The Potemkin Steps are a formal entrance into the city from the direction of the sea. Sure, each city has its own place of mostly pronounced originality. For Odessa, no doubt, it will be Potemkin Stairs. The stairs leading from Prymorsky Boulevard down to the sea were constructed from 1837 through 1841 to the design of the architect F. Bofford. This imposing monument numbers 192 stairs arranged in ten flights and flanked by two-meters thick parapets. The difference in width between the highest (13.4 m) and the lowest (21.6 m) flights produces an optical illusion that enhances the

grandeur of the structure. Originally, the stairs were faced with grey Trieste sandstone With time, however, the sandstone weathered and was replaced with granite. The famous Potemkin Stairs serve as a symbol of the city. It has recently been complemented with ramp over bridges to extend as far as the Novy Pier, where a modern structure of the new seaport is located on a high platform. Memorial plagues state that it was on precisely this spot that the first Odessa buildings were founded in 1794.