Tzarsroie Selo (Rus. "The Czar's Village") or Sofia, a town of Russia and the imperial summer residence, in the government and 15 m. S. of the city of St. Petersburg; pop. about 12,000. It grew out of a country house and park of Peter the Great. The present palace was built in 1744 by the empress Elizabeth, and embellished by Catharine II. The Main Facade , besides the side wings, is nearly 800 ft. long. The high walls of the banquet hall and other rooms are resplendent with gold and other precious metals. The ball rooms are among the largest and most gorgeous of the kind anywhere. One room is entirely panelled in amber; another is fitted up in Chinese fashion. The marble gallery communicating with the palace is a stupendous and brilliant structure. The palace grounds extend over a circumference of 18 m., employ 600 persons, and contain some of the most wonderful artificial and natural attractions in the world. They include a Gothic castle with Dannecker's " Christ," monuments of distinguished Russians, a pretty pavilion near the lake, and the arsenal in an English-Gothic red brick building erected by the emperor Nicholas for collections of armor and curious relics. A new and less costly palace was built by Alexander I., and is inhabited in summer by the imperial family.

Conspicuous among the many churches is that connected with the palace, with gilded dome and cupolas. On the way to the neighboring Pavlovsk is a triumphal arch which Alexander I. erected to his comrades in the Napoleonic wars. In the same vicinity are imperial villas at Gatchina, Tchesme, and Krasnoye Selo, all, like Tzarskoye Selo, connected by rail with St. Petersburg.