Verkhovna Rada building, Parliament building in Pechersk district, Kyiv, Ukraine.
The Verkhovna Rada building is a parliament structure in the Pechersk district and rises three stories with a glass dome above the main session hall. The structure follows Stalinist Empire architectural style and houses the chambers for legislative work and related offices.
A design competition in February 1936 chose Volodymyr Zabolotnyi's project, and construction ran from 1936 to 1939, with the first session held on 25 July 1939 at 5 Hrushevsky Street. Damaged in the Second World War, the building was reconstructed in 1945–1947, and the glass dome was rebuilt one metre higher. In 1991 the red-and-blue flag of the Ukrainian SSR was lowered and the blue-and-yellow flag raised; a bronze star was removed from the spire on 25 February 2014 and replaced by a golden trident on 29 October 2015.
Four sculptural groups by Valentyn Znoba, installed in 1985 under Nataliia Chmutina, stand before the central entrance's risalits and represent workers, peasants, scientists and intelligentsia. Above the entrance is the stylized trident of independent Ukraine; the Soviet coat of arms that once crowned the facade was removed in 2016 under decommunization laws.
The building faces Hrushevsky Street at Constitution Square, opposite the Cabinet of Ministers and beside Mariinskyi Park. It is a working parliament, not a public museum; the sources describe no visitor access or guided tours. From the pedestrian square the building and the Mariinskyi Palace can be seen side by side.
The dome is metal and glass, and its 16-metre ceiling plafond holds a crystal chandelier shaped like a sunflower, a motif drawn from Ukrainian folk art. Coloured glass was set into the plafond, and the dome's multicoloured night illumination is a Kyiv sight. After wartime damage the dome was rebuilt one metre higher than the original.
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