| Brief Guide to the Top Ten Things to do in Moscow |
| 1. Kremlin |
| The Russian word kremlin simply means 'citadel', but it has come to be synonymous with the government of Russia and (formerly) the Soviet Union, because Moscow's Kremlin has been a centre of power since at least the 14th century. Within the protection of its triangle of red walls lay the palaces of the nobility, as well as churches and military arsenals. Today, the Kremlin presents a large and intriguing complex, fascinating by day, and magical when floodlit at night. It began as a wooden fort, built next to the River Moskva (or River Moscow) in 1147, and the city of Moscow grew around it. In the late 15th century Grand Prince Ivan III brought in Italian architects to design many of the 18 fantastical towers that adorn the walls, and to refurbish the churches and palaces. In the early 19th century, the Grand Kremlin Palace was built as the tsar's primary residence in Moscow. Designed in neo-Byzantine style, it was adopted and remodelled by Stalin, it has recently been restored to its original glory; however, in common with the 15th-century Palace of Facets (1487-91, the oldest surviving palace in the Kremlin) and the Terem Palace, these buildings are not generally open to the public. Most visitors head for the Armoury. Built originally to store arms, was used as a depot for priceless court treasures and became a museum in 1806; the current building dates from the 1840s. It contains a stunning collection of riches: crown jewels, thrones, imperial coaches, arms and armour, uniforms and costumes, extravagant foreign gifts for the tsar, and - most famously - the exquisite and ingenious Fabergé eggs, created for the tsar as Easter gifts for his family. The State Diamond Fund in the Armoury is another treasure store of even more valuable imperial gems and jewellery. It includes Catherine the Great's coronation crown encrusted with more than 5000 diamonds; her imperial sceptre with the famous 190-carat Orlov diamond; a huge gold nugget, and the world's largest sapphire. There are four onion-domed cathedrals in the Kremlin, three of them in Cathedral Square. The oldest is the Cathedral of the Assumption (or, more properly, the Cathedral of the Dormition). Built in the late 15th century, it was designed by the Italian architect Aristotele Fioravanti, who based his scheme on Russian traditions. It is the most important church of the Russian Orthodox Church, and has an ornate, highly decorated and beautifully restored interior. The Cathedral of the Annunciation and Cathedral of St Michael the Archangel, dating mainly from the 16th century, are almost as impressive. The Bell Tower of Ivan the Great (1505-8), rising to it gilded onion dome at 81m (266 ft), was built to serve the three cathedrals; a climb of 329 steps leads to fine views over Moscow. The smaller but atmospheric Church of the Deposition of the Robe (1484-86) stands behind the Cathedral of the Assumption. The Cathedral of the Twelve Apostles is directly linked to the Patriarch's Palace (1640-56), the lavish former home of the leader of Russian Orthodox Church. This now serves as a Museum of 17th-century Life and Applied Arts (furniture, domestic artefacts, textiles and Church paraphernalia), and leads to the cathedral interior. Other notable m4onuments include the neoclassical Senate Building (1776-88), today the official residence of the Russian President; and the modern State Kremlin Palace, built in 1961, a typically insensitive vestige of the Soviet era that now serves as a 6000-seater performance venue; the huge Tsar Cannon (1586), which never fired; and the huge Tsar Bell (1737), which never rang. |
| 2. Red Square |
