In her succession in 1762, Catherine II put the finances of Russia back on its feet, reorganizes the army and begins to work on the increase of the Empire. In 1774, she captures to the Turks the region of Kherson included between the mouth of Bouh and the Dnieper, in 1783 she takes over Crimea, and finally in 1791, the territories situated between the Dniester and the Bouh. New Russia was born. The Ottoman citadel Hadjibeï overhanging a beautiful semicircular bay is the first existing work of the future Odessa, of which the construction will be decided in 1794.

Catherine entrusts this mission to the Spanish-Neapolitan admiral De Ribas who made the conquest of Hadjibeï beside the general Potemkine. He gets down to the task with the Dutch engineer Voland. They conceive the city according to a plan in draughtboard, where streets cut themselves in right angle. In 1803, Armand Emmanuel du Plessis, duke of Richelieu is appointed as governor of Odessa. The plans of Voland are kept, streets will be spacious, 30 metres for the widest, 15 metres for the others. The plots of land are given up free of charge to build within two years, buildings with at least two floors, according to an architectural pre-established plan. A regulation forces every owner to plant trees in front of the house and behind, the duke introduces from Vienna, the seeds of white locust trees. The first schools are created early 1805, certain are open to all social sectors, the education is complete and of good quality. Numerous ships drop their anchors in the port, which is arranged in two basins.

Richelieu wants Odessa as a liberal and modern city. The freedom of establishment and religion is complete, the rights are the same for all. The cosmopolitan elites flock to the city, Greek traders, Polish nobles, Italian, bankers, Germans, Serbians, Bulgarians, but also the farmers fleeing the serfdom and the Jews coming up against pogroms, abandoning the zones of residence which their are assigned everywhere else in the Russian Empire. The economy is prosperous and the profits explode. People grow rich with for corollary, a constant increase of the population.

Richelieu leaves Odessa for Paris in 1814. His successors (Langeron, Vorontsov, Stroganov, Kotzebüe) will remain faithful to his spirit, immortalizing the principle of a tolerant, opened and cosmopolitan Odessa, at least until 1893 when the Empire spreads its regime of military dictatorship. The industrial revolution will finish making of Odessa a big city, the third after Moscow and Saint-Petersburg. The population was 140.000 inhabitants in 1869, it will be 630.000 in 1914.

" It is wealth only of men ", Richelieu had seen right by making his the formula of the Sultan Bajazet. Odessa is built and exists since these two centuries, thanks to the inestimable contributions of its various communities. Odessa, " our Marseille " said Isaac Babel, (both cities are twinned) is the ideal starting point of a stay combining the discovery of this singular city, with the visit of Crimea, the other " pearl of Black Sea ". Odessa will make a strong impression on you, when you will go for a walk around its avenues lined with locust trees and with elegant façades of classic style, in pastel coatings with ochre, plum red, green or azure blue colors. The streets of the old square take the names of the men and the communities which handed down this beautiful heritage to Ukraine.