The origins of the resort on the Kujalnický Liman can be traced back to the 1830s, when Erast Andreyevsky, a doctor, recognised the healing qualities of the local salt marshes. He persuaded the Odessa authorities to buy a plot of land and build a small spa there. The impetus for the development of the site was the construction of a special railway line from the Odessa port in 1873. The 1970s and 1980s saw a significant influx of patients that could not be serviced by the existing small clinics. In this situation, the Odessa authorities decided to build a large sanatorium to attract patients from all over the Russian Empire and contribute to the development of the city. The designer of the new building was the Polish architect Mikolaj Tolvinsky, who lived in Odessa. The vast building was constructed between 1890 and 1892 in the so-called pavilion system. This meant that the various bathing, treatment and administrative rooms were grouped into separate sections with separate entrances, connected to each other by galleries. The sanatorium also had a restaurant, praised in guidebooks for its good quality cuisine and reasonable prices. Before the First World War, the Kujalnitsa sanatorium was considered one of the most modern sanatorium facilities in the whole of Russia. Unfortunately, after large blocks were built for the sanatorium in the 1970s-80s, the old building designed by Tolvinsky was abandoned and has been falling into disrepair for years. Few today remember that much of late 19th and early 20th century Odessa was built by Polish architects. Foremost among them are Feliks Gąsiorowski, Władysław Dąbrowski and the author of the design for the Kujalnice sanatorium, Nikolai Tolvinski. Tolwiński graduated from high school in Warsaw and later studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in St Petersburg. He settled in Odessa in 1883 and spent the next dozen years of his life there. This was a period of exceptionally lively activity - Tolvinsky designed more than 20 tenements and public buildings in Odessa, the largest project being the sanatorium on the Kujalnic Liman. In 1898, he moved to Warsaw, where he was employed at the Polytechnic Institute. He died in 1924 and was buried at Powązki Cemetery. It is worth mentioning that his son Tadeusz Tolwiński was born in Odessa in 1887. He was also an architect, known as the author of the designs for the buildings of the National Museum and the Stefan Batory Gymnasium in Warsaw.