The best museums Central & Golden Ring

The Tretyakov Gallery is the Russian art museum with the richest collection of its works. Under the direction of Zelfira Tregulova in office since 2015, it shapes the artistic and museographic life of the country. A must-see for any visit to Moscow!

Its historic building houses art from the 11th to the early 20th century. The façade is reminiscent of a fairy tale and was built between 1902 and 1904. The entrance to the museum is dominated by a statue of its founder, Pavel Tretyakov, a wealthy patron who assembled a private collection with the aim of opening it to the public (this was done in 1873, before giving it to the City in 1892). Among the best-known works in the museum are Alexander Ivanov'sApparition of Christ to the People (in room 10), Constantin Favitsky's Princess Tarakanova (room 16), Valentin Serov's Young Peach Girl (room 41), Ilia Repin's Ivan Terrible Kills his Son (room 30) and Mikhail Vrubel's Demons (room 33). In addition, the museum has a rich collection of Orthodox icons, including the Trinity by Andrei Rublev.

Visit. The rooms of the museum are numbered in chronological order. To better orient yourself in the gallery, use the audio guide in foreign languages (500 RUB) or a guide in French which can be booked in advance for a price starting at 8 000 RUB. If you keep your tickets, you can move freely between the exhibition halls, the cafeteria and the toilets. The combined ticket with the New Tretyakov Gallery costs 700 RUB.

Modern Russia takes great national pride in its space program initiated under the USSR by Sergei Korolev in 1956. It is rather justified, considering that the country is still the second space power in the world and that the Russians boast of having placed in orbit the first artificial satellite (Sputnik 1 in 1957), the first man in orbit (Yuri Gagarin in 1961), of having taken the first picture of the dark side of the Moon, and even of having organized the first extra-vehicular spacewalk (Alexei Leonov in 1965)

That's why the Astronautical Museum is located at the foot of the magnificent Monument of the Conquerors of Space erected in 1964 in honor of the Russian pioneers with its stylized trail of fire and gas and its rocket which culminates at 110 m. The museum itself, built in 1981 and renovated in 2009, has 8 exhibition halls with a huge collection of period pieces, moving testimonies of the first steps in the conquest of space, etc. There are exceptional artifacts such as Gagarin's personal belongings and items ranging from the priceless to the unclassifiable: the world's very first satellite, Belka and Strelka, the famous dog-cosmonauts (now stuffed), etc. While passing through the gift store, don't forget to buy space food in tubes or take a jump in the space flight simulation capsule. For us, this is an indispensable visit that links Russian heritage with that of humanity, and we always come out of it a little moved.

This bunker, now a museum of the Cold War, was a high place of the Soviet armed forces. Moscow has a few of them, but this one is the largest and most touristic. You will see the facilities and you can simulate the launch of a nuclear missile. All in all, you are guaranteed a fascinating visit if you are interested in the Cold War. Don't miss the restaurant on site, which is open 24 hours a day.

History. It took almost 4 years to build the 7,000 m² site 60 m underground on the express order of Stalin. It was put into service from 1956 until 1985 to coordinate the military defence of the country against a nuclear attack, with a stock of food and drink allowing more than 2,500 officers to spend 3 months there without having to leave. The building that overlooked this top-secret location never hinted at the activities that were taking place a few dozen metres underground. Numerous tunnels made it possible to reach the subway tunnels at nightfall and to use the rails to transport material. Today, only the green portal surmounted by a red star will show you the entrance to this museum like no other.

For tours. For foreigners, it is mandatory to book your tour in advance and a guide will be provided. The museum also offers an individual guided tour for the price starting at RUB 35,000 and a military role-playing game for RUB 64,000.

This small pink house that exudes romanticism was the home of the great novelist, playwright and doctor Anton Chekhov (1860-1904). At the time, he only published short stories. It was here that he wrote his novel The Steppe. The consulting room and his bedroom are on display: autograph manuscripts, books, portraits and personal objects. The museum is part of the chain of 7 state literary museums and they share the same price and the same opening hours! It is possible to ask for a guided tour in French.

As the space within the historic walls of the Tretyakov Gallery was insufficient, a new gallery bearing the patron's name was opened in the huge Soviet building of the Central House of Artists. The gallery chose to exhibit its most contemporary works among other exhibitors. All the major trends of the 20th and 21st centuries are represented: the avant-garde (neoprivitivism, fauvism, cubism, futurism, etc.), socialist realism and sots-art, the underground, photorealism and conceptualism. You will find world-famous artists such as Vasily Kandinsky, Marc Chagall and Kasimir Malevich, as well as more alternative artists such as Alexander Deineka, Alexander Kosolapov, Dmitri Vrubel, or Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid. The museum's surface is so huge that in the middle of the exhibition there is an art library where you can sit and meditate, as well as read more about the artistic trends represented in the gallery. In the middle of the permanent exhibition there are often temporary exhibitions, invariably dedicated to famous unknowns of Russian painting.

Visit. To better orient yourself in the gallery, use the audio guide in foreign languages (500 RUB) or a guide in French, which can be booked in advance for the price of 8,000 RUB. The combined ticket with the historical building Tretyakov Gallery costs 700 RUB.

This museum brings together one of the largest private collections of the Soviet automobile industry, as well as international brands. It has an ever-expanding collection (today more than 260 pieces): cars, motorcycles, bicycles, tractors, as well as retro accessories. The richness of the collection ranks the place among the best in the world, despite some renovations considered risky. It is therefore a real paradise for children or enthusiasts!

