Quick search
CTRL+K
Quick search
CTRL+K
Moscow is the capital of the Russian Federation and it is at the same time one of history’s great cultural and political centers. With its 15 million citizens, it is Europe’s largest city, and there are countless major sights, prestigious museums, fine monuments and interesting attractions.
The exploration of the city may well start in the heart of Moscow, where the colorful onion domes of St. Basil’s Cathedral adorn the center of the Red Square in front of the Kremlin’s impressive towers, spiers, cathedrals and fine museums. Much of the architecture dates from Russia’s time with czarist rule, but there are colossal monuments from the superpower times of the Soviet Union.
So much to see in the city, and so much below ground as well. Moscow’s subway, which is arguably the most beautiful in the world, is famous for the old stations which are built like palaces or with elegant stylistic reference to the station’s names. This is a unique sights as so much else in the Russian capital.
In Moscow there are also beautiful monasteries and parks like Soviet VDNKh, and here are places like the Museum of Russia’s cosmonauts and UNESCO World Heritage Sites like the white church in Kolomenskoye. A bit further out of town, there are many cultural cities with unforgettable sights like Sergiyev Posad.
The Red Square is one of the world’s most beautiful and famous squares. The 300-metre-long square has been the center of Moscow since its construction in the 15th century, and countless historical events have taken place here. The square was originally laid out as the central market square of the city, and its name comes from an old Russian word for beautiful. Thereby, the name does not derive from the Kremlin’s long red walls along the square, as one might otherwise think.
Both tsars and Vladimir Lenin have given speeches in Red Square, and throughout the Soviet era the impressive annual military parades were held in the square. On those occasions, the political leaders stood at Lenin’s mausoleum and witnessed the event.
In previous centuries, Red Square has, among other things, been the scene of public executions and has thus always been central to the city’s history. You can see a larger, flat place between Basil the Blessed Cathedral and GUM. It was here that the executions in his time took place.
Most of the buildings around Red Square are worth seeing, and you should spend plenty of time here. To the west lies Lenin’s Mausoleum/Мавзолей Ленина and the Kremlin/Кремль with the Savior’s Tower/Спасская башня as the dominant element. The tower is adorned with the clock Kuranty/куранты, known across the country as the clock that rings in the New Year.
To the east is the colossal department store GUM/ГУМ and to the north the Kazan Cathedral/Собор Казанской Богоматери, Historical Museum/Исторический музей and the Red Resurrection Gate from 1680. In the middle stands the unique and iconic Basil Cathedral/Храм Василия Блаженного.
Lenin’s Mausoleum is the place where the founder of the Soviet Union has been embalmed for most of the time since his death in 1924. It is centrally located in Red Square immediately below the Kremlin walls. There were a few years during World War II when Lenin’s preserved body was evacuated to the Urals to avoid him being destroyed by bombing or possibly stolen and taken to Germany.
In the beginning, a temporary building was erected, while the current mausoleum dates from 1930. The building materials are red, black and gray granite. After walking reverentially through the mausoleum itself, one passes a series of graves of Soviet Union leaders and heroes along the Kremlin walls. Among other things, there are busts and graves of Joseph Stalin, Leonid Brezhnev, Felix Dzerzhinsky, Mikhail Kalinin, Maxim Gorky and the world’s first man in space, Yuri Gagarin.
After Stalin’s death, he was laid next to Lenin inside the mausoleum itself, but in 1961 he was moved to the current location immediately behind Lenin’s Mausoleum. Being buried at the Kremlin wall was the finest place in the Soviet Union; naturally after Lenin’s Mausoleum.
The fabulous 61-metre-high Basil the Blessed Cathedral with its variegated onion domes is one of Moscow’s best-known buildings and a landmark for the city. The cathedral was built in the years 1555-1561 under Tsar Ivan IV, nicknamed The Terrible.
The reason for its construction was the victory over the city and state of Kazan in 1552. It was an event to be marked and celebrated, as the victory marks the final end of the threat from the Tatars, who, as the last close bastion of the Mongol Empire, resided in Kazan itself. In those days there was a tradition of erecting a church as a monument to a military victory; and thereby not, for example, statues or sculpture groups.
