular over the years is almost poetic to its use.

8.The Potemkin Stairs Are Officially Referred To As The Primorsky Stairs

During the Soviet era, in 1955, the Primorsky Stairs were renamed Potemkin Stairs to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the mutiny on Battleship Potemkin. However, following the independence of Ukraine from Russia, like many streets in Odessa, the Potemkin Stairs regained their original name as the Primorsky Stairs. Even so, the locals and tourists still call it the Potemkin Stairs or Odessa Steps in honor of its significance in film history.

9.The Potemkin Stairs Was Made Famous By Sergei Eisenstein’s 1925 Epic Movie Battleship Potemkin

The “Odessa Steps” fom 1925 silent film The Battleship Potemkin by oublic domain of Russia –

The Potemkin Stairs became famous worldwide largely due to the 1925 film The Battleship Potemkin by the great Sergei Eisenstein. This legendary work of art presents a theatrical version of the mutiny of Russian sailors against their tyrannical Tsarist superiors aboard the battleship Potemkin during the Revolution of 1905.

The film’s structure is symmetrically divided into five parts. The first, “Men and Maggots,” demonstrates the flagrant mistreatment of the sailors at the hands of their officers, while the second, “Drama on the Quarterdeck,” presents the actual mutiny and the ship’s arrival in Odessa. Further, the third part, “A Dead Man Calls for Justice,” establishes the solidarity between Odessa citizens and the mutineers.

The fourth sequence, “The Odessa Steps,” depicts the massacre of the citizens when the Tsar’s soldiers descend the stairs and open fire on unarmed people who had come to greet the sailors. At the bottom of the stairs, mounted Cossacks wait for the fleeing crowd.

Victims shown in close-up are a teenage schoolgirl, a student in uniform, an old woman wearing a Pince-nez, a young mother whose son in a carriage is pushed down the stairs, a mother carrying her dead son’s body but the soldiers try to talk her into leaving it alone. This last part is the famous scene that thrust Eisenstein and his film into historical eminence.

Immensely influenced by Eisenstein’s achievement, many films that followed Battleship Potemkin paid homage to the scene shot in Odessa. Albeit the Soviet propaganda, Eisenstein’s work marked a significant turning point in the history of modern cinema. However, the film was eventually banned by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, fearing it might incite a riot against his regime.

10.On July 11, 2015, The European Film Academy Put A Commemorative Plate On The Potemkin Stairs

Potemkin Stairs treasure of European Film Culture by Adrain 1111-

During the 6th International Film Festival in 2010, the European Film Academy hailed Battleship Potemkin as one of the greatest films of all time. In addition, it ranked top 3 in Empire’s “The 100 Best Films of World Cinema”. The plaque commemorates the Potemkin staircase as a special place for European cinema.