Welcome to a paradise for big kids, geeks, gamers andhipsters, but also for those who are passionate about cultural history. This playful museum is an Ali Baba's cave, dedicated to Soviet arcade games created between 1974 and 1991 and for many emulating games created at the time in Japan and the United States. For the founders Alexander and Maxim, it all began with the acquisition for their pleasure of the arcade game Morskoy boy (it can be played for free on the Museum's website). What started out as a hobby became a quest throughout the post-Soviet space: the two friends searched through classified ads, flea markets, garage sales, searching and acquiring vintage relics of these hobbies all over the country. After exhibiting them in their garage and then in a large warehouse in the city, their success led them to move to the centre of the capital in June 2015 and set up a branch in Saint Petersburg. Today in Moscow, some 50 different games and 70 pieces are collected and made available to visitors-players, the idea being that the visitor is transformed into a player and moves from one machine to another as if in a large game room. The idea is that the visitor is transformed into a player and moves from one machine to another as if in a large game room. To recover from his emotions, one can quench one's thirst at the old dispensers of sparkling water, kvas and lemonade. There are also some great posters in the bar-shop that your friends will be jealous of, delicious homemade milkshakes and lollipops in the shape of Star Wars characters.

This museum suffers from the comparison with the Hermitage in St. Petersburg: like the latter, it is a museum of fine arts whose purpose is mainly academic, but unlike it, it did not inherit the imperial collections. That is why one of its three establishments, its historic building, exhibits mainly copies of works from antiquity and the Middle Ages. If you've already been to the Louvre, go directly to the other two museum buildings.

This museum (ГОСУДАРСТВЕННЫЙ ИСТОРИЧЕСКИЙ МУЗЕЙ) houses a rich collection of objects and documents from the history of the peoples of Russia from prehistoric times to the 20th century: there are coins, medals, jewellery, pagan idols and Christian crosses, manuscripts, works of art. Among the most interesting objects are the clothes of Ivan the Terrible, a coach of Peter the Great, a portrait of Emelian Pugachev, the leader of the peasant war of the 18th century, a sword and Napoleon's rolling kitchen.

Housed in the metropolitan house, it presents a historical collection as well as enamels, the city with a long tradition in this area. Of Byzantine origin, the technique of enamels was introduced in Russia in the th century. The word that designates it, finifte, is of Greek origin and means "the shining stone". The art of the enamel remained essentially religious in a long period of time, with the master masters receiving their orders only from the Church: mitres, medallions, cross. It is only in the th century that Rostov specializes in this art, joining Moscow and St. Petersburg. We will see in the Rostov enamels, in the finesse and variety of drawings, a certain resemblance with the works of limougeauds artists. If the work of enamel has spread in other nearby cities, it is only at Rostov that tradition has persisted to give the city a great reputation. Many craftsmen have thus operated a family-wide workshop, transmitting their knowledge to their offspring from generation to generation. Only in 1960 appeared the first factory, still active and which today produces mainly jewellery: pins, bracelets, buckles.

As with Tolstoy, Moscow has several Pushkin museums. The Arbat Museum is located on the second floor of this modest turquoise blue house, where Pushkin lived for 5 years. It exhibits the objects and manuscripts dear to the writer. It is less interesting than the large Pushkin Literary Museum located on the Prechistenka, but as it is on the Arbat, one can stop there for half an hour to get an idea of the Russian interiors of the time.

Those who appreciate the art of photography will be fulfilled in this exhibition room. It's impossible to tell you what you're going to stumble upon, since the different exhibitions change regularly. What is certain is that Russia, with its Slavic aesthetics, its wild nature, its deprived cities and its Soviet monumentalism gives a lot of subjects. Finally, you can see all the art school students and Moscow's avant-gardists strolling around.

The museum's exhibition traces the life and work of the writer in an alternating manner in order to interweave the two and to grasp the author's universe. Thus, a room devoted to the life of the writer follows another room devoted to one of his outstanding works(Eugene Onegin or The Queen of Spades). In the latter, you can see the author's handwritten manuscripts, embellished with drawings. The visit takes about one hour. Admission is free on the third Sunday of every month.

The 17 museum rooms present unique collections (750 000 exposed units) of the world of animals and plants, the evolution of man… Some exhibitions are adapted for Children.

It is the former building of the first English inspired Gentlemen's Club, which met there from 1831 to 1917. After the revolution it housed the Museum of Contemporary History of Russia (Музей современной истории России). The place is embellished with many pieces (letters, cars, statues, etc.). It has undergone a refurbishment of its presentation which should in principle make it accessible in English. B flat: its Putinian propaganda can tire history lovers.

It is one of the oldest cultural institutions in Moscow and is part of the Moscow Museum complex. It was established in 1896 as the Museum of City Economy and moved to its present huge building. Today, the museum uses all this space to organize numerous temporary exhibitions and to constantly renew the one million pieces that make up its permanent collection! The collection is particularly instructive, tracing the history of Moscow's development back to the 17th century.

A unique opportunity to visit a vodka factory (МОСКОВСКИЙ ЗАВОД " КРИСТАЛЛ ") with of course tasting and zakouski. The price is undemocratic, as they say in Russian, but enthusiasts will find the visit worthwhile. Visits are possible from 5 people, reservation is mandatory. Please note that there are no French or English speakers on site. During the visit you will see the factory, the production and the Vodka museum as well as a shop.

This mansion, also called Teremok, is one of the subsidiaries of the Tretyakov Gallery. Built in 1894 according to the plans of its owner, the famous painter Viktor Vasnetsov, it looks as if it has come out of Russian fairy tales (one of its great inspirations). The master's paintings are the main attraction for visitors, but you will also find a considerable collection of Russian costumes and antique objects, which he carefully studied for his works.