Designed by Carlo Rossi, this buiding was erected between 1819 and 1829 to house the General Staff and two government ministries - finance and foreign affairs. The imposing edifice with its semicircle of curvilinear blocks fronts a large square before the Winter Palace. In the centre of the almost six-hundred-metre long facade is a triumphal arch, a monument to the victory of Russian arms in the War of 1812-14. The sides of the archway are ornamented with trophies, and there are figures of warriors between its columns. Crowning the arch is the winged figure of Victory in a six-horse chariot. The authors of these sculptures were Stepan Pimenov and Vasily Demuth-Malinovsky.