Monuments to visit Russia

An indispensable walk among the 7 Stalinist sisters. It took Serguei Tchernychov and Lev Roudnev almost 4 years to complete in 1953 this 240 m high Stalinist building, which was (inevitably) raised by the Soviet star. Its architecture, in the shape of a cross, is perfectly symmetrical. The building houses the Lomonosov Moscow State University, where lectures are given in its amphitheatres and nearly 6,000 students are housed. To be admitted to this university is to belong to the cream of the crop of students in the Russian Federation, since Lomonossov is at the top of all university rankings in the country. The interior is a veritable anthill, a city within the city, with all the necessary facilities to satisfy the needs of its students: there is a post office, a swimming pool, sports halls, several canteens, a few associations, paper mills, etc. The administration is located on the upper floors, while the rooms are in the lower parts.

Visitors are not normally allowed to enter. However, it is strongly recommended that you go and have a look around. You will then have to go through the guards' nose and beard. Try to pretend to be a student in the middle of the crowd: don't smile and pass without stopping. Or take advantage of one of the many conferences that are held on a regular basis. Avoid Sundays when part of the compound is closed.

The west side of the Mendeleevskaya linia includes one of the oldest monuments on the island and the largest Baroque building in the city, the Twelve Colleges. With its 400 m long façade, its sienna red colour and its white pilasters, it is easily recognizable. It was to house the 12 identical ministries of three levels (called Colleges) founded by Peter the Great. Built between 1722 and 1742 by the Swiss-Italian architect Domenico Trezzini (who also designed the Peter and Paul Fortress, the Peter and Paul Cathedral and the Summer Palace), this building was to correspond to the modern idea of bureaucracy as conceived by Peter the Great. It also attests to the Tsar's desire to make Vasilyevsky Island the great administrative district of the new imperial capital. It therefore hosted Russia's highest authorities for much of the 18th century. The separate doors between the twelve colleges indicated their autonomy, while their common facade indicated their common purpose. In 1819, these buildings were assigned to the university, and it was here that Mendeleyev set up his Periodic Table of the Elements and Pavlov experimented with conditioned reflexes.

A rather tedious official authorization is required to visit the premises, so you will certainly have to be content to admire the building from the outside. Contact a local agency in advance to arrange a visit.

Krestovskiy Island (just north of Petrogradskiy Island, to which it is connected by two bridges) is home to the most modern stadium in Russia. A new arena for Russia's most powerful club, Zenit St. Petersburg, owned by the giant Gazprom, this ultra-modern sports arena was one of the flagship stadiums for the 2018 Football World Cup (including the France-Belgium semi-final on 10 July). 69,500 seats facing the Gulf of Finland and a spaceship design fantasized by Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa.

The Ivan the Great bell tower is hard to ignore. It is enthroned, royal, in the middle of the Kremlin. Following the Italian tradition of its architects, it is a campanile, detached from the church on which it depends. At 81 m high, it was for a long time the highest point of the capital, as the tsars forbade building any higher. This makes it an ideal panoramic point to see the old city from above. The ground floor has been converted into an exhibition hall. Among its bells, the Assumption bell (64 t) has rung three times for centuries to announce the death of a tsar.

This gigantic cannon located on the Ivanovskaya square was ordered in 1586 by Fyodor I who had his effigy engraved on it. Whatever the czar wanted to compensate, he would not find any more success in this undertaking since this cannon never fired a single cannonball. Moreover, those exposed at its side weigh a ton and are slightly too big to fit in its barrel: the legend tells that it was an initiative of the founders of Saint Petersburg to make fun of Moscow. According to the Guinness Book of Records, it is the largest howitzer ever built.

The incredible bunker that Stalin had built during the Second World War to house the government can be visited. Getting there is a real obstacle course, which only adds to the mystery of the place: it is only open 3 hours a day, and you have to register by phone to get in (ask a Russian speaker for help!) But don't let the difficulty put you off: it is one of the most important places in Soviet history, not to be missed!

Built in 1900-1908, this 25 m high tower is the city's visiting card. In 1978, a solar dial was added. Adjacent to this one, a new art nouveau style public bath (city symbols, these two buildings were even represented on Soviet stamps).

A geologist, he wrote books about the mineral riches of Western Siberia and the Kuzbass.

Exiled Décembriste in Tomsk. Originally from Tobolsk, he participated in the war in 1812.

