A comfortable park called the Catherine’s Square is in the historical center of Krasnodar. The Host Cathedral, the Fine Arts Museum, The Krasnodar Territory Legislative Assembly and the other sights of the city are near it.
The palace of the appointed hetman of the Kuban Cossack Host – one of the most beautiful buildings of Krasnodar – was at the very beginning of Red Army (former Bursakovskaya) Street at the end of 19 century. It was on the site of today Lyceum #48. A park, which was later renamed the Catherine’s Square, was in front of it.
The monument of Empress Catherine was installed by the grateful Kuban cossacks in the center of the Catherine’s Square in 1907. The decree on the resettlement of the cossacks to the Kuban lands, as well as the deed of gift for the lands were signed by Empress Catherine II on July 30, 1792. However, the same decree was also related with the restriction of the rights of the cossacks and the abolishment of the the Zaporozhian Sich. By the efforts of Gregory Potemkin the free Kuban Host was turned into a standing army of Kuban cossacks.
Empress Catherine with the sceptre and the orb is on the top of the monument. Gregory Potemkin is on the left of the monument and three hetmans are on the right of it: Zakhary Chepega, Anton Golovaty and Sidor Bely. Between them one can also see the deed of gift of 1792.
Krasnodar was declared the capital of the Kuban Cossack Host in 1794. However, the construction of the hetman palace was started only a century late in 1885. The consecration ceremony of the new residence of the hetman took place on December 6, 1894. And although the palace was small, it looked very monumental. The palace was surrounded by a garden. To our days of that garden there remained only a gingko tree from China, which was planted in 1905. The hetman palace was ruined during the fighting for the Kuban in 1942.
Unfortunately, the palace did not survive to our time but the garden eventually became the Catherine’s Square, which preserved its original layout.
