One of the main architectural sights of the city is named as Catherine, because in the days of Odessa foundatio the military church of Saint Catherine was started to build there. In 1821 that unfinished church was reconstructed.
In 1873, after starting of the Dniester plumbing, the first city fountain was set in the center of this square.
In 1894, on the one hundredth years Odessa birthday, the monument to those, who founded and built the city, was decided to set up. In their number the Empress Catherine II was. Exactly she, on a popular belief, gave such name to Odessa. There she was represented, holding a scroll in a hand with such words: "We command to exist of a city and a port". The figures of the other important personalities, who were taking the direct participating in a birth of a new city, were below - de Ribas, the prince Potemkin, the count Zubov, an engineer de Volan.
In 1900 the monument to the Empress Catherine II and her associates was opened. The sculptors were: Popov, Edwards, Mencione. The architect was Dmitrenko.
In 1965 the monument to the sailors, insurrectionists on the  "Potemkin" ironclad in 1905, was erected there.
In 2007 the Odessa city council made a decision to recover the lost monument to the founders of 
the city. A new monument exactly repeats an original monument, decorated the square from 1900. The new bronze figure of the Russian Empress Catherine II, using the saved old photos, was made by the Kyiv sculptor Chernoivanov.