Deribasovskaya Street in Odesa turned into the Jerusalem of the first century

An Easter reenactment involving 300 actors and a working carobalist, recreated based on archaeological finds from Romania, England, and Germany, took place over two days on Deribasovskaya Street in Odesa.

It was organized by the Good Samaritan charity foundation.

The reenactment took place over two days on April 4-5. It was an attempt to recreate the life of a Roman military camp in Jerusalem in the first century. The Roman military camp was recreated by the All-Ukrainian Military History Club "Vexillation of the Roman Troops of Lower Mesia". The location had a historical dress code and authentic life.

A working carbine (from the era of Emperor Trajan), reconstructed from archaeological finds from Romania, England, and Germany, was demonstrated. The process of reconstructing the weapon lasted more than 3 years. A life-size press was recreated. The audience could see the process of impact minting the copper coin As.

There was also cooking on a replica of a Pompeii grill (legionnaire's diet: lentils, lamb, garlic, olive oil), playing ancient chess (latrunculi), and demonstrations of ancient cosmetology and authentic first-century care made with olive oil instead of soap, natural cosmetics (soot, ochre), and thick non-alcoholic oil perfumes (myrrh, frankincense) in historic ceramic bottles. The audience was also invited to listen to a replica of the Roman lyre, recreated from frescoes from Pompeii.

Reconstructions take place almost every year. For example, in 2025, the event on April 13 was accompanied by a scandal due to the broadcast of a documentary film in Russian. The reconstruction was also carried out under air raid alarms.

Кирило Бойко