The White Rotunda was opened just before the celebration a bicentenial of the battle of Poltava on June 27th 1909. This monument was erected on the spot of Podolsky watchtower and bastion of the former fortress of Poltava. The fortress was not protected by stonewalls but only by earthworks, palisades and the steep slopes of the hill where it was built.

During the German occupation of Poltava in 1941-1943 the White Rotunda was destroyed because an artillery observation post was located on it’s site. In 1954 the Rotunda of Peoples Friendship designed by architect Vaingort was opened here to mark three-hundredth anniversary of Pereyaslav Treaty signed between Russia and Ukraine. In 2004 the monument was reconstructed and the following line, written by famous Ukrainian writer Ivan Kotlyarevsky was cut into the top of the arbor:”Only there each and all live in peace, quit and chime could be a blessed land and a happy people.”

Near the White Rotunda there is an observation area that attracts many tourists with marvelous view of the suburbs, Vorskla river and Holy Cross Exaltation Monastery. In 1974 a memorial stone was opened here in commemoration of the first mention of the city of Poltava in Ipatievskaya chronicle that dates back to 1174.