Odessa beach “Arcadia” – the most noisy and active beach of the city, the center of resort life and nightlife. During the day, numerous vacationers — find their place in the sun, and after sunset, restaurants and night clubs located right by the sea compete in the volume of music and the brightness of guest stars. Arcadia as a fashionable resting place is known far beyond the borders of Odessa.
A LITTLE BIT OF HISTIRY….
It all began at the end of the XIX century. At that time, residents and guests of Odessa were delighted by the magnificent Deribasovskaya Street and Primorsky Boulevard, but on the site of the future Arcadia there was still just a rocky, unsuitable beach for rest. As the historian A.M. Deribas wrote (a descendant of the very one in whose honor the street was named) – here one could find only the shack of a poor Greek fisherman who, despite his poverty, could treat travelers with original Santorino wine.
The discoverer of Arcadia is considered to be the Belgian Emile Cambier, director of the Odessa agency of the Belgian equestrian railways (or “horses”). When he had some business nearby, in the stables on the Malyy (Small) Fountain, he noticed a wide seaside beam convenient for walking. The fact is that steep cliffs and slopes lead to most of Odessa’s beaches, and here it was possible to reach the beach along a natural gentle descent (ravine). The slopes of the beams were covered with a lilac immortelle, and a trickle murmured nearby. The energetic Cambier decided to extend the horse-drawn railway to this beautiful place, and built the first restaurant on the beach. In V.Katayev’s story “A White Sail Gleams ”, Arkadia of those times is mentioned: “And here is Arkadia, a restaurant on stilts, a sink for an orchestra … colorful umbrellas, tablecloths along which the wind runs ..”
Then the name “Arcadia” appeared. As is known, this name was carried by the place in Greece, which, thanks to poets, was perceived as a fertile locality, a nature paradise; Arkadia in Odessa supposed to become such an ideal place to rest following the example of the Greek. Her references are found in 1893 in Odessa newspapers: “The Directorate of the horse-drawn railroad presented to the city government a project to draw a line from the Malofontanskaya road to a place called “Arcadia”.
Cambier’s enterprise was rewarded, Odessans liked a new place of rest and Arcadia quickly became popular. They opened the baths, began to build new restaurants and places of entertainment for the richer citizens, and small pubs for those who are more modest. An interesting contrast is that Arkadia leads like an elite French Boulevard, where the cottage of the Odessa nobility and wealthy people (Marazli, Mavrokordato, Papudova) were located, and the Novo-Arkadiyskaya Road (now Shevchenko Avenue) located nearby, where the poor people settled in slums and at that time crime flourished.
After the revolution of 1917, the cottages of Odessa magnates went to sanatoriums, but cottages and party workers’ houses appeared around Arcadia. Hotels were built. In Arcadia, Soviet workers from different republics rested in numerous sanatoriums (in honor of the friendship of the republics, sanatoriums were given the names: “Ukraine”, “Russia”, “Moldova”). The popular Odessa beach has appeared several times in Soviet films. So, the scene of the famous Striped Flight was shot here, when the rest in a panic run away from the trained tigers, and Panikovsky and Shura Balaganov from the Golden Calf drank kefir here. Among the sanatoriums, there are now both acting (“Moldova”, “Nm.Chkalov”) and going through hard times. In the 60s, shore protection works were carried out, the beach was significantly expanded.
After the difficult period of the 90s, Arcadia again went through a period of boom and active development – new summer venues and fashionable nightclubs appeared, where guests from other cities of Ukraine and the CIS came to hang out. Arcadia, like Odessa itself, remains popular in any weather and under any authority…
It is here, in Arcadia, the club life of the Southern capital begins. Here everyone will find something to their taste, because Arcadia is rich in places for recreation. Here and cozy cafes, and restaurants, and elite clubs. Even the beach here is not just a beach: with the sunset it turns into a dance floor, and the best DJs make every party incendiary and not similar to the previous ones.
