Potemkin Stairs, Odessa, Ukraine

Postcard ID: UA-755296
Country: Ukraine

It's always wonderful to receive a postcard with place where you were!

The Potemkin Stairs is a giant stairway in Odessa, Ukraine. The stairs are considered a formal entrance into the city from the direction of the sea and are the best known symbol of Odessa. The stairs were originally known as the Boulevard steps, the Giant Staircase, or the Richelieu steps. The top step is 12.5 meters wide, and the lowest step is 21.7 meters wide. The staircase extends for 142 meters, but it gives the illusion of greater length. The stairs were so precisely constructed as to create an optical illusion. A person looking down the stairs sees only the landings, and the steps are invisible, but a person looking up sees only steps, and the landings are invisible. 

Here is Ukrainian stamp: