Greek Plan

She conceived that one of her grandsons, born in 1779 and appropriately named Constantine, would become the first emperor of the restored Byzantium.

In May 1780, Catherine arranged a secret meeting with Joseph II, the Holy Roman Emperor, in Mogilev.

Prince Grigory Potemkin (1739–1791) masterminded the Greek Plan; he gave symbolic Greek-style names to newly-founded and newly-conquered towns in New Russia (e.g., Odessa and Kherson).

Another meeting of the Russian and Austrian monarchs was arranged as part of Catherine's Crimean journey of 1787.

The new Concert of Europe thereafter was more concerned with maintaining the territorial integrity of the states that occupied the Balkan peninsula.

A 20th-century reconstruction of the proposed Greek Plan of Catherine the Great : in red, the "Neo- Byzantine Empire " for her grandson Konstantin , in blue the "Kingdom of Dacia" for Grigory Potemkin , in yellow the compensations for the Habsburg Empire and in blue-green those for Venice .
The colossal Pella Palace on the bank of the Neva River , constructed from 1785 onwards. The name "Pella" referenced the birthplace of Alexander the Great
The Sophia Cathedral in Tsarskoe Selo was designed as a small-scale replica of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople