Moscow Sights

  1. Tolstoy Literary Museum

    Opposite the Pushkin Literary Museum, the counterpart Tolstoy Literary Museum claims to be the oldest literary memorial museum in the world (founded in 1911). In addition to the impressive reference library, the museum contains exhibits of manuscripts, letters, and artwork focusing on Leo Tolstoy's literary influences and output. Family photographs, personal correspondence and artwork from the author's era all provide influence into his work.

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  2. Tretyakov Gallery

    Tretyakov Gallery is just spectacular, with the world's best collection of Russian icons and a stash of other pre-revolutionary Russian art, especially the 19th-century Peredvizhniki. The collection is based on that of 19th-century industrialist brothers Pavel and Sergey Tretyakov; Pavel was a Peredvizhniki patron.

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  3. 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.

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  4. Tsaritsino Palace

    On a wooded hill in far southeast Moscow, Tsaritsino Palace is the eerie shell of the exotic summer home that Catherine the Great began in 1775 but never finished. She allowed architect Vasily Bazhenov to work for 10 years before sacked him; apparently he had included a twin palace for her out-of-favour son Paul. She hired another architect, Matvey Kazakov, but eventually gave up altogether as money was diverted to wars against Turkey. What stands is mostly Bazhenov's fantasy combination of old Russian, Gothic, classical and Arabic styles.

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  5. Tsereteli Gallery

    Housed in the 18th-century Dolgoruky mansion, this is the latest endeavour of the tireless Zurab Tsereteli. The gallery shows how prolific this guy is. The rooms are filled with his often over-the-top sculpture and primitive paintings. If you don't want to spend the time or money exploring the gallery, just pop into the Artist Gallery cafe, which is an exhibit in and of itself.

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  6. Tverskaya ul

    Moscow's main avenue, elegant Tverskaya ul, replete with fashionable shops and costly cafés and restaurants, meanders uphill from Red Sq and continues pretty much in a straight line all the way to St Petersburg. There are also the lovely pedestrianised side streets of Kamergersky per and Stoleshnikov per to walk down.

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  7. ul Varvarka

    Look out for the small churches along ul Varvarka, incongruously surrounded by general concrete sprawl. There is the 17th-century Monastery of the Sign, the Church of St Maxim the Blessed (1698) and St Barbara's Church (1795-1804). While the horrendous Hotel Rossiya has been demolished now, Sir Norman Foster is slated to build Europe's tallest skyscraper on the site, to be completed in 2011.

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  8. Upper St Peter Monastery

    The Upper St Peter Monastery was founded in the 1380s, part of an early defensive ring around Moscow. The grounds are pleasant in a peaceful, near-deserted way. The main onion-domed Virgin of Bogolyubovo Church dates from the late 17th century. The loveliest structure is the brick Cathedral of Metropolitan Pyotr in the middle of the grounds, restored with a shingle roof. (When Peter the Great ousted the Regent Sofia in 1690, his mother was so pleased she built him this church.)

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  9. White House

    Moscow's White House, scene of two crucial episodes in recent Russian history, stands just north of Kalininsky Most, a short walk west of the US embassy.

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  10. Yelokhovsky Cathedral

    Spartakovskaya ulitsa is the unlikely address of Moscow's senior Orthodox cathedral. This role was given to the Church of the Epiphany in Yelokhovo in 1943. (The Patriarch had been evicted from the Kremlin's Assumption Cathedral in 1918.) The Patriarch leads important services here today.

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  12. Zaikonospassky Monastery

    This monastery was founded by Boris Godunov in 1600, although the church was built in 1660. The name means 'behind the icon stall', a reference to the busy icon trade which took place here. On the orders of Tsar Alexei, the Likhud brothers, scholars of Greek, opened the Slavonic Greek and Latin Academy on the monastery premises in 1866. (Mikhail Lomonosov was a student here.) The school later became a divinity school, and was transferred to the Trinity Monastery of St Sergius in 1814.

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