The white palace now houses administrative buildings, archives and library. Its lines are elegant, but its reputation does not match that of the «beautiful palace».

Patriarch Nikon, famous for his reforms of the Orthodox Church in the 17th century, had this palace and the attached Church of the Twelve Apostles built between 1652 and 1656. Their beauty will amaze you even before you set foot on the Cathedral Square. Today, the palace houses the Museum of Applied Arts of the 17th century with the reconstructed apartment of a boyar, a powerful nobleman of the Tsarist Russia. In the church, the iconographic history of the Russian school of the same period is presented.

Built between 1487 and 1491 by Italian architects Marco Rouffo and Pietro Antonio Solari, the palace is the oldest public building in the Kremlin. It owes its name to its east side facade, with white limestone bosses. Its huge central hall, called the Golden Hall, is decorated with religious paintings mixed with scenes of both history and everyday life: today it is used for official presidential ceremonies. Restored in 2012, the Palace of Facets can be visited only with organized groups.

At the end of the inner courtyard of the great Kremlin palace and adjacent to the Faceted palace, there is the surprising Terem Palace commissioned by Tsar Michael I Feodorovich. Here you can visit a succession of intimate rooms (terams are small rooms), inspired by the traditional Russian wooden isba, including the golden room of the Tsarina, with painted ceilings and period furniture. The window in the center was called Chelobitnaya (of the Supplication): a box driven by a pulley was supposed to transmit the people's supplications to the tsar.

It is the red palace, or the beautiful palace, since both adjectives translate into the same word in Russian. Preceded by a beautiful neoclassic pavilion of entry, it houses the great dining hall: It was the residence of princes when, on travel, they were taking steps at Rostov. Tsar Alexis, in particular, father of Pierre the Great, made numerous stopovers here. Note, the beautiful weather, one of which is a panther, emblem of the Romanov dynasty, the other a deer, symbol of the city of Rostov.

As you leave the metro station that bears his name, you will notice this imposing building with a statue of the writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky in front of it. This is one of the most important libraries in the world, with a collection of 17.5 million volumes on more than 275 kilometres of shelves.

The library was founded on July^1, 1862, as the first free library open to the public, under the name of the Moscow Public Museum and Rumyantsev Museum Library. From 1925 to 1991, it became the V.I. Lenin State Library of the USSR, hence its nickname, which you can still hear frequently used: Leninka. It was not until 1992 that it received its current name.

Since 1922, everything that has been, is and will be published in Russia has been housed here, and today it has a very rich collection of rare archives. The wooded reading rooms in the grand style of the USSR are worth a visit, but it is a laborious process that requires the creation of a reader's card (free, with an ID). There is also a small book museum. For those who wish to work there, the library is equipped with a high-end wifi. Please keep a religious silence though, the library staff are fierce and very responsive. In a city where most libraries are empty, this one is an exception and is loved by the public.

The three-storey building painted in yellow was the home of metropolitan. The three floors were built at different times: th, th, th.

Not far from the Kremlin is a very... peculiar mansion that never tires of making Muscovites talk. Nicknamed the Moorish Palace, this strange creation by architect Victor Mazyrin has a decidedly Art Nouveau style. Its elaborate turrets, twisted columns, sculpted balconies and its facade decorated with shells give the ensemble the strange impression of seeing the dream of the Facteur Cheval and his own palace, the "Ideal Palace", come true. Do not hesitate to visit it when you are in the city centre.

Troitskaya Tower is the tallest of its sisters, rising 80 meters above the ground. Its name is inherited from the fact that it once overlooked a suburb of the capital that surrounded the monastery of the Trinity-St. Sergius. The tower itself is built on eight levels, two of which are in the basement, once used as a prison, topped by a ruby-coloured star: a lost symbol of the Soviet era. Its door led to the Patriarch's palace and was the entrance used by the tsars.

Don't be fooled by the innocuous appearance and colorful walls of this large building occupying the northwestern part of the square. It has been the home of the Ministry of State Security since 1919, even before the present building was constructed in 1946. The place has seen the Cheka, the Guepeu, the NKVD, the KGB and now the FSB, all of them feared by the Russians.

During the years of mass political repression, suspects of anti-Soviet crimes were taken there and their fate was decided in the basement. Suspects were interned for the duration of their "trial" before being transferred or shot. Everything was calculated: identical rooms and cells prevented the prisoners from finding their way around. The walls of the cells are separated by a void, prohibiting communication in Morse code. However, the Lubyanka inner prison was closed in 1961, in the middle of the Cold War. Its last prisoner was the American spy Harry Francis Powers.

