Hay Square

Sennaya Square

or Sennaya Ploshchad, is a large city square in Central Saint Petersburg, located at the crossing of Garden Street, Moskovsky Prospekt and Grivtsova Lane.

The square was established in 1737 as a market where hay, firewood and cattle were sold. It was built under the extension of the Garden Street, and grew quickly, becoming the cheapest and the most active market in Saint Petersburg. The Hay Market was a place where merchants and farmers could trade. It was there that malefactors were flogged before a large concourse of people.

In 1753, local merchants commissioned the building of the Church of the Assumption of the Mother of God in a sumptuous Baroque style. In the middle of the square is a former guardhouse.