The city name is a hydronym and means in Moksha: Пенза, romanized: Penza, lit. 'end of swampy river' (/'penʲzɑ/) from pen 'end of (genitive)' and sa(ra) 'swampy river'. See more

This central quarter occupies the territory on which the wooden fortress Penza was once located, therefore it is sometimes called the Serf. The architectural concept of the old fortress, erected on the eastern slope of th… See more

In 1927, a fragmentary skull of the giant marine reptile Mosasaurus hoffmanni was found in the Late Maastrichtian (Late Cretaceous) deposits near Mironositskoe cemetery, within Penza. This specimen became th… See more

Penza was founded as a Russian frontier fortress-city, and to this day, remnants of the Lomovskaya sentry line built in 1640 have been preserved at the western edge of the city, and remains of earth ramparts dating fro… See more

Penza is the administrative center of the oblast. Within the framework of administrative divisions, it is incorporated as the city of oblast significance of Penza—an administrative unit with a status equal to th… See more