Yaroslavl
Every object has a voice in this little house containing the late magician John Mostoslavsky’s impressive collection of clocks, musical instruments …
Must-see attractions in Russia
Western Siberia
Tyumen's sleek riverside promenade runs northwest from the centre almost all the way to Trinity Monastery. The promenade offers great views of the…
Western European Russia
Housed in a beautiful building with wrought-iron staircases, this splendid collection includes pieces by luminaries such as Valentin Serov, Ilya Repin and…
Church of the Transfiguration of Our Saviour on Ilyina Street
Veliky Novgorod
This compact church is famous for housing the only surviving frescoes by legendary Byzantine painter Theophanes the Greek (1378) – they came close to…
Mineral Water Spas
Many Pyatigorsk attractions revolve around larger-than-life writer, poet, painter, cavalry soldier, society beau and duellist Mikhail Lermontov. Chief…
Western European Russia
This restored stone fortress, first constructed out of wood in the early 16th century, is home to the stunning 18th-century Assumption Cathedral. The…
Western European Russia
This blindingly white 72m-high structure, with its top dome shining gold, can be seen from miles away on a clear day. Consecrated in 1699, it’s the fourth…
Mineral Water Spas
This graceful, well-preserved 1850s building recalls the spa town of Bath in England. Inside, the rich, carbonic Narzan Spring bubbles up inside a glass…
St Alexander Svirsky Church on Khizhgora
Northern European Russia
Some 2km into the national park, in an elevated clearing in the forest, stands the atmospheric St Alexander Svirsky Church on Khizhgora. This onion-domed…
Western European Russia
This exceptional gallery charts a course from gilded icons and late-15th-century European paintings through to fascinating pieces of socialist realism…
Altai Arts, Literature & Culture Museum
Altai
The impressively eclectic – not to mention good-value – Altai Arts, Literature & Culture Museum occupies a restored, furnished 1850s mansion. There are…
Russian Caucasus
Around 7km north of Karachayevsk, a dirt road leads uphill from the Ossetian village below to this early 10th-century Alanian church, one of the oldest,…
Kola Peninsula
This museum has over 900 types of minerals and ores, many of them rare and unique. Entry is by an appointment made in advance; friendly academics speak…
Western European Russia
The author’s family lived on the 1st floor of this riverside dacha, which contains many original pieces. Dostoevsky’s bookcase is still stocked, and his…
Novosibirsk
The 1898 Alexander Nevsky Cathedral is a red-brick Byzantine-style building with gilded domes and colourful murals. The cathedral was originally built as…
Kazan
The Kul Sharif Mosque was completed in 2005 and is named after the imam who died defending the city against the troops of Ivan the Terrible in 1552. The…
Ufa
Park Vatan is a unique collection of boutique shops and arts-exhibition spaces housed in traditional yurts. Visitors can purchase delicacies such as local…
Russian Caucasus
This is an excellent little regional museum, located a few steps from Krasnaya ul. Exhibits feature some impressive archaeological finds; Cossack history…
Northern European Russia
Arkhangelsk’s most compelling art gallery has regularly changing exhibitions that range from modern reflections on Soviet propaganda to pop art. Upstairs…
Astrakhan
Dating from 1698–1720, the Assumption Cathedral dominates the kremlin grounds and is decorated inside with attractive frescoes.
Western Siberia
Minsalim is a master bone-carver who turns mammoth tusks and antler fragments into detailed figurines related to myths and legends of the local brand of…
Altai
In an old brick house, the War History Museum is simple and all in Russian but the moving understatement of its Afghanistan and Chechnya memorials is…
Moscow
On the northern side of Sobornaya pl, with five golden helmet domes and four semicircular gables, the Assumption Cathedral is the focal church of pre…
Zamoskvorechie
Set amidst 4 sq km of picturesque parkland, on a bluff above a bend in the Moscow River, Kolomenskoe is an ancient royal country seat and a Unesco World…
Eastern Siberia
The confident epicentre of Russian Buddhism owes its existence to none other than Josef Stalin, who reversed the Bolshevik policy of destroying temples…
Art Muzeon & Krymskaya Naberezhnaya
Zamoskvorechie
Moscow's answer to London's South Bank, Krymskaya Nab (Crimea Embankment) features wave-shaped street architecture with Scandinavian-style wooden elements…
Zamoskvorechie
On a wooded hill in far southeast Moscow, Tsaritsyno Palace is a modern-day manifestation of the exotic summer home that Catherine the Great began in 1775…
Jewish Museum & Centre of Tolerance
Moscow
Occupying a heritage garage, purpose-built to house a fleet of Leyland double-deckers that plied Moscow's streets in the 1920s, this vast museum, filled…
Museum of Soviet Arcade Machines
Moscow
Growing up in 1980s USSR was a peculiar, but not necessarily entirely bleak experience. Here is an example – a collection containing dozens of mostly…
Zamoskvorechie
Overlooking the river, the Ascension Church, sometimes called the ‘white column’, is Kolomenskoe Museum-Reserve's loveliest structure. Built between 1530…
St Petersburg
Facing Millionnaya ul, the New Hermitage was built for Nicholas II in 1852, to hold the growing art collection and as a museum for the public. Designed by…
Zamoskvorechie
Moscow's premier venue for 20th-century Russian art, this branch of the Tretyakov Gallery has much more than the typical socialist-realist images of…
Ulan-Ude
Roosting high above the city’s far north, the inside of this new and unexpectedly modern Tibetan temple looks like a kind of Buddhist-themed bus terminal,…
St Petersburg
This stunning mint-green, white and gold profusion of columns, windows and recesses, with its roof topped by rows of classical statues, was commissioned…
Listvyanka
Listvyanka’s best viewpoint, overlooking the source of the Angara, is named after Jan Czerski, a 19th-century Polish gentleman explorer. It is best…
St Petersburg
The classical Small Hermitage, which evolved from a series of buildings constructed between Palace Sq and the Neva between 1764 and 1769, was used by…
Ulan-Ude
Ulan-Ude’s main square is entirely dominated by the world’s largest Lenin head that creates an ensemble with the grey constructivist government building…
Central Museum of the Armed Forces
Moscow
Covering the history of the Soviet and Russian military since 1917, this massive museum occupies 24 halls plus open-air exhibits. Over 800,000 military…
Tuva
The attractive two-storey timber building of the Centre for Tuvan Culture was founded in 2012 by legendary Tuvan musician Kongar-ol Ondar, who was its…
St Petersburg
Facing the Neva, this section of the museum (also known as the Large Hermitage) dates from the time of Catherine the Great. It mainly houses Italian…
