One of the oldest churches in Odessa, preserved from the mid-19th century to our time, is the Roman Catholic Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, located at 33 Ekaterininskaya Street.
It is difficult to imagine, but in fact this church was born in the very beginning of XIX century — its forebear was a wooden Roman Catholic church built by architect F. Frapoli, built in 1805. The establishment of this religious building was promoted by none other than Richelieu himself, who was a Catholic. At the beginning of the XIX century, he allocated a whole block on Ekaterininskaya Street for the construction of the church.
The cathedral, which can be seen on Ekaterininskaya Street today, was erected in 1853 according to the project of F. Morandi by architect F. Gonsioronovsky. This landmark of Odessa is more than a century and a half old. And during this time, like many other religious buildings, the cathedral experienced favorable and very difficult periods.
The cathedral was built of stone in the Romanesque-Gothic style and in shape resembles a Latin cross. Above the main entrance you can see a clock with a Roman dial, and above it rises a thin dome with a bell tower, about equal in height to the main part of the building, the dome is crowned by a blue tower in Romanesque style, on which a strict Catholic cross is set. The dome seems to compensate for the lack of decoration on the lower level, giving the building a finished, specific appearance, and the bell tower room has narrow high windows in the Gothic style.
The interior of the cathedral, which seats about two thousand parishioners, is decorated in the Renaissance style, and all rooms are finished in white marble. During and after the war, the cathedral was badly damaged, but it was not destroyed like many other religious buildings. The main damage was done after 1949, when the authorities decided to build a sports complex in it. The cathedral was looted, many columns were destroyed, the marble was broken, the grave of Count Langeron buried here and the resting places of the priests were turned into pits for long jumps. But not for that the first Catholic cathedral of Odessa stood for a century to be destroyed irrevocably — since 1991, when it was returned to the faithful, it began to recover and experience a new, favorable stage of its existence.
Sacred relics were returned to the cathedral and managed to be preserved. Today you can see an icon of the Mother of God painted in the 17th century by the Florentine artist Carlo Dilce and presented to the cathedral by Dr. Reno in 1853, as well as a marble baptistery donated by Father Pius IX and paintings of the Procession of the Cross.
The Roman Catholic Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is one of the most iconic sights of Odessa, so many people coming on vacation to South Palmyra, the first thing they want to see is this ancient building, which passed the hardest trials, but was reborn from the ashes and shines its light all around.