When completed, the cathedral was the city’s tallest and most beautiful building. Ivan the Terrible reportedly asked the architect if he could build something even more beautiful, to which he replied yes. However, Ivan did not want that to happen, and he left the architect blind.
The exterior of the church is unique and nothing like it can be seen in its entirety in the Byzantine-Russian architecture that was used for about a thousand years before St. Basil’s Cathedral was completed. The materials used are the classic white stones for foundations for Moscow, a wooden skeleton and the contemporary red bricks, which are also seen in the Kremlin’s facilities, among other things. Over the centuries after the dedication, the church gradually acquired its characteristic color splendor.
Before the construction of the church, the place was a market place, and in the 14th century a Trinity Church was built here. With each major victory in the war against Kazan, Ivan IV had a wooden chapel built around the actual church, and in this way there were seven small churches around the church when the tsar ordered the current stone church to be built. It then got eight side churches around the central part, and next to this ensemble you can see the cathedral’s bell tower. Including the chapel of St. Basil, there are a total of ten churches in the building complex.
On the lower floor after the entrance, you can visit the chapel where Saint Basil is buried. It is a beautifully decorated room from 1588. Saint Basil is a Russian Orthodox saint who lived from approximately 1468 to 1552, and this chapel has given its name to the whole church, whose main church in the middle is otherwise called the Church of the Protection of Mary at the Moat/Покровский Собор что on Рву. The reason for the current name is that the upper churches were only open and active on special occasions, while the Chapel of St. Basil was a heated winter church that was open every day. That’s why people said they were going to St. Basil’s when they went to church, and that name stuck.
In the upper part of the church, you can still see the many side churches in the almost labyrinthine interior of the cathedral. They stand like richly decorated chapels and are in perfect symmetry around the central space, which itself has an asymmetry in the construction. It is seen from the side from the outside, while the cathedral looks symmetrically correct from the Kremlin. The central room has an impressive height to the roof of 47 metres, and here you can see, among other things, the painted red bricks; exactly like the original decoration. Around the room runs an inner corridor with access to all eight small chapels, and an outer corridor runs along the outside of these.
The cathedral was set up as a museum in 1923, but continued as a church until 1929, when it was completely secularized and transferred to and set up as part of the historical museum in the city. The church building remains federal property and therefore not the church’s. In the church you can see original icons and other treasures in a special room as part of the museum.
In front of the church, you can see a monument in memory of Minin and Pozharskij, who in 1612 were behind the establishment of the voluntary Russian army that overcame the Polish occupiers of the time and thereby freed Russia from foreign rule. Inaugurated in 1818, the monument was the first victory monument depicting individuals in Moscow. In the past, the rulers built churches as monuments to the important victories in various wars.
The Kremlin is Moscow’s old castle, which was originally built as a fortified city in the 12th century, and the establishment of the Kremlin was the starting point for the foundation and development of the city. The early Kremlin was built with wooden walls around residences and a number of smaller buildings such as churches. The Kremlin constituted the urban society of the time, where the citizens lived within the walls.
With the establishment of the state of Moscow after the rule of the Mongols since the 13th century, in the 15th century they wanted to show the Kremlin as a strong center in the new Russian Empire, and thereby many of the previous buildings were demolished and new ones were erected.
From the outside you can today see the high walls of the Kremlin, which were built in the 15th century. The walls enclose the entire facility and are over two kilometers long. The walls are 6 meters thick and 17 meters high. In the wall itself, there are 19 fortress towers, and to the west stands a 20th tower, which acted as an advanced fortress tower, as here there was an entrance to the Kremlin via a drawbridge. The Kremlin was surrounded by water consisting of two rivers and a moat. There were originally five bridges, but only this one has been preserved.
Of the many buildings within the Kremlin’s walls, most of the churches are from the end of the 15th century, while the other buildings were built throughout the period up to the 20th century. There have also been two monasteries, which it has been decided to rebuild.
Until Peter the Great moved the capital to Saint Petersburg in 1703, the Kremlin was the center of power in Russia. It was a role the place got again when Lenin chose the place as a political center in 1917.
