Arcadia Before the Revolution: How a Ravine on the Edge of Odesa Became a Resort for the Elite
1. From the “Rypa” Ravine to Pastoral “Arcadia”
In the first half of the 19th century, the territory of today’s Arcadia was a sparsely populated ravine with steep slopes covered in wild acacia and steppe vegetation. Local residents nicknamed it “Rypa,” likely from the Romanian word râpă, meaning a gully or ravine. It was a natural descent to the sea on Odesa’s southern outskirts, far from the city’s bustle and settled life.
The name “Arcadia” appeared closer to the end of the 19th century, initially as a poetic comparison to the pastoral region of Ancient Greece. In mythology, Arcadia was associated with nature, calm, and simplicity. The name proved surprisingly fitting for Odesa’s ravine, and soon became official. One of the first to закрепить it was the Belgian Émile Cambier, who built a restaurant here and a tram line.
2. The First Owners: From Volkonsky to Gagarin
In 1818, a plot of land in this area was purchased by Prince Sergey Grigoryevich Volkonsky, a future Decembrist and a friend of Pushkin. His estate stood on a seaside cliff, and according to recollections, the poet himself visited there as a guest.
In the second half of the 19th century, lands along the ravine began to pass to other noble owners. Among them was Prince Yevgeny Grigoryevich Gagarin, a diplomat married to Maria Alexandrovna Sturdza. Gagarin acquired sizeable plots between Malyy Fontan and Arcadia. The elevation later came to be known as the Gagarin Plateau in his honor, not in honor of Yuri Gagarin, as is commonly and mistakenly believed.
Families such as the Marazlis (including the city head Grigory Grigoryevich Marazli), the Rodokanakis, the Papudovs, the Sturdza-Edlings, and the Dunins also established their dachas here. Light wooden houses with verandas appeared alongside substantial stone villas with ротонды. The area became a summer residence for Odesa’s aristocracy and bourgeoisie.
3. The Tram, the Restaurant, and the Birth of the Arcadia Resort
A turning point in Arcadia’s development was the arrival of public transport. In 1894, Belgian engineer and director of the horse-drawn railway Émile Cambier laid a horsecar line to the ravine itself. In 1895, he opened a restaurant on piles above the water called “Arcadia.” Dances were held there, lunches with sea views were served, and live music played. This marked the beginning of Arcadia’s history as a resort.
In 1905, the first-guild merchant Usher Segal built a substantial restaurant on the slope with a panoramic sea view. The building became an architectural dominant and a cultural center of the area. These two restaurants became symbols of pre-revolutionary Arcadia, закрепив its status as a fashionable seaside corner.
4. Who Vacationed in Arcadia
In the pre-revolutionary decades, Arcadia attracted mainly Odesa’s high society. As early as the 1830s–1840s, foreign diplomats, aristocrats, and representatives of the Odesa elite gathered at the Sturdza family dacha for country visits. In the latter half of the century, Arcadia’s owners and regular visitors were nobles, high-ranking officials, and merchants. In summer, aristocrats, интеллигенция, and wealthy youth came here.
Well-appointed dachas were rented out for the season, and families who wanted отдых by the sea, away from the city dust, spent their summers in Arcadia. Notable figures included Prince Volkonsky, the philanthropist Marazli, and merchant Usher Segal. Arcadia’s resort life found its way into novels and poetry of the early century; it was associated with luxury, social life, and leisure.
To visit the beach, one had to pay for bathing facilities: from 15–20 kopecks for first class to 5 kopecks for second class. This meant that vacationing here was mainly affordable for well-to-do groups. However, at the height of the season, the beach also saw members of the middle class: artists, teachers, and small entrepreneurs. Arcadia was becoming a place of general summer pilgrimage.
5. A Landscape That Became a Symbol
What made Arcadia special was not only its closeness to the sea, but the natural landscape itself. Unlike most Odesa beaches, which were reached by steep stairways, the Arcadia ravine allowed an easy, effortless descent to the sea.
A wide shoreline, a gentle slope, a sand-and-pebble strip, the murmur of a stream, the shade of acacias, all of this created a distinct atmosphere. Sea air mixed with the scent of the steppe, seclusion, and a view of the horizon made Arcadia a symbol of serenity and aesthetic отдых. Its name became a byword for the perfect summer in Odesa.
If you had a house in Arcadia before the revolution, you were either very wealthy or a very finely attuned person. It was a place not just of leisure, but of a way of life. And in this sense, pre-revolutionary Arcadia was the first step toward the legend it remains today.