Odessa is a city with a unique atmosphere and humor. It is manifested in all the little things around the city. Even it is visible in street names. Do you have any doubts? We will tell you about the strangest, funniest, and most unusual of them!
Fruit garden
The quantity of streets in Odessa with berry and fruit names is impossible to count! Orange, Pomegranate, Watermelon, and Apricot streets are present here. There is Cherry Street and Cherry Lane. Besides, you might come across Strawberry and Fruit streets. But the grapes are definitely Odessa’s record holder because in its honor there is named not only the street with the lane but also the Grape Dead End.
Scary tales
Every fairy-tale city has its dark corners. In Odessa, you will find Invalidnaya Street, Brudny and Kosyy Lanes, Hlukha and Myasoyedovska, and Cemetery Street. By the way, there is only one house on it that is the administration of the Sloboda cemetery.
A bit of imagination
When you really want to come up with something interesting, but ideas don’t come to mind, Nameless Square and Nameless Lane, Standard Lane and Odessa Street appear. There are simply numbered streets in Odessa. And yet you may see the streets with such names as Merry, Joyful and Brave Lanes. Many of them are worth going around just to take a fun photo there. By the way, it is quite difficult to do it on foot or by public transport, especially if you have very little time. In “Ukr-Prokat” we will select the appropriate car for any task!
Back to the past
Among the old names, there are also a lot of real pearls. For example, Nagirnaya Street used to be called Cattle Lane. There was a cattle market, where horses, oxen, and even exotic animals were traded. But soon such specific trade was moved to pasture. According to another version, it is possible that cattle just often walked along this Lane. Anyway, the name remained the same.
But the current Akademichna Street is even more fun. This is the old Charlatan Lane, and it has been renamed 9 times in its history, which is a real record. In fact, at first, the lane was called Charlotynskyy but somehow was not accepted by the public. Moreover, these places just enjoyed a bad reputation, because the slums of Golopuzivka flourished nearby. Golopuzivka is another funny name. In fact, it is the current Victory Park.
It is hard to believe now, but once the French Boulevard was called Proletarian. Soviet authorities called it so in 1920. But the original name appeared in 1902, in connection with the visit of Emperor Nicholas II to France.
Giordano Bruno and Charles Darwin
As soon as the City Garden was not renamed at different times. It was the Public, State, Odessa city, the garden of Admiral de Ribas, Deribasovsky, Lassalle and Chkalov. Giordano Bruno also joined this company. The name appeared in 1932, but it did not take root.
But the Palais Royal has long been a park of Charles Darwin. Previously, there was a military square, but then all activities were moved to Cathedral Square. And here were the first rows of trade. In 1842 they were designed by architect Torricelli and arranged in the middle of the square with a fountain. Later, statues of Psyche and Eros were erected there. But when the trade moved to the passage on Deribasovskaya, everything had to be rebuilt again. In Soviet times, the park was named after Charles Darwin.
