In 1819 the city was made a free port, a status it retained until 1859. It became home to an extremely diverse population of Ukrainians, Russians, Jews, Greeks, Bulgarians, Albanians, Armenians, Italians, Frenchmen, Germans and traders representing many other European nationalities (hence numerous 'ethnic' names on the city's map, "e.g.", "Frantsuszkiy" (French) and "Italianskiy" (Italian) Boulevards, "Grecheskaya" (Greek), "Evreyskaya" (Jewish), "Arnautskaya" (Albanian) Streets). Its cosmopolitan nature was written about by the great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin, who lived in internal exile in Odesa between 1823 and 1824. In his letters he wrote that Odesa was a city where "you can smell Europe. French is spoken and there are European papers and magazines to read".