There is access to the Kremlin from the west through the Alexander Garden/Александровский сад from 1820. Here you can see the Trinity Tower/Троицкая башня at a height of 76 meters in the middle of the wall. Once inside the Kremlin, you should set aside a lot of time for the many sights that lie like pearls on a string. If there is less time available, one should not cheat on a visit, but select the highlights and simply enjoy the view on a walk through the area.
The Cathedral of the Dormition is and has been throughout history one of the most important churches in all of Russia. The first church on the site was founded in 1326, and in 1472 Ivan III ordered a new cathedral built. The unfinished cathedral collapsed two years later, and the current church was built in the period 1475-1479. The Cathedral of the Dormition was an important church, and it functioned, among other things, as the coronation church of the tsars. Even during the more than 200 years with St. Petersburg as the capital and thereby the imperial city of residence, Russia’s regents went to Moscow to be crowned in this church.
When you visit the Cathedral of the Dormition, you can clearly see that large sums of money have been invested in its decoration. This is of course due to its high status with both coronations and a number of other important ceremonial events having taken place here; among other things, funerals of many of Moscow’s metropolitans and the patriarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church.
The beautiful iconostasis is from 1653, and it was prepared under the patriarch Nikon. The iconostasis or icon wall, as it may also be called, is classically divided with the holy gate in the middle flanked by the Virgin Mary and Jesus in the lower of five rows of icons in height. The bottom row usually has the Virgin Mary as the incarnation of Christ and Jesus as the symbol of his return, and on this row is also the icon of the one to whom the church is dedicated. Next row upwards of a row of icons, where the archangels Gabriel and Michael are among those represented. In the next row, the most important events throughout the liturgical year are illustrated. The next row shows former Christian figures such as prophets from the Old Testament. The top row is the row of the twelve disciples. However, some iconostases may also have fewer than five levels of icons.
In front of the icon wall you can see the prayer seats of the Tsar, Tsarina and Patriarch; the tsar’s chair stands farthest from the altar, and it dates from the time of Ivan the Terrible. The patriarch’s chair is the middle of the three chairs in front of the altar, and the third was that of the tsarina. These placements of the chairs follow the tradition of visiting Russian Orthodox churches, where women stood on the left and men on the right.
One of the dominant impressions in the cathedral are the murals, which fill the walls, columns and ceilings in the most beautiful way. Some fragments date back to the early days of the church, and the paintings are applied in classical storytelling. This means that the north and south walls illustrate the life of Jesus and the Virgin Mary, while the western one depicts Judgment Day.
Cathedral of the Archangel from 1505-1508 is one of the Kremlin’s larger church buildings. The cathedral was the burial church of the tsars until Peter the Great moved the court from Moscow to Saint Petersburg. All tsars except Boris Godunov in the period from 1328 to 1698 are buried here, so it is, in the most literal sense, an important part of Moscow’s and Russia’s history that you can experience here in the cathedral. One of the most famous tsars from that time was Ivan IV, nicknamed the Cruel.
However, a single tsar from the Saint Petersburg era is also buried here. It is Peter II who was visiting Moscow when he died of smallpox in 1730. Due to the contagiousness of the disease, they chose to have the funeral in Moscow instead of risking the spread of the disease during the transport to Saint Petersburg.
In addition to the buried historical figures, the interior of the cathedral is very interesting and therefore also worth a trip in itself. As tradition dictates, the north and south facing walls of the church are decorated with motifs from what the church is dedicated to; in this case the archangel. To the west, Doomsday is depicted, and to the east you can see the iconostasis of the church.
In the castle complex in the southwest corner of the Kremlin are the museums called the Kremlin Armoury, in which centuries of jewellery, weapons and collections from the tsars’ personal property can be experienced. You can see Ivan the Terrible’s ivory throne, Catherine the Great’s crown from 1762 and Monomakha’s Hat/Шапка Мономаха from the early 14th century among the objects on display. You can also see ten Fabergé eggs and a host of priceless historical treasures.
A special collection is the so-called Diamond Collection/Алмазный фонд, which goes back to Peter the Great’s Saint Petersburg and the Diamond Room/Бриллиантовая комната in the Winter Palace. Peter the Great and all subsequent tsars have contributed to the collection, and it continues to be expanded. For example, the Russian state has a monopoly on the mining of precious stones, and rough diamonds over 50 carats come into the state’s collection. The limit for rubies, sapphires and emeralds is 30 carats. Since 1980, for example, three diamonds each weighing more than 298 carats and a gold nugget weighing 33 kilos have been found.