| This famous public square, parade ground and - in the old days of the tsars - place of public execution lies cheek-by-jowl with the Kremlin. Its name dates back many centuries, and relates to the fact that 'red' in Russian (krasnaya) also meant 'beautiful'. The most eye-catching building is the Cathedral of St Basil, a fabulous confection of onion domes and candy-sugar twists, built in 1555-61; the interior, which contains a museum, gives a fascinating insight into its complex structure. Legend has it that Ivan the Terrible wanted the architect, Postnik Yakovlev, to be unable to create another building so beautiful, and so had him blinded. Equally famous is the Mausoleum of Lenin (1870-1924), the red pyramidal building, built 1929-30, where his embalmed body (or what purports to be it) lies in silent gloom, gazed upon by lines of visitors. Soviet leaders would gather on the roof to watch the parade of weaponry on May Day and 7 November (Anniversary of the October Revolution) - and to be watched for any signals of potential changes in the leadership. Behind the Mausoleum lies the mass graves of Bolsheviks who died in the 1917 Revolution, and the graves of other Soviet celebrities, including Lenin's wife Nadya, and his lover Inessa Armand, most of the Soviet leaders (except Khrushchev, who had been disgraced), the writer Maxim Gorky, and Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space. The State Department Store, GUM (pronounced 'goom') flanks the north-eastern side of the square; originally built in 1890-93 in palatial, Russo-Italianate style, its three elegant arcades were home to some 1200 shops before it became the State Department Store under Soviet rule. It has now returned to its original format, with dozens of shops, many of them representatives of international chains. Kazan Cathedral, next to GUM, was built originally in 1636, but destroyed exactly 300 years later by the Soviet government to make room for military parades; it was faithfully rebuilt in 1990-93. Similarly the 16th-century Resurrection Gate and Iverskaya Chapel, in the north-west corner of the square, was destroyed by the Soviets and rebuilt in the 1990s. It shares the northern side of the square with the National Historical Museum; purpose-built as a museum in 1874-81, it traces Russian history from prehistory on, and includes the gold treasures of the Scythians. |
| 3. Tretyakov Gallery |
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Most of Moscow's main sights are to the north of the River Moskva, but this is the notable exception. Founded with a collection of 2000 paintings donated by the collector Pavel Tretyakov (1832-98), the gallery now contains 130,000 works of art, and all of them are Russian. This is an unbeatable opportunity to investigate the strength and unique qualities of Russian art, from 11th-century icons on. Many of Russia's most famous painted images are here, such as works by Ilya Repin (1844-1930), the most celebrated Russian painter of his day. The museum's collection of 20th-century art is now housed in another building, the New Tretyakov Gallery, at Krymskiy Val, by Gorky Park; it includes work by Chagall and Kandinsky; the stridently avant-garde abstract work of the Suprematists (Malevich et al), and classic examples of Soviet propaganda painting (otherwise known as 'socialist realism').
www.tretyakovgallery.ru |
| 4. Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts |
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Named after Russia's most cherished poet, the Pushkin Museum was built in grand Neo-classical style in 1898-1912. It contains a notable collection of Western paintings, second in Russia only to the Hermitage in St Petersburg; this includes work by Botticelli, Cranach, Veronese, Rubens, Rembrandt, Watteau, Chardin, David, Constable, Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Matisse and Picasso. The museum also has a vast collection of art and artefacts from the ancient Egyptian, Classical, Byzantine and medieval worlds; this includes (controversially) the gold treasure of ancient Troy excavated by Heinrich Schliemann in the 1870s, and spirited out of Berlin at the end of the Second World War. Opposite the museum is the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, a classic neo-Byzantine church built 1839-60, demolished by the Soviet government in 1931 and rebuilt in 1990-2000 after the collapse of Communism.
