Potemkin Steps

If you are a movie buff, then you'll no doubt have heard of the Potemkin Steps. "The Battleship Potemkin", Sergei Eisenstein’s 1925 black and white classic, brought cinematic fame to Odessa’s Potemkin Steps. Those who have seen the movie will not have forgotten the famous scene where innocent civilians were massacred on the Steps and the knuckle-biting sequence during which a baby, in a pram, is accidentally rolled off the top of the stairways and bounces down the 192 steps. Miraculously the pram does not topple over and the baby survives.

The steps run down from bul Prymorsky, a busy pedestrian zone, down to the port area. The steps themselves are interesting in that when standing at the top of the stairways, all you can see are a few landings, however, when you stand at the base of the steps, all you can see are steps and not the landings. It’s an optical illusion created by varying the dimensions of the steps.

No visit to Odessa is complete without visiting these famous steps.

About this Album