Plague, quarantine, and environmental design in nineteenth century Odesa

Abstract

ABSTRACT The role of urban planning and architecture in mitigating infectious diseases has lately attracted more scholarly attention. The paper explores an epidemic of plague in nineteenth-century Odesa (then the Russian Empire, now Ukraine) and argues that the city's development was fundamentally linked to activities focused on preventing the disease's reoccurrence and creating a healthy urban environment. It analyzes never discussed visual materials from the collections of the Hermitage Museum, State Museum in Berlin, Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA), British Museum, and Library of Congress and places them in the context of literary work, mainly travellers’ diaries and memoirs of contemporaries. Although over the last two decades, several publications focused on Odesa's history, literature, culture, and social life came into existence, the urban development and architecture of this metropolis have yet to garner sufficient scholarly attention. The article focuses on primary sources making new attributions of visual materials. It illuminates such essential aspects of urban life as health and hygiene, sanitation, design of open green spaces, and control of air and water supplies. It also helps to understand the architectural solutions for mitigating infectious disease and establishing Odesa as one of the leaders in pandemic-related development at the time.