Senate and Synod Building
Place: Senate Square
Construction time: 1829-1834
Architect: Carlo Rossi
Style: Empire
Name Origin: The building was constructed for the highest state institutions of the Russian Empire, the Governing Senate and the supreme management body of the Orthodox Church – the Holy Synod.
Interesting facts:Since 2008, the Russian Constitutional Court is situated in the left wing of this building; this fact makes Petersburg the second official capital of Russia. In the right wing, Memorial Library of Boris Yeltsin is located.
Quote: “The Senate and Synod live under the arches” (one wordplay takes place here: “under” (pod) and “the arches” (arkami) in Russian sounds like “with gifts”, podarkami) (Petersburg proverb of imperial epoch is an allusion to the bribery of senators and a huge arch of the building).
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