Located on the western edge of the area of St Petersburg known as Peski, between Ulitsa Shpalernaya and Ulitsa Kirochnaya, is the Tauride Palace and its gardens.

Tauride Palace 

The Tauride Palace was built between 1783 and 1789 in the classical style on the orders of Prince Grigori Potyomkin - a favourite of Empress Catherine the Great. It gets its name from the prince, who was assigned the name Tavrichesky ('of Tauride') by Catherine due to his role in adding Crimea to the Russian Empire - Tauride being a historical name for Crimea. After Potyomkin's death, Catherine purchased the house and had it renovated to serve as a summer residence. After her death, her son Paul had it converted into barracks - a clear demonstration of the contempt he had for his mother and the relationship she had with Potyomkin. Later the palace remained in the hands of the imperial family until 1906 when it became the seat of the Imperial State Duma. After the February Revolution, the palace was used by the Provisional Government and then, after the October Revolution, it was used by the Bolsheviks for their 7th Congress. Since the 1990s the palace has used to hold meetings of the Interparliamentary Assembly of the Commonwealth of Independent States - a loose organisation of former Soviet states.

Tauride Gardens 

The Tauride Gardens (Tavrichesky Sad) located to the south of the Tauride Palace were laid out at the same time as the palace and first opened to the public in 1866.  In addition to the natural surroundings, including a pond, there are several statues here: monuments of Ilya Tchaikovsky and Sergey Yesenin and a memorial to young heroes of the defence of Leningrad.