A legend claims a minister built fake villages to flatter a touring empress

Stories have long claimed Grigory Potemkin, governor of Crimea and lover of Catherine the Great, built hollow, portable facades along the Dnieper to hide regional poverty during Catherine's 1787 tour, moving them ahead of her barge overnight. Biographer Simon Sebag Montefiore argues the tale was largely invented by jealous rivals, since real villages did exist, even if Potemkin stage-managed the visit heavily. The phrase endures regardless, for any impressive front built to deceive.

— Simon Sebag Montefiore, Prince of Princes: The Life of Potemkin — Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2000
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