The history of the armoury goes back to 1508, when it started as a royal armory and more. Weapons were produced here, jewelry and other things were stored for the tsar. The current museum building for the Kremlin Armoury was built 1844-1851.
Moscow’s Bolshoi Theater was built in 1854, and its name means Great Theatre. The building impresses with its monumental colonnade and the saint of music, Apollo, with a bronze quadrilateral on top above the columned entrance.
Inside the world-famous theatre, there is lavish decoration in, for example, the great hall, which can seat 2,150 spectators. The theater was originally built as the Tsar’s Great Theatre, and it was here that in 1922 Lenin gave his last public speech.
There are also sights around the theater building. Just west of the theater you can see the stage of the Russian Academic Youth Theater/Российский академический Молодежный театр (Teatralnaya Pl. 2/Театральная пл. 2). On Revolution Square/ Площадь Революции opposite the theater you can see a monumental granite statue of Karl Marx. The statue was erected in 1961.
Tretyakov Gallery is almost a must for all art lovers, as it contains one of the world’s finest collections of Russian art; only the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg can match the quality and scope of the Tretyakov. The purchase of the museum’s many works started in 1856 by Pavel Tretyakov, who was an avid art collector. He wanted to establish a collection as the start of a new national museum.
Tretyakov himself had collected over 2,000 works when the public was first able to enjoy the collection in 1892. Today, there are over 100,000 works in the gallery, offering everything the heart could desire from 12th century icons to art from the early 20th century. However, the gallery’s modern works of art are exhibited in the nearby branch of the Tretyakov Gallery at the address Krymskij Val 10/Крымский вал 10.
The museum building was built in 1902-1904, and the special building style is inspired by Russian fairy tales.
With its 105 meters, the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour is the world’s tallest Russian Orthodox church, and it is definitely also one of the most worth seeing from recent times.
When the last of Napoleon’s soldiers had been forced back from and had left Russia, in 1812 Tsar Alexander I wanted to build a new church building as a thank you to the Savior for saving the fate of Russia. At the same time, it was to be a memorial church for the Russian victims during the Napoleonic War.
In 1817, a neoclassical proposal was adopted, but construction had not really started when Tsar Nicholas I ascended the throne. He changed the plans to the Byzantine-inspired cathedral that can be seen today. Construction took place in the period 1839-1883.
With the establishment of the Soviet Union, people wanted to use the well-situated site by the Moscow River for something other than the beautiful Saviour’s Cathedral, and in 1931 it was blown up and demolished to make room for the planned 415-meter-high Soviet Palace, which included a 100-meter tall statue of Lenin on top.
Only the foundation for the Palace of the Soviets was completed before the Second World War and other reasons stopped construction, which never started again. Instead, the foundation was rebuilt in 1958 into the world’s largest and perhaps most conveniently located swimming pool.
From 1990 and ten years on, the cathedral was rebuilt, and it now shines like never before. Its importance was underlined in 2007 by the death of former Russian President Boris Yeltsin. He was laid to rest here before being buried in the cemetery at Ny Jomfrukloster a few kilometers to the southwest.
The church is rebuilt as a copy of the original 19th-century church, but as it was not possible to recreate the original hill, they chose to build a new basement under the church floor with, among other things, rooms for the Russian Orthodox church, and here too is a church room; it is the site’s lower church, which is both beautiful and atmospheric.
In the upper and main church rooms of the cathedral you can see particularly beautiful decorations, which applies to both floors, walls, ceilings and the large dome. Everywhere there are beautiful paintings, gilding, writings and so on, which you can simply go and enjoy on a trip to the cathedral.
New Maidens’ Monastery is the most famous of Moscow’s monasteries and was founded by Tsar Vasiliy III in 1524. It happened as a memory and monument to the conquest of Smolensk ten years earlier. The monastery was laid out as a fort and it became an important part of the city’s southern line of defence, and this very purpose can be seen today in the form of the solid wall that surrounds the facility.
