The Rotunda

The shell of a round building in Transportny Square is the only ruin in Voronezh deliberately left as it is. Before the war it was the central block of the regional clinical hospital, built in the 1930s in the constructivist manner; the domed hall served as an operating theatre lit from above. In the summer of 1942 the district found itself in a zone of street fighting; the building changed hands several times and was smashed apart by artillery. It was never rebuilt: what survives is a ring of concrete columns, fragments of floor slabs and protruding reinforcing bars, listed as a monument since 1965. There are few such ruin-memorials in the world, and it is usually named alongside the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin and the cathedral in Coventry. Beside the square stand a monument to the medical staff who died here and a bronze figure with arms flung wide. The place remains quiet and almost empty, which sharpens the impression the structure itself makes.

Address

Transportny Skver, Voronezh

Opening hours

Always open

Prices

Free

On the map