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).