Of the convent’s nuns over time, Peter the Great’s sister, Princess Sofija, is one of the best known. Sofija presented the monastery with the large iconostasis that adorns the centrally located Smolensk Cathedral/Соборный храм Смоленской, which was built in the years 1524-1525.
The complex’s elegant baroque bell tower measures 72 meters in height and was built in 1689-1690. Surrounding the monastery complex is a correspondingly elegantly decorated wall, and both on and within the wall there are several churches and gates that are worth seeing.
A special story is connected to New Maidens’ Monastery. It was here that Irina Godunova, who had become the widow of Ivan the Terrible’s son, moved. That time was the so-called Troubled Time with no sure succession, and that made Irina’s brother, Boris Godunov, Tsar of Russia. Boris himself resided in the monastery to emphasize the connection to the former tsar’s wife and thereby maintain his position as an influential politician. Several delegations went here to ask Godunov to accept the title of tsar, and he did so within the walls of the New Virgin Monastery. He was later crowned in the Kremlin. Incidentally, Godunov was buried in another monastery; Trinity Monastery in Sergiev Posad.
During the Soviet Union, the monastery was first closed and used as both a museum and residences, but since then it was reopened in 1944 as a theological school. The cathedral was reopened as a church in 1945.
Next to the monastery you can see a lake, which may have been the one from which Tchaikovsky is said to have been inspired to write Swan Lake. Around the lake is a beautiful park, and from the western bank you can see a beautiful panorama of the lake and the monastery. From the bank by the monastery there is a fine view of Moscow’s modern area with architecturally exciting skyscrapers.
VDNKh is an interesting exhibition area for achievements in the national Russian economy and at the same time a unique architectural treasure from the socialist realism and empire style of the Stalin era. The area was laid out from 1935 as VSKhV/ВСХВ, which was a Soviet agricultural exhibition where the progress and achievements of the various Soviet republics were showcased.
VSKhV was opened in 1939, when pavilions from several regions in and professional areas of the Soviet Union were opened. In the decades after the end of World War II, the exhibition area was again built; this time also in the form of many pavilions for various industrial branches. For example, a nuclear power pavilion from 1954 and an aerospace pavilion from 1966 date from this time. Crops and livestock were also produced in the area, so the state’s many different industries were represented. In connection with a number of pavilions, there were shops and also restaurants for the theme that the respective pavilions stood for.
VDNKh was the manifestation of the future for which the Soviet Union and the Soviet people were fighting. Many saw the future here at VDNKh, and particularly efficient workers and peasants were rewarded with a trip to Moscow and VDNKh. It was something special to come here, where there was magnificent architecture, elegant fountains, restaurants and other things that were not seen anywhere else gathered in one place in the union.
Today, the exhibition area is still active, and many different activities and experiences await here. Architecturally, you can enjoy the impressive pavilions from the entrance and along the central exhibition area. Many of these stand in beautiful and impressive Soviet style with decorations whose inspiration comes from the republics and professions they represented. You can still take a closer look at goods from parts of the former Soviet Union; e.g. with the purchase of Belarusian goods in the Belarusian pavilion.
On the VDNKh grounds you can also visit an amusement park in season, an ice rink in winter and also the large Moskvarium/ Москвариум, where you can get close to fish, dolphins and other marine biology. Various themed exhibitions are also regularly held in VDNKh. There is also an aircraft (Jak-42) on display, just as you can get a tour of the Soviet space shuttle Buran, which came to VDNKh from Gorky Park in 2014. A Vostok rocket as a symbol of the Soviet Union’s advance in space in the 20th century can also be seen in front of the large pavilion, which was opened as an exhibition of engineering and mechanics, and which later became the pavilion for space travel; among other things with a large picture of Yuri Gagarin.
In recent years, VDNKh has been restored, so that the pavilions again appear as beautiful and impressive as when they were built and decorated. It is an area that tells its history about the Soviet Union and a place that you will not find anywhere else in the world.
This is one of the most famous statues found anywhere in the former Soviet Union in the style of Socialist Realism. The statue is a 24.5 stainless steel monument dedicated to a male Soviet worker and a female Soviet agricultural worker from a state collective. They extend their work with hammer and sickle respectively as a symbol of the union between workers and peasants.
