High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Odessa's Philharmonic Theatre (Ukrainian: , Russian: ) is a theater in Odessa, Ukraine. The design resembles the Doge Palace in Venice. The foundation stone for the theater was laid September 3, 1894, a day after Odessa's one-hundred-year birthday. The building was intended as the new stock exchange, or "New Exchange" to replace the old stock exchange. This is why the vast hall was decorated with six panels by the artist Nikolai Nikolaevich Karazin (1842-1908) which depict commerce throughout various stages of history.