The Monument to the Founders of Odessa, or, as it is also called, the Monument to Catherine, is located in the center of the city — on Catherine Square. The monument depicting Russian Empress Catherine the Great and her associates (de Volan, de Ribas, Zubov and Potemkin) was opened in 1900. However, it was demolished by the Bolsheviks in 1920, and in its place appeared a monument to the «Potemkinites» (sailors of the legendary battleship «Potemkin»). On a massive pedestal there is a full-length statue of the Tsarina dressed in a mantle. Her left hand is turned towards the port, and in her right hand she holds a decree on the foundation of the new city. On the perimeter of the pedestal are her associates, who are directly related to the process of laying the port of Odessa. And there would be bronze figures of shells, if, according to legend, one of the sailors did not exclaim: «It is not good to have shells not of proletarian origin». So the statues were kept in the Odessa Museum of Local History until the XXI century.
In 2007 the monument to the founders of the city was restored and installed in its historical place, and the monument to «Potemkin’s» was moved to Customs Square — next to the Odessa Commercial Sea Port. It is worth noting that most of the fragments of the monument to Catherine are originals. Only the head of the Empress, which was lost forever, was subject to complete restoration.
And although in Ukraine the attitude to Catherine the Great is ambiguous, as it was she who put an end to the Ukrainian Cossacks, it should be noted that without her and her confidants one of the most beautiful cities of Ukraine would simply not exist today.