The Depaldo Stone Steps (, also ') in

Taganrog Taganrog ( rus, Таганрог, p=təɡɐnˈrok) is a port city in Rostov Oblast, Russia, on the north shore of the Taganrog Bay in the Sea of Azov, several kilometers west of the mouth of the Don River. Population: History of Taganrog The ...

in Russia were constructed in 1823. They were the project of the Italian architect

Francesco Boffo Francesco Carlo Boffo (Cyrillic: Франц Карлович Боффо; 8 September 1796 – Kherson, Cherson, 10 November 1867) was a Neoclassical architecture, Neoclassical architect who designed more than 30 buildings in Odessa between 1818 a ...

, with the funding of

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

merchant Gerasim Depaldo, at the crossroads of Greek Street (near

Tchaikovsky House in Taganrog The Tchaikovsky House in Taganrog is a historical mansion in the historical downtown Taganrog on Ulitsa Grecheskaya, 56. The mansion was built in early 1870s by the project of the architect Petrov. It was owned by the merchant Sarandino until mid- ...

) and Depaldo Street (now Turgenevskaya Street) in Taganrog. The stairway begins up on the hill in downtown and goes down ending near the

Sea of Azov The Sea of Azov ( Crimean Tatar: ''Azaq deñizi''; russian: Азовское море, Azovskoye more; uk, Азовське море, Azovs'ke more) is a sea in Eastern Europe connected to the Black Sea by the narrow (about ) Strait of Kerch, ...

foreshore ( Pushkin Embankment). In

Imperial Russia The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the List of Russian monarchs, Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended th ...

they were the famous stairs in South Russia, similar to the

Potemkin Stairs , location = , address2 = , owner = , coordinates = , place_type = Stairs , construction = 1837–1841 , open = 1841 , steps = 192 , height = 27 m , surface = granite, sandstone ...

Odessa Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrativ ...

. In

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the Old Stone Steps were heavily damaged, but stayed one of the major tourist attractions of

. In the 1970s they were reconstructed, but not finished. The new major reconstruction was made in 2005. During the latest reconstruction all the old stone steps were replaced by new stones. At the top of the steps on Grecheskaya Street stands a

sundial A sundial is a horological device that tells the time of day (referred to as civil time in modern usage) when direct sunlight shines by the apparent position of the Sun in the sky. In the narrowest sense of the word, it consists of a flat ...

(1833). One of the short stories written by Soviet Russian

Ivan Vasilenko Ivan Dmitrievich Vasilenko (russian: Ива́н Дми́триевич Василе́нко, uk, Іван Дмитрович Василенко; January 20, 1895 – May 26, 1966), was a Soviet writer of children's books. Early years Ivan Dmit ...

titled ''Sundial'' (russian: Солнечные часы) was dedicated to the sundial near the Old Stone Steps.

Views of Depaldo stone stairs

Image:tagan_08.jpg, Depaldo stone stairs in

(photo early 1900s). Image:Depaldo_stone_stairs.jpg, Depaldo stone stairs in

(photo early 1900s). Image:Greek_str_Taganrog.jpg, Greek Street in

with entrance to Depaldo stone stairs (on right side) and pedestal for sun-dial (a stone cube in centre) (photo early 1900s). Image:tagan_62.jpg,

Gnomon A gnomon (; ) is the part of a sundial that casts a shadow. The term is used for a variety of purposes in mathematics and other fields. History A painted stick dating from 2300 BC that was excavated at the astronomical site of Taosi is the ol ...

Sundial A sundial is a horological device that tells the time of day (referred to as civil time in modern usage) when direct sunlight shines by the apparent position of the Sun in the sky. In the narrowest sense of the word, it consists of a flat ...

near entrance to Depaldo stone stairs in

(photo 2002). Image:Sundial Taganrog.jpg,

near Old Stone Steps, photo of 2006. File:Старые солнечные часы (Таганрог).jpg, Sundial near Old Stone Steps, photo from 2007 File:Sundial Taganrog 2008.jpg, Sundial near Old Stone Steps, photo from 2008

References

* Энциклопедия Таганрога. — Ростов-на-Дону: Ростиздат, 2003 * Гаврюшкин О.П. По старой Греческой... (Хроника обывательской жизни). — Таганрог: Лукоморье, 2003. — 514 с. — . {{Taganrog Buildings and structures in Taganrog Buildings and structures completed in 1823 Taganrog Stairways Tourist attractions in Taganrog Cultural heritage monuments in Taganrog Cultural heritage monuments of regional significance in Rostov Oblast