In August 1991, the statue of Dzerzhinsky (the founder of the Cheka), which stood on the square, was dismantled (now in Muzeon Park among the fallen comrades) and the square was given its old name, Lubyanskaya. Traditionally, the largest Christmas tree in the country is placed there. Also in 1991, thanks to the efforts of NGOs (including Memorial, closed in 2021 by the regime), a monument to the victims of the gulags was installed on the square: it is a simple stone from the Solovki Islands, the site of the first camp.

We have already told you a lot about ""Moscow the White City"", a nickname given to the capital because of its white stone walls marking the border of the capital. Here you have what remains of it. Indeed, these fortifications built at the end of the 16th century were demolished in 1780 (at the time of Catherine II) and replaced by the ring of French-style boulevards that you know today. The whole complex was unearthed by a team of workmen digging the foundations of a shopping centre. In front of the find, the work was interrupted and a legal battle ensued that lasted more than 10 years between the real estate developers and the Moscow City Hall. Finally, as the 2018 football World Cup approached, the court ruled and an open-air amphitheatre was finally built, facing the fragment of the protected wall. This place immediately became very popular among Muscovites, especially among hipsters and youth who renamed it "Yama" and even created a dedicated Instagram page! The reasons for this infatuation vary: for some it is a beautiful place to hang out and drink (illegally) in summer, for others it is a good place for shows and concerts that are regularly organized there, and for others Yama is a symbol of the changes in the capital, of the city's revaluation of its heritage and of a revenge on the omnipresent trade since the 1990s.

One of the most remarkable bridges over the Fontanka dates from the 18th century (1787) and has retained its original appearance, with its four Doric turrets in particular, the Lomonossov Bridge (Most Lomonossova), faces the square and is extended on both sides by the eponymous street. It is the best preserved of the city's turret lift bridges. Originally called the Chernyshev Bridge, it was renamed in 1948 in honour of the great man of science and founder of Moscow University.

It is perhaps the most famous and most photographed bridge in the neighborhood! It was born on a royal road, since the Anitchkov Bridge extends the Nevsky perspective by making it span the Fontanka (the left arm of the Neva). Built in 1850, it is famous and has a very proud appearance thanks to its four equestrian statues by Piotr Klodt, Nicholas I's favourite sculptor. It is named after Anitchkov, who had built the very first bridge at the same place in 1715.

One of the largest and most beautiful bridges in the city connects Petrogradskaya Island and the Champ-de-Mars to the city centre. Spanning the Neva since 1903, the Troïtsky Bridge is worth a visit if only for the incomparable view of the city you will discover there. On one side, the Summer Garden, the St. Petersburg Hotel, Petrovskaya Quay, on the other - the Peter and Paul Fortress, the tip of Vasilyevsky Island, the Dvortsovaya Quay bordered by the succession of wings of the Hermitage.

This Soviet dacha is perfectly preserved in its original form with its complete collection of furniture, utensils, decorative and leisure objects from the Soviet period. One can enjoy tea prepared in a real samovar (whose water boiled with wood embers instils such a particular and appreciable taste), Ivan chai and Russian cakes. The owner of the place also gives master classes in the preparation of borstch or pelmenis. We highly recommend this excellent getaway for an immersion in local life.

You are in front of one of the buildings in Moscow that tourists most often take pictures of. This is quite understandable, considering its (too?) extravagant architecture. This small mansion resembling a Fabergé egg was built in 2002 by Sergey Tkatsjenko. Initially this project was intended to be built at the turn of the ^2nd millennium in Bethlehem to house a birthing centre, hence its egg shape... which makes it an even more dubious choice. Anyway you can always follow this photographic trend.

This museum retraces in miniature the history of the city in an interactive tour. Many of the scenes are triggered by pressing a button (dance of the favourites, cooking a wild boar on a spit, etc.). Thanks to the archives in its possession, the museum recreates streets, old houses and palaces that have disappeared. The model is equipped with a nocturnal phase system: at nightfall, it is an enchantment to see the lights glowing inside the houses and in the streets.

