site.btaOdesa Marks 231 Years Since Its Founding

Odesa celebrated its 231st Foundation Day on Tuesday, opening the festivities with an official flag-raising ceremony in the Black Sea city.

The ceremony was attended by Odesa Mayor Gennadiy Trukhanov, Head of the Odesa Regional Military Administration Oleh Kiper, and representatives of regional and municipal authorities. Among the official guests were members of the diplomatic corps in Odesa, including Bulgarian Consul General Svetoslav Ivanov.

On the occasion, the Odesa City Council presented its highest awards, continuing a long-standing tradition.

The city also announced three new sister cities - Mainz and Heidelberg in Germany, and Taita-Taveta in Kenya.

That same day, a commemorative star was unveiled in honour of Gennadiy Harmider, an Odesa painter whose work left a lasting cultural legacy. The unveiling also marked the upcoming 80th anniversary of his birth in 2025. The practice of honouring contributors to the city with stars has become a tradition in Odesa, with 52 individuals commemorated over the past decade.

Since its founding in 1794, the port city of Odesa has been a hub for Bulgarian settlers. Odesa became the first Bulgarian literary and cultural centre in present-day Ukraine during the National Revival when Bulgaria was under Ottoman rule. Notable Bulgarian artistic figures such as Nayden Gerov, Dobri Chintulov, Elena Muteva, Ivan Bogorov emerged there and formed the Odesa Literary Circle.

Odesa also hosted the Odesa Bulgarian Board of Trustees, established in 1854, as an organisation of Bulgarian political emigres. It supported young Bulgarians’ education in the Ottoman Empire’s high schools and universities, providing financial assistance. The Board actively participated in all major liberation struggles of the Bulgarian people in Thrace and Macedonia during the 1860s and 1870s.