www.museum.ru/gmii/defengl.htm |
| 5. Novodevichy Convent and Cemetery |
| Nestled in a crook of the River Moskva in a south-western suburb, the 'Convent of New Maidens' presents the classic image of historic, fairytale Russia, with its sixteen gilded onion-domes crowned with crosses, and a pagoda-like bell tower - an ensemble enhanced by lake views and peaceful gardens. Built in the early 16th century, the convent has remained virtually unchanged since the 17th century, and in 1994 it resumed its function as a nunnery. At its heart is the five-domed Cathedral of the Virgin of Smolensk, with its elaborate frescoed interior, celebrated above all for its iconostasis (icon screen), with frames of gold. Also on view are several other churches, the refectory, the convent cells, and a museum. The convent served as a refuge (or effectively a prison) for many ladies of noble rank, and so was richly endowed. The adjacent cemetery became the last resting place for numerous noble or famous Russians, including the writers Chekhov and Gogol, the theatre director Konstantin Stanislavski, composers Prokofiev and Shostakovich, the Soviet premier Khrushchev, and premier Gorbachev's wife Raisa. |
| 6. The Moscow Metro |
| When the Soviet leaders set about building a new underground railway system in the 1930s, they decided to make this a work of immense prestige. The stations were designed as veritable 'people's palaces', with marble facings, chandeliers, mural paintings and statues. Many of them are spectacular, a labour of love, devotion and patriotism. Since the Metro is the most convenient way to travel across this extensive city, you are likely to encounter its splendours as a matter of course. By common consent, the most impressive station is Komsomolskaya; other notable stations (all within the ring of the Koltsevaya (Circular) line), include Mayakovskaya (ceiling mosaics depicting aeroplanes and sports), Kievskaya (murals celebrating the friendship between Russian and Ukraine), Kropotkinskaya (columns and walls embellished with marble taken from the demolished Cathedral of Christ the Saviour), Novokuznetskaya (also with salvage from the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour); Ploshchad Revolutsii (heroic sculptures of soldiers and workers), Novoslobodskaya (stained glass), Park Kultury, Arbatskaya, Belorusskaya, and Teatralnaya. |
| 7. Kolomenskoye Estate Museum |
| The site of a former residence of the tsars, 10 km (6 miles) to the south-east of the city centre, has become an open-air museum presenting a splendid collection of 16th-17th churches and other buildings. The Church of the Ascension, built in 1532, was the first stone version of the wooden 'tent-roofed' church, a precursor of churches like the Cathedral of St Basil; it became UNESCO World Heritage site in 1995. Many of the other buildings here today are made of wood, and some have been brought from other parts of Russia. They include a church from Karelia, Peter the Great's Cabin, a Cossack fort, windmills and a 12th-century brewery. The park has fine views over the River Moskva, and is accessible by boat, or by Metro. |
| 8. Arbat |
| The pedestrianized shopping street called Arbat, to the west of the Kremlin, has a long history dating back to 1493. In the 19th century it became the address of numerous members of the aristocracy, and the Arbat and neighbouring streets are full of houses where key figures from Russia's history and culture lived and played. Today, however, the Arbat is better known for its shops and stalls selling souvenirs and clothes, and its cafés and street performers. The modern, Soviet-style Novy (New) Arbat Street nearby contains a cluster of upmarket restaurants and clubs - the place to witness the fact that there are now more billionaires in Moscow than in any other city on Earth. However, Tverskaya Street, to the north of the Kremlin, is generally held to be Moscow's most fashionable shopping street. |
| 9. Izmailovsky Souvenir Market |
| At the weekend, determined souvenir hunters will head for Izmailovsky. In a vast marketplace surrounded by a mock wooden fortress are countless stalls selling souvenirs and flea-market goods of all descriptions - amber jewellery, wooden toys including the famous painted Matryoshka dolls (one inside the other), plus mementoes of the Soviet era. |
| 10. Gorky Park |
| The name resonates in the West largely because of the Cold War thriller novel (1983) by Martin Cruz Smith. This is one of Moscow's big green spaces, lining the River Moskva. Opened in 1928, it went by the optimistic name of Culture Park (Park Kultury), but these days in summer it's more of an amusement park, with cafés and snack bars, and a host of dodgy-looking funfair rides, including a giant Ferris wheel (offering fine views). Another unique attraction is an original Buran space shuttle. Gorky Park a good place to take a stroll and watch Muscovites at ease. A jetty next to the park is the departure point for summer river cruises - a pleasant way see the sights of the city centre. In winter, skaters head for Gorky Park to spin around the ponds and flooded paths. |
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