Tourist Attractions & Monuments Moscow (Москва)

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.

One of the most remarkable monuments of Russian art, Pokrovsky Sobor (СОБОР ВАСИЛИЯ БЛАЖEННОГО) is the symbol of Moscow. Commissioned by Ivan the Terrible, it was a centre of power: it was on the platform in front of its gates (nicknamed the Square of Skulls) that public executions were held and Ukases (decrees) were read. Today the cathedral charges for visits. One can buy an entrance ticket coupled with the State Historical Museum.

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.

If there is only one cathedral to visit, this is it. Of all the monuments of the Orthodox faith in Russia, the Dormition Cathedral is the most majestic, the most beautiful, and also the most inviting to meditation. This church has always been an important sanctuary where princes were crowned and metropolitans were buried, but it was Ivan the Great who undertook to make it a symbol of the power of the nascent Moscow nation by calling on the Italian architect Fioravanti to transform the building. The latter worked on what became the masterpiece of his career. He used the rules of the Italian Renaissance, playing with space and light, which he combined with the Slavic style, which played with colours, wood carvings and shapes. The result is awe-inspiring: the interior of the cathedral, decorated with gold, commands respect, and the shimmering reds and blues that paint it make it seem larger. Today you can also see the throne of Ivan the Terrible, a relic of the past with wood decorated with scenes of everyday life of his time (1550).

The iconostasis of the cathedral dates from 1652 and its famous icon of Our Lady of Vladimir is to the left of the central entrance (a 15th-century copy of the 12th-century Byzantine original is in the Tretyakov Gallery). All in all, take at least an hour to soak up the almost mystical atmosphere of a plunge into the heart of the Russian Orthodox faith and the power of the Tsars.

The entire Russian campaign and the following years of the reconquest of Europe created in Tsar Alexander I a strong religious feeling with messianic overtones that led him to carry out a pharaonic project of a cathedral dedicated to the Holy Saviour to thank heaven for helping him defeat Napoleon. The work was initially planned on Sparrow Hill since 1817 on the site of the French field camp, but it was interrupted when Alexander died. The architect then experienced the reversal of fate of a court life and was condemned to exile in Siberia... compromising the entire project. It was not until 1839 that the new Tsar, Nicholas I, approved a new cathedral plan, this time in its present location on the banks of the Moskva River. Gargantuan, the construction took more than 20 years, the cathedral could be consecrated only in 1860 and became the preferred place of Orthodox worship of the power. Ironically, it served for only 70 years and was blown up under Stalin's orders in 1931 to erect a monument to the glory of communism... a project which, after his death, was converted into a huge Olympic swimming pool. In the mid-1990s, the Moscow City Council decided to rebuild the building. Today, the huge cathedral and seat of the patriarchate represents the renewed Russian faith, but it is not popular among Muscovites, who find it expensive and ugly.

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.

The Boulevard ring does not have parks as such, but rather wide landscaped green spaces that would definitely make the small Parisian parks pale in envy. The section at the Chistye Prudy metro station is particularly popular for Muscovite strolls, especially in spring and autumn when the trees are in bloom or undressing. The recommended route is to follow the "park" south towards the Moskva River until you reach the clean (or clear) pond that gives the district its name.

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.

Well, okay, there's a discouraging line outside the Armory Palace housing the funds. But it is the Imperial collection of gemstones you are about to contemplate. The private collection of the imperial family includes the Orlov diamond (189.62 carats) cut in approximately 180 facets, the Shah diamond (88.7 carats) and the world's largest cut sapphire (258.8 carats), not to mention a 36 kg gold ingot called the Great Triangle.

The Savior's Tower (Spasskaya), the highest tower in the compound and directly overlooking Red Square, is the main tower of the Kremlin. It enjoys a sacred aura and the rule imposed to uncover the head to be able to cross this entrance of apparat used by the tsars and the dignitaries. During the 70 years of communism, the tower's carillon played the Internationale and the Funeral March twice a day. Today, the tower is famous for its clock: the gag is to ask the time on the Red Square when you just have to raise your head.

The Tsar of Bells, located next to the tower of Ivan the Great, is a bronze master bell and also happens to be the largest bell in the world. It was cast for two years between 1733 and 1735 and weighs 202 tons, is 6.14 m high and has a diameter of 6.60 m! It was then installed in honour of Tsarina Anne Ioannovna, who could not help but appreciate such a unique honour. During the fire of 1737, a piece weighing 11.5 t broke off and fell at the foot of the gigantic bell, which remains in a similar state today.