The former vice-governor's mansion is one of the sober neoclassical buildings that gives Poltava's Round Square its formal, almost stage-set quality. It dates from the early 1800s, when the city was being remade as a provincial administrative centre after the Battle of Poltava had turned it into a place of imperial memory.
You do not come here for interiors; the building is best treated as part of a walk around Korpusny Garden and the Column of Glory. The pleasure is in seeing how the square works as an ensemble, with low yellow facades, long sightlines, and a surprisingly graceful sense of proportion.