Deribasovskaya Street

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Lion in the park

Deribasovskaya Street (Ukrainian: Дерибасiвська, Russian: Дерибасовская) is a pedestrian walkway in the heart of Odessa, Ukraine. The street is named after José de Ribas, who helped build the city, and who lived on the street.

Next to the street is Odessa's first park, which was built shortly after the foundation of the city in 1803 by the De Ribas brothers, Joseph and Felix. This park has a fountain, bandstand, and several monuments, including a sculpture of a lion and lioness with her cubs, a chair commemorating the famous book "The Twelve Chairs", two monuments to Leonid Osipovich Utyosov (a sculpture and also a phone which plays his music), and a monument to Sergey Utochkin, a famous pilot.

Deribasovskaya Street was previously named Gimnazskaya Street - after the Gymnasium which opened April 16, 1804. It was renamed for de Ribas on July 6, 1811, being called Deribasovskaya or de Ribasovskaya or even Ribasovskaya. During the first years of Bolshevik rule (1920 - 1938) it was named after the German revolutioner Ferdinand Lassal. From 1938 to 1941, it was called Chkalov Street. Finally, on November 19, 1941, it was renamed back to Deribasovskaya.

Deribasovskaya Street runs from near Polskaya Street up to the Preobrazhenskaya and Sadovaya, crossing Pushkinskaya, Rishelyevskaya, Yekaterininskaya, Gavannaya, and Vice-Admiral Zhukov's Lane.