Palace of the President

This attractive Soviet-style building with a courtyard of fountains is closed to visitors but makes a useful reference point for navigating in the centre of the city. Built originally as the headquarters of the Tajik Communist Party, the palace and the adjacent square (Shahidan Sq) are now railed off from the road – a reminder that this was the site of mass protest in the 1990s and one of many preludes to the civil war that followed.