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Old English House
This reconstructed 16th-century house, white with peaked wooden roofs, was the residence of England's first emissaries to Russia (sent by Elizabeth I to Ivan the Terrible). It also served as the base for English merchants, who were allowed to trade duty free in exchange for providing military supplies to Ivan. Ironically, this museum has no signs or descriptions in English.
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Old Fields
Along Teatralny proezd, archaeologists uncovered the 16th-century fortified wall that used to surround Kitai Gorod, as well as the foundations of the 1493 Trinity Church. Coins, jewellery and tombstones were also excavated from the site, which is called Starye Polya , or `old fields'. Besides the remains of the wall and the church, you can now see the memorial statue of Ivan Fyodorov, the 16th-century printer responsible for Russia's first book.
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Ostrovsky Estate-Museum
Aleksandr Ostrovsky is the 19th-century playwright who is often considered the greatest Russian realist writer. This museum is devoted to his life and work: to the Maly Theatre, which he founded and to Zamoskvorechie, where he lived and loved. Some of the writer's personal effects are on display. More intriguing are the paintings and engravings of old Moscow, which featured so prominently in Ostrovsky's work.
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Patriarch's Palace
This palace was mostly built in the mid-17th century for Patriarch Nikon, whose reforms sparked the break with the Old Believers. The palace contains an exhibit of 17th-century household items, including jewellery, hunting equipment and furniture. From here you can access the five-domed Church of the Twelve Apostles, which has a gilded, wooden iconostasis and a collection of icons by the leading 17th-century icon painters.
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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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Polytechnical Museum
Occupying the entire block of Novaya ploshchad, this giant museum covers the history of Russian science, technology and industry. Indeed, the museum claims to be the largest science museum, not only in Russia, but also in the world. The permanent exhibits cover just about every aspect of Soviet scientific achievement, from a model of Lomonosov's laboratory to Mendeleev's development of the periodic table to Popov's first radio receiver.
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Pushkin Fine Arts Museum
Moscow's premier foreign art museum is a short distance from the southwestern corner of the Kremlin. The Pushkin Fine Arts Museum is famous for its impressionist and postimpressionist paintings, but also has a broad selection of European works from the Renaissance onward, mostly appropriated from private collections after the revolution. There are also interesting temporary exhibits on regular display.
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Pushkin House-Museum
After Aleksandr Pushkin married Natalya Gonchareva at the nearby Church of the Grand Ascension, they moved to this charming blue house on the old Arbat. The museum provides some insight into the couple's home life - a source of much Russian romanticism. (The lovebirds are also featured in a statue across the street.)
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Pushkin Literary Museum
Housed in a beautiful empire-style mansion dating from 1816, this museum is devoted to Russia's favourite poet's life and work. Personal effects, family portraits, (mostly) reproductions of notes and hand-written poetry provide insight into the work of the beloved bard. The elegant interior re-creates a fancy 19th-century atmosphere, especially the grand ballroom, decorated with mirrors, sconces, chandeliers and heavy drapes.
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Pushkinskaya pl
On Pushkinskaya pl, there's the huge Alexander Pushkin Statue, a monument to Russia's national poet, behind which is the gaudy Rossiya cinema and casino complex. Another item of note on the square is Russia's first McDonald's, which saw lines stretching around the square when it opened in 1990. To this day it has the dubious honour of being the biggest McDonald's branch in the world, seating 700 burger munchers at any one time.
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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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Rerikh Museum
Nikolay Rerikh (known internationally as Nicholas Roerich) was a Russian artist of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, whose fantastical artwork is characterised by rich, bold colours, primitive style and mystical themes. This museum, founded by the artist's son Sergei, includes work by father and son, as well as other family heirlooms and personal items.
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Romanov Chambers In Zaryadie
This small but interesting museum is devoted to the lives of the Romanov family, who were mere boyars (nobles) before they became tsars. The house was built by Nikita Romanov, whose grandson Mikhail later became the first tsar of the 300-year Romanov dynasty. Exhibits (with descriptions in English) show the house as it might have been when the Romanovs lived here in the 16th century. Some of the artistic detail - such as the woodwork in the women's quarters - is amazing. Enter from the back.