Founded in 1760, this pharmacy is the oldest in the city. It owes its reputation and aura to the famous Dr. Poehl and his sons. As early as 1871, it was the official pharmacy of the imperial court. Dr. Poehl's heir, his son Alexander, is famous for the introduction of dosed tablets and the invention of an ampoule for dosing and storing sterile injectable solutions. Located on the ground floor of a private medical centre, this venerable house served as a pharmacy until 2019, when it was converted into a pharmacopoeia museum. The period furniture has remained (or has been recreated identically following the terrible fire of 2005). Medical and laboratory utensils, copper, brass and woodwork, and even a stuffed crocodile (once the local symbol of pharmacies) can be seen. The good doctor's telephone is still there as well as a genuine National cash register that still works. We are greeted by guides dressed in white lab coats. Alas! the visit in French or English is not yet available, but you can still explore this small museum on a self-guided tour if you are not Russian-speaking. In the courtyard of the building remains the old chimney of the brick oven of the Doctor's laboratory covered with figures up to its ridge. The urban legend says that Poehl was an alchemist, that he succeeded in creating griffins (creatures half eagle, half lion) that would still fly over the city at night. Another legend says that the Doctor worked on turning mercury into gold while finding the Philosopher's Stone. Some of these legends were inspired by an enigmatic and offbeat artist who lived in the building during the 1990s, Sergei Kostroma. He is notably responsible for the mysterious figures on the tower, which was overhung by a giant egg in a false cardboard nest until the 2000s. The installation was called the "Egg Monument". It was a double homage to Workers' Solidarity Day (May ^1st) and Orthodox Easter. The installation of the egg on the chimney symbolized the union of workers, artists and religious figures. And the numbering of the bricks on the Tower is a reference to the pharmacist who patiently drew up his inventory by putting numbers on his drugs and preparations in his official register.

With its statues of Athena and Hermès, it mimics the Italian Renaissance palaces.

On the right of the Église church, there is a part of the monastery belonging to the seminar, which can only be entered with a special invitation. This part also includes a church and the Academy of Theology.

Tsnetrosoyuz is absolutely massive and immediately imposes its presence in its street. It is difficult to describe this building which combines roundness and large straight facades, concrete, paint, an impression of great modernity and at the same time unfinished. It is the only building in Moscow (and in Russia) by the famous Le Corbusier. Commissioned at the end of the 1920s to be an office building, it now houses part of the Federal Finance Service and Rosstat, the statistical agency. Visits are not organized there.

Built in the 18th century, this building reflecting the neo-classical spirit is the heart of the Kremlin complex. Its triangular architecture with a central rotunda is quite surprising. During the whole Soviet period it housed the government. Lenin's office and his apartment were located on the top floor. The Supreme Command of the Red Army under Stalin was based there during the Second World War. Since 1991 it is the official seat of the President, visible during televised speeches.

This beautiful classical building was built between 1764 and 1788, during the reign of Catherine II. The Academy trained state-commissioned artists and censored works deemed subversive. The children entered at the age of 6 and graduated at the age of 21, looking for a rich patron of the arts. The collection of some 600 copies of a rare delicacy of masterpieces of sculpture, painting and drawing alone is worth a small visit. We will also see the studio of Taras Shevchenko, the famous Ukrainian poet, who worked here during the last years of his life. The work of today's students is exhibited each year in September in the large parade hall. The Academy also administers several museums in the city:

Museum-apartment of the painter Isaac Brodsky. Ploschad' iskusstv, 3. open from Wednesday to Sunday from noon to 7 pm (300 RUB)

Museum-ownership Les Pénates d'Ilya Repine. Poselok repina, Primorskoe shosse, 411. Open Wednesday to Sunday from 10.30am to 5pm in summer and 10.30am to 4pm in winter, from 15 September to 15 May (350 RUB).

Chistyakov House-Museum. Moskovskoye shosse, 23. open Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday from 10 to 17h (150 RUB).

Museum-Apartment of Arkhip Kuindzhi. Birzhevoy pereulok, 1/10, app. 11. open on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from noon to 5 p.m., cash desks close 30 minutes before (150 RUB).

