Monuments to visit Moscow (Москва)

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.

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.

Opened in 1808, the Palace of Armor includes not only a military collection, but also all the treasures accumulated by tsars from the 12th century until the revolution of 1917. Among them are the famous Vladmir Monomaque's hat worn by the Tsars, the wedding dress of Empress Catherine II and rare (and fabulous) examples of Fabergé Eggs. The rest of the collection includes gifts from foreign ambassadors, icons, jewelry and even furniture.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.