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Rublyov Museum Of Early Russian Culture And Art
On the grounds of the former Andronikov Monastery, the Rublyov Museum exhibits icons from the days of yore and from the present. Unfortunately, it does not include any work by its namesake artist. It is still worthwhile, not the least for its romantic location. Andrey Rublyov, the master of icon painting, was a monk here in the 15th century; he's buried in the grounds, but no-one knows quite where.
Read more about Rublyov Museum Of Early Russian Culture And Art
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Russian Academy Of Art
Next door to the Tsereteli Gallery, the Russian Academy of Art hosts rotating exhibits in the historic 19th century mansion of the Morozov estate. Despite the institutional-sounding name, this is part of the Tsereteli empire. But it still puts on inspiring and varied shows featuring mostly contemporary Russian and foreign artists.
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Sakharov Museum
Southeast of Chistye Prudy, not far from Kursk Station, is a two-storey house in a small park, containing the Andrei Sakharov Museum. Its displays cover the life of Sakharov, the nuclear-physicist-turned-human-rights advocate, detailing the years of repression in Russia and providing a history of the dissident movement. Temporary expositions cover current human-rights issues. There are signs in English. Watch for a piece of genuine Berlin Wall in front of the building.
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Sandunovskiye Baths
The Sandunovskiye Baths, in the city centre's northern winding streets, is Moscow's most famous bathhouse. The fading but grand 19th-century baths are a mixture of sauna and social club, with sexes strictly segregated. For hours you can move between steam rooms and pools, interspersed with massages and twig whippings.
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Sculpture Park
Behind and beside the New Tretyakov, the wonderful, moody Sculpture Park is Moscow's most atmospheric spot to indulge in some Soviet nostalgia. Formerly called the Park of the Fallen Heroes, it started as a collection of Soviet statues (Stalin, Dzerzhinsky, a selection of Lenins and Brezhnevs) put out to pasture when they were ripped from their pedestals in the post-1991 wave of anti-Soviet feeling.
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Shalyapin House-Museum
The world-famous operatic singer, Fyodor Shalyapin, lived in this quaint cottage from 1910 to 1920 with his Italian wife and five children. In Russian cultural life, the eminent bass stands alongside icons like Konstantin Stanislavsky and Maksim Gorky. Indeed, his stature is evident from the museum exhibit, which features photographs of the singer in such admirable company, as well as gifts and correspondence that they exchanged.
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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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State History Museum
The State History Museum is the stunningly ornate red building at the northern end of the square. It has an enormous collection covering the whole of Russian history from the Stone Age on, and has been continually refurbishing its galleries since the 1990s. A joint ticket for the museum and St Basil's Cathedral saves a few roubles at around Rbl230 .
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Synod Printing House
This is where Ivan Fyodorov reputedly produced Russia's first printed book, The Apostle , in 1563. (You can see the man himself at Old Fields). Over a century later, in 1703, the first Russian newspaper Vedomosti was also printed here. Up until the early 19th century, Kitai Gorod was something of a printing centre, home to 26 out of Moscow's 31 bookshops at the time.
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Terem Palace
The 16th- and 17th-century Terem Palace is the most splendid of the Kremlin palaces. A stone palace built by Vasily III, the living quarters include a dining room, living room, study, bedroom and small chapel. Unfortunately, the palace is closed to the public, but you can glimpse its cluster of 11 golden domes and chequered roof behind and above the Church of the Deposition of the Robe.
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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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Tolstoy Estate-Museum
Leo Tolstoy's winter home during the 1880s and 1890s now houses an interesting museum dedicated to the writer's home life. While it's not particularly big or opulent, it is fitting for junior nobility - which Tolstoy was. Exhibits demonstrate how Tolstoy lived, as opposed to his literary influences, which are explored at the Tolstoy Literary Museum. See the salon where Rakhmaninov and Rimsky-Korsakov played piano, and the study where Tolstoy himself wove his epic tales.
