Moscow
The Armoury dates to 1511, when it was founded under Vasily III to manufacture and store weapons, imperial arms and regalia for the royal court. Later it…
Moscow
The Armoury dates to 1511, when it was founded under Vasily III to manufacture and store weapons, imperial arms and regalia for the royal court. Later it…
Arbat & Khamovniki
This is Moscow’s premier foreign-art museum, split over three branches and showing off a broad selection of European works, including masterpieces from…
Moscow
At the southern end of Red Square stands the icon of Russia: St Basil’s Cathedral. This crazy confusion of colours, patterns and shapes is the culmination…
Moscow
The apex of Russian political power and once the centre of the Orthodox Church, the Kremlin is the kernel of not only Moscow, but of the whole country…
Moscow
Although Vladimir Ilych requested that he be buried beside his mum in St Petersburg, he still lies in state at the foot of the Kremlin wall, receiving…
Zamoskvorechie
Moscow's main city escape isn't your conventional expanse of nature preserved inside an urban jungle. It's not a fun fair either, though it used to be one…
Moscow
Immediately outside the Kremlin’s northeastern wall is the celebrated Red Square, the 400m-by-150m area of cobblestones that is at the very heart of…
State Tretyakov Gallery Main Branch
Zamoskvorechie
The exotic boyar (high-ranking noble) castle on a little lane in Zamoskvorechie contains the main branch of the State Tretyakov Gallery, housing the world…
Moscow
All the things that have improved Moscow parks no end in recent years fill this small, charming garden to the brim. Today, it is possibly the most…
Garage Museum of Contemporary Art
Zamoskvorechie
The brainchild of Moscow art fairy Darya Zhukova, Garage is one of the capital's hottest modern-art venues. In 2015, the museum moved to spectacular new…
19th & 20th Century Art Gallery
Arbat & Khamovniki
This branch of the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts contains a famed assemblage of French Impressionist works, based on the collections of two well-known…
Arbat & Khamovniki
The Novodevichy Convent was founded in 1524 to celebrate the taking of Smolensk from Lithuania, an important step in Moscow’s conquest of the old Kyivan…
Cathedral of Christ the Saviour
Arbat & Khamovniki
This opulent and grandiose cathedral was completed in 1997 – just in time to celebrate Moscow's 850th birthday. The cathedral’s sheer size and splendour…
Presnya
Author of The Master and Margarita and Heart of a Dog, Mikhail Bulgakov was a Soviet-era novelist who was labelled a counter-revolutionary and censored…
Presnya
The planetarium has become one of the biggest and brightest stars on the Moscow museum circuit, now incorporating all kinds of high-tech gadgetry,…
Arbat & Khamovniki
The Great Patriotic War – as WWII is known in Russia – was a momentous event that is still vivid in the hearts, minds and memories of many Russian…
Winzavod Center for Contemporary Art
Meshchansky & Basmanny
Formerly a wine-bottling factory, this facility was converted into exhibit and studio space for Moscow artists in 2007. The post-industrial complex is now…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Moscow
Palaces for workers! There is no better place to see this Soviet slogan put into practice than at VDNKh, which stands for Exhibition of Achievements of…
Moscow
The Archangel Cathedral at the southeastern corner of Sobornaya pl was for centuries the coronation, wedding and burial church of tsars. It was built by…
Meshchansky & Basmanny
Easily the most feared edifice in Russia, looming on the northeastern side of Lubyanskaya pl is the brain centre behind Stalin's genocidal purges and the…
Moscow
The Annunciation Cathedral, at the southwest corner of Sobornaya pl, contains impressive murals in the gallery and an archaeology exhibit in the basement…
Moscow
The entire battlefield – more than 100 sq km – is now part of the Borodino Field Museum-Preserve, its vast fields dotted with dozens of memorials to…
Meshchansky & Basmanny
Changed beyond recognition in recent years, Sokolniki park is criss-crossed by cycling paths, and blends into a proper forest bordering on Losiny Ostrov…
Zamoskvorechie
Moscow's youngest monastery, Donskoy was founded in 1591 as the home of the Virgin of the Don icon, now in the Tretyakov Gallery. This icon is credited…
Moscow
Moscow's first new park in 50 years, Zaryadye was inaugurated in 2017 and occupies a prominent site along the Moscow River, wedged into historic Kitay…
Presnya
The model for Le Corbusier’s Unité d’Habitation design principle, this architectural landmark was an early experiment in semicommunal living. Designed…
Arbat & Khamovniki
Head to the hills south of the city for one of the best views of Moscow. From the square in front of Moscow State University, most of the city spreads out…
Moscow
This glass-dome pavilion was the first element of Park Zaryadye to open to the public. A creation of Sergei Kuznetsov, the pavilion was designed as an …
Arbat & Khamovniki
Adjacent to the Novodevichy Convent, the Novodevichy Cemetery is one of Moscow’s most prestigious resting places – a veritable who’s who of Russian…
Moscow
A pet project of the ubiquitous artist Zurab Tsereteli, this museum is housed in a classical 18th-century merchant’s home, originally designed by Matvei…
Museum of Decorative & Folk Art
Moscow
Just beyond the Garden Ring, this museum showcases centuries-old arts-and-crafts traditions from around Russia and the former Soviet republics. Of the 40…