About us

The building of the Odesa Fine Arts Museum was built between 1842 and 1828 years; the project’s author is unknown. When the construction was completed, Francesco Boffo, a renowned architect in Odesa, certified the building. The first owner of the palace was Countess Olga Naryshkina (born Potocka).

Hryhoriy Marazli, a well-known public figure, collector, philanthropist, and the mayor of Odesa, acquired the palace in 1888. In 1892 he transferred the palace to the city to create a museum of fine arts. The museum was opened on October 24 (November 6), 1899.

The architecture of the palace embodies the best traditions of Russian classicism of the early nineteenth century. The building’s central composition is characterized as a strict and harmonized elegance — a 2-level building with a portico of six columns of the Corinthian order, supporting the pediment, and two symmetrically located single-story outbuildings connected by round galleries.

The tribute to the Romanticism era is a Grotto with a vaulted ceiling located under the central part of the main building, imitating a natural cave with an artificial waterfall. Two underground galleries lead from the grotto, which had access to a spacious garden that went down the slope to the sea coast. In a small exposition space before descending into the grotto, you can get to know the palace’s history and the creation of a museum in it.

From the seaside, under the main building in the basement, there is a spacious gallery. The wall paintings that have been preserved after the “Exhibition of Housekeeping”, which took place in the palace and the adjacent garden in 1895 are still located on the vaulted ceilings and walls. Now, in this part of the palace, there is an experimental gallery, “Yellow Giants”.