The memorial workshop of T. G. Shevchenko. Naberezhnaya University 17. (150 RUB)

This is where it all began for St. Petersburg. Indeed, it was from this initial "palace", near the Neva River, that Peter the Great liked to direct the construction of his capital. Built in 1703, the Peter's House is quite simply the first and oldest building in the imperial capital. Today, the Dutch-style wooden house, with its small garden, is protected by a stone wall. The rusticity of the place recalls a particular trait of the character: its simplicity. Pierre did not like pomp, and many foreign sailors were aghast to learn that the man in the holed-up shirt who had just offered them a drink was none other than the tsar. Some of the great ruler's personal belongings are on display inside, including his boxwood pipe (a gift from his great friend Menchikov), simple clothes and his cane covered with skate skin. A place full of symbols that the Peter's House, which saw the birth of Saint Petersburg, is full of... This humble building was therefore the first summer palace of Peter the Great, who spent the summer of 1703 there, monitoring the progress of the vast construction site next to the Peter and Paul Fortress. The very first imperial residence of the new capital, simply named Maisonnette de Pierre, was this wooden shed, whose construction, entrusted to soldiers on May 16, 1703, took just three days. One thus goes there as if on a pilgrimage in the footsteps of the creator of the city.

This palace designed by the architect Ivan Starov in 1783 was built for one of Catherine II's many lovers, Grigori Potemkin, Prince of Tauride (the name given to the Crimea). It is one of the largest palaces in the city. After Potemkin's death, the palace became state property and was transformed into barracks. Restored at the beginning of the 20th century, it hosted the Duma as well as meetings of the provisional government and the first Council of Soviets. Today, the Palace is the seat of the non-parliamentary Assembly of Independent States. The simplicity of its façades contrasts with the splendour of its adjoining salons, perpendicular to the central façade. A rotunda decorated with mouldings leads to the White Hall. This large reception hall, the first in the history of Russian architecture to have white columns, was to become a model for many palaces and properties of the nobility. In the 18th century, a winter garden, located behind the colonnade of this room, overlooked the park. Some rooms, such as the painting gallery, the Chinese salon or the Gobelins room, have retained their original decor.

The charming garden of Tauride's palace, once adorned with a statue of Venus, was the scene of grandiose celebrations in honour of Catherine II. You can still see an artificial pond, canals with footbridges, hills and exotic plants. We advise you to organize a guided tour of the site via a French-speaking agency.

One of the city's most mystical buildings is located a stone's throw from the Chernishevskaya metro station. It is called "Yegipetskiy dom", or the "Egyptian House", by the people of St. Petersburg. Built in modern Russian style between 1911 and 1913, it is richly decorated with Masonic and Egyptian signs, symbols of the god Ra, multiple faces of the goddess of love Hathor, as well as two statues of Ra himself who guard the main entrance of the building. Despite its mysterious appearance, the story of the creation of this building is more prosaic. The wife of State Councillor Nezhinsky placed an order for an apartment building with the Polish architect Mikhail Sogailo, with the aim that its aesthetics should be totally unusual and never seen before. Sogailo certainly took this brief to the letter and probably went beyond the expectations of his extremely wealthy and eccentric client. Being deeply versed in mysticism, occultism and Freemasonry, his inclinations for these fields marked his creation with an unexpected impact. Rich in many details, frescoes of Egyptian pastoral and agrarian life, impassive gods, discs covered with hieroglyphs and strange signs, pilasters and columns carved on the facade where the Art Nouveau motifs join those of Ancient Egypt ... The result astonished the whole city. Perfectly preserved since its creation, it continues today to intrigue both locals and passing tourists.

You won't miss seeing this monumental statue if you walk along the banks of the Moskva River. 98 meters high (it is currently the 7th tallest statue in the world), rivaling the skyscrapers, it represents a sovereign (theoretically a Tsar) in armour, document in hand and at the helm of a ship with its sails folded. Officially, the statue is that of Tsar Peter the Great, dedicated to the 300th anniversary of the Russian fleet. Unofficially, it is just a huge recycling of a work of the Georgian artist close to the power Zurab Tsereteli.

The statue was originally designed to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the discovery of the Americas in 1492 and represented Christopher Columbus. It was later to be hosted by a city on the New Continent, but following repeated refusals from the United States, Spain and Latin America, the head of Peter the Great replaced that of Columbus and the statue was moved to Moscow. Needless to say, this gigantic monument is little appreciated by the inhabitants who call it the "Monster of Moscow" and make it a symbol of the corruption, lack of taste and impunity of the economic and political elites of the post-Soviet years. To wash away the affront, an extremist group even tried to blow up the monument - without success! Ironically, Peter the Great hated Moscow and would probably not have liked this tribute either.