Veliky Novgorod
Within the kremlin walls is this must-see museum that houses three strikingly comprehensive exhibitions covering the history of Veliky Novgorod, Russian…
Must-see attractions in Western European Russia
Cathedral of the Transfiguration of the Saviour
Western European Russia
The Unesco-protected, nonworking Cathedral of the Transfiguration of the Saviour is the highlight of the Mirozhsky Monastery. Its 12th-century frescos are…
Western European Russia
Dominating the skyline is this huge green-and-white working cathedral topped by five silver domes. A church has stood here since 1101; this one was built…
Veliky Novgorod
This is the oldest church in Russia (finished in 1050) and one of the country's oldest stone buildings. It's the kremlin's focal point and you couldn't…
Veliky Novgorod
On the west bank of the Volkhov River, and surrounded by a pleasant wooded park, the kremlin is one of Russia’s oldest. Originally called the Detinets …
Western European Russia
Russia’s most beloved poet, Alexander Pushkin, lived several years at his family estate, Mikhailovskoe, near the small town of Pushkinskie Gory …
Pskov National Museum of History, Architecture & Art
Western European Russia
As you can guess from its name, this museum, spread over several buildings, includes history and art exhibitions. The architecture bit comes from the…
Western European Russia
This late 19th-century estate is where Leo Tolstoy wrote War and Peace and Anna Karenina, as well being the place he was born, lived most of his life and…
Western European Russia
Tula has been a weapons manufacturing centre for centuries, a legacy celebrated at this fantastically kitted-out new building that houses an impressive…
Western European Russia
Designed by Konstantin Ton (1794–1881), the genius behind Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, the Kremlin Armoury and the Grand Kremlin Palace, this…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Western European Russia
Surrounded by beautiful countryside, Spasskoe-Lutovinovo, 65km north of Oryol, is the family estate of Ivan Turgenev (1818–83), where the 19th-century…
Western European Russia
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, illustrious artists and musicians, including Stravinsky, Chaliapin, Vrubel and Serov, visited Flyonovo, the…
Western European Russia
Making a circuit of the restored city walls, long sections of which boast fine towers reminiscent of the Moscow Kremlin, is a pleasant way to pass a warm…
Western European Russia
Founded in 1473, this monastery sits in a ravine full of hermits’ grottoes. With all the high ground outside, it’s an improbable stronghold, but several…
Veliky Novgorod
Vitoslavlitsy is an evocative open-air museum of 22 beautiful wooden peasant houses and churches, some dating back to the 16th century, and the highlight…
Veliky Novgorod
This gargantuan 16m-high, 100-tonne sculpture was unveiled in 1862 on the 1000th anniversary of the Varangian Prince Rurik’s arrival, a moment heralded as…
Western European Russia
Set over 50 hectares, photography buffs will love this huge, gorgeously creepy graveyard, with hundreds of telegenic tombstones slowly being devoured by…
Western European Russia
The ruins of this ancient stone fortress are among the oldest in Russia, and from its ridge location it overlooks a beautiful slice of countryside. Inside…
Western European Russia
Rising from a high narrow cape on the banks of the Velikaya River, Pskov's mighty kremlin (also known as the Krom) is the most complete portion of a…
Western European Russia
Pechory Monastery's eerie burial caves house some 10,000 bodies, bricked up in underground vaults. The only way to access the caves is on a tour led by…
Western European Russia
At the east end of this shady garden with fountains, an 1885 statue of the composer Glinka is surrounded by a fence with excerpts from his opera A Life…
Veliky Novgorod
Set amid peaceful marsh and lakelands a 15-minute bus ride south of the Veliky Novgorod town centre, the picturesque St George’s Monastery makes for a…
Western European Russia
That one of Europe's largest aquariums can be found in a shopping centre in a landlocked town synonymous with Black Earth may seem a little odd, but you…
Veliky Novgorod
Across a footbridge from the kremlin are the photogenic remnants of an 18th-century market arcade. Beyond that is the market gatehouse, an array of…
Western European Russia
This comprehensive museum covers WWII in the Smolensk area from the beginning of the war and occupation by the Nazis to the region's liberation. Displays …
Western European Russia
Unveiled in late 2016, Russia's first monument to the formidable 16th-century tsar, Ivan the Terrible, has caused plenty of controversy. Locals protested…
Veliky Novgorod
The belfry, with its enormous steel bells, has a small bell museum and an observation platform providing good photo opps of the Cathedral of St Sophia on…
Western European Russia
On the grounds of what once was Tver’s kremlin, this park has a fun fair (rides from R60) with a Ferris wheel and cafes, and often hosts live concerts on…
Western European Russia
A large, pleasant park perfect for strolling and watching locals cycling and rollerblading around. If you enter the park from pr Lenina, you'll see the…
Western European Russia
There’s a good collection of photos and other documents relating to the Nobel Prize–winning writer (no English captions, however), plus a 'Paris Room’…
Western European Russia
The southern end of ‘Peace Square’ is easily identified by its WWII tank memorial, one of the original involved in liberating Oryol from German occupation…
Veliky Novgorod
The 12th-century Kyiv-style St Nicholas Cathedral is all that remains of the early palace complex of the Novgorod princes, from which Yaroslav’s Court…
Western European Russia
This detailed museum covers military history through the years, including the Napoleonic War, Russian Civil War, WWI and WWII, as well as more recent…
Western European Russia
Flax production developed from the Middle Ages as one of Smolensk’s main industries, as the moderate climate sustained soil ideal for growing the plant…
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