Showing 1-17 of 17 results
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Archangel Cathedral
The Archangel Cathedral at the southeastern corner of Soborny ploshchad, was for centuries the coronation, wedding and burial church of tsars. It was built by Ivan Kalita in 1333 to commemorate the end of the great famine, and dedicated to Archangel Michael, guardian of the Moscow princes. By the early 16th century it fell into disrepair and was rebuilt between 1505 and 1508 by the Italian architect Alevisio Novi.
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Assumption Cathedral
On the northern side of Sobornaya ploshchad, with five golden helmet domes and four semicircular gables facing the square, the Assumption Cathedral is the focal church of prerevolutionary Russia and the burial place of most of the heads of the Russian Orthodox Church from the 1320s to 1700. A striking 1660s' fresco of the Virgin Mary faces Sobornaya ploshchad, above the door once used for royal processions. If you have limited time in the Kremlin, come straight here.
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Choral Synagogue
Moscow's oldest synagogue was built in 1891 by the businessman Polyakov, who made his fortune in the sugar industry. It was the only synagogue that continued to operate throughout the Soviet period, in spite of Bolshevik demands to convert it to a workers' club. The interior is exquisite.
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Church Of St John The Warrior
The finest of all Zamoskvorechie churches mixes Moscow and European baroque styles, resulting in this melange of shapes and colours. It was commissioned by Peter the Great in thanks for his 1709 victory over Sweden at Poltava, it is a conglomeration of Moscow and European baroque styles. Although it's a working church, it is often locked; the 17th-century iconostasis is reputedly a masterpiece.
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Entrance Towers
The Kutafya Tower ( Kutafya bashnya ), which forms the main visitors' entrance today, stands away from the Kremlin's west wall, at the end of a ramp over the Alexandrovsky Garden. The ramp was once a bridge over the Neglinnaya River, which used to be part of the Kremlin's defences; it has flowed underground, beneath the Alexandrovsky Garden, since the early 19th century. The Kutafya Tower is the last survivor of a number of outer bridge towers that once stood on this side of the Kremlin.
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Hall Of Facets
Named for its Italian Renaissance stone facing, the Hall of Facets was designed and built by Marco Ruffo and Pietro Solario between 1487 and 1491 during the reign of Ivan III. Its upper floor housed the tsar's throne room, scene of banquets and ceremonies.
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Hotel Metropol
Sculpted stone, tiled mosaic and wrought iron distinguish the fantastic facade of this luxury hotel - one of Moscow's finest examples of Art Nouveau architecture. The mosaic on the western side, the Princess of Dreams , is a masterpiece by Mikhail Vrubel that depicts a Russian fairy tale. The interior is no less exquisite, and tourists are usually not discouraged from going inside to look around. Don't miss the spectacular stained glass ceiling in the restaurant.
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House Of Friendship With Peoples Of Foreign Countries
The 'Moorish Castle' studded with seashells, was built in 1899 for an eccentric merchant named Arseny Morozov, who was inspired by a real one in Spain. The inside is sumptuous and equally over the top. Morozov's mother, who lived next door, apparently declared of her son's home, 'Until now, only I knew you were mad; now everyone will'. This place is not normally open to the public, but sometimes exhibitions are held here.
Read more about House Of Friendship With Peoples Of Foreign Countries
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Lenin Funeral Train
The wide square on the Garden Ring is dominated by the Paveletsky Station, terminus for trains to the Volga region. The finest loco in the neighbourhood, however, stands idle in an air-conditioned pavilion just east of the station. It is the funeral train which brought Lenin's body to Moscow from Gorki Leninskie, where he died, in January 1924. The old steam engine is in beautiful condition, but does not receive many visitors these days.
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Memorial to the Victims of Totalitarianism
Stands in the little garden on the southeastern side of the square. This single stone slab comes from the territory of an infamous 1930s labour camp situated on the Solovetsky Islands in the White Sea.
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Menshikov Tower
Hidden behind the post office, this famous tower was built in 1704-06 by the order of Menshikov at his newly founded estate. The tower - one of Moscow's first baroque buildings - was originally 3m taller than the Ivan the Great bell tower. A 1723 thunderstorm saw it hit by lightning and seriously damaged by fire. Trouble plagued the owner as well. Menshikov fell from grace after the death of Peter the Great and he was exiled to Siberia. The tower was neglected for several decades. When finally repaired in the 1780s, it lost much of its height and elegance. Today, it houses the working Church of Archangel Gabriel.
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Narkomfin
The model for Le Corbusier's Unité D'Habitation is set slightly back from the Garden Ring Road in central Moscow, wedged between the American embassy and Novinsky Passage shopping centre. Narkomfin, which has been on the World Monuments Fund Watch List since 2004, is an early experiment in semi-communal living, and a prototype for contemporary apartment blocks.
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Patriarch's Ponds
Once this area contained several ponds that kept fish for the Patriarch's court (thus the name). This peaceful fishpond was immortalised by writer Mikhail Bulgakov, who had the devil appear here in The Master and Margarita . The initial paragraph of the novel describes the area to the north of the pond, where the devil enters the scene and predicts the rapid death of Berlioz.
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Red Square
Palpably the centre of Moscow and even Russia as a whole, Red Square is a massively impressive sight that brings back the full force of the Cold War, despite the two decades that have passed since perestroika . Something of a misnomer for this grey and rectangular strip to the east side of the Kremlin, Red Sq is surrounded by Lenin's Mausoleum to the west, the State History Museum to the north, GUM shopping centre to the east and fabulous St Basil's Cathedral to the south.
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St Basil's Cathedral
Entering Red Sq through the Voskressensky Gates, you'll emerge with a superb view of the magnificently flamboyant St Basil's Cathedral on the far side. Ivan the Terrible was so keen to immortalise his victory over the Tatars at Kazan that he took the measure of blinding the architects after they completed the cathedral's dazzlingly bright onion domes in 1561 to ensure that nothing of comparable beauty could ever be built.
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The Kremlin
The stronghold of Russian political power, the Kremlin occupies a roughly triangular plot of land covering little Borovitsky Hill on the north bank of the Moscow River, probably first settled in the 11th century. Today it's enclosed by high walls. Red Square lies outside the east wall.
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Tsar Cannon & Bell
North of the bell tower is the 40-tonne Tsar Cannon. It was cast in 1586 by the blacksmith Ivan Chokhov for Fyodor I, whose portrait is on the barrel. Shot has never sullied its 89cm bore - certainly not the cannonballs beside it, which are too big even for this elephantine firearm.
Showing 1-17 of 17 results