The statue was prepared by the artist Vera Mukhina for use in the Soviet section of the World Exhibition in Paris in 1937. The Soviet pavilion at the exhibition stood on the Seine opposite the Eiffel Tower directly opposite the German pavilion, and the two stood as ideological competitors; also in their design.
Stylistically, the 24.5 meter tall Soviet statue stands on a pedestal of a 34.5 meter pavilion, giving a total height of 60 metres. The socialist realism is evident, as is the inspiration from the art deco of the time. The statue was also used as a logo for the well-known film company Mosfilm/Мосфильм, and today an exhibition area has been arranged in the pedestal building.
After a tour of Moscow’s architectural opulence above ground, you can continue down into other of the city’s impressive buildings. It is about the Moscow Metro, which in its time was built as pure palaces for the people.
Moscow’s subway is one of the world’s busiest and undoubtedly the most beautiful. One station after another thus impresses with new designs, materials and decorations, not least of which were created during Stalin’s Soviet Union.
The metro’s first line opened in 1935, and today it has over 200 stations and a rail network of approximately 400 kilometers. Most of the lines in the center were, at Stalin’s request, built almost like palaces and made of the finest materials sourced from all over the Soviet Union.
The metro’s importance for Moscow and its population cannot be understated; partly due to a colossal transport capacity under the city’s streets, partly as a historical shelter and partly as a manifest symbol of the Soviet capability. The country gained knowledge of construction techniques in a few years and then opened line after line.
During World War II, Moscow’s subway stations were used as shelters against German bombardments, and the civilian population sought them out in large numbers. The use of the metro was structured in terms of food distribution, beds, mobile libraries, cinemas and so on. At the station Krasnyje Vorota/Красные ворота, a delivery room was even set up, and a total of 217 children were born in the subway during these years. During the war, the construction of new subway lines and stations continued.
Metro construction continued from the 1930s, and for many the construction of the system reached its architectural peak in the 1950s and 1960s; partly in scope and partly in decoration, where especially the 1950s ornamentation of Soviet culture and ideology dominates. There were four carriages in the metro trains at the start, with the trains running every five minutes. Today there are eight carriages in each train set, and on average 40 trains run in each direction per station during rush hour.
The metro’s most beautiful stations and impressions are a must in the city, so take a trip and be surprised. You can tour all the old stations, select a line or just see a few stations. It all gives good impressions and great experiences, but if you want to choose a single line, the ring line is a good choice. Here are the absolute highlights, and in addition to these, the following might be good choices to see: Arbatskaya/Арбатская from 1935 (line 4) and 1953 (line 3), Belorusskaya/Белорусская from 1938 (line 2) 1952 (line 5), Park Kultury/Парк культуры from 1950 (line 5), Prospect Mira/Проспект Мира from 1952 (line 5) and Park Pobedy/Парк Победы from 2003, which was built with Europe’s longest escalators.
A characteristic of many of the stations is that their decoration is linked to their name. For example, Kievskaya/Киевская is elegantly decorated with motifs from Ukraine such as typical agricultural production.
At the metro station Sportivnaya/Спортивная there is a metro museum, where you can see the simple tools from the early construction period, a driver’s cabin, the metro’s historical development and plans, old signs and interiors and much more.
The Church of the Resurrection is the oldest preserved building in Kolomenskoye, and it is included in UNESCO’s list of world cultural heritage. The church was built in 1532 in white stone as a monument to the birth of a new heir to the Russian throne; it was the future Ivan IV.
The architecture of the church was unique in its time with its pointed shape, which differed from the traditional Byzantine churches. Hence also the church’s nickname as the white pillar. The style is believed to be inspired by architecture from northern Russia, and it is perceived as a masterpiece of Russian building architecture.
GUM is perhaps the world’s best-known department store, and it is located in the heart of Moscow. The large old state department store was built in New Russian style 1890-1893 on the site that had been the city’s central market place since the 17th century.
In the Soviet Union, the building was a colossal department store, and here it was named GUM, which means the State Universal Warehouse/Государственный уверенслейный магазин. Today, there are hundreds of smaller shops in the beautiful arcades under the glass roofs, and thereby the original idea of small traders has been recreated.
In GUM’s western end, you can also have a special experience in the form of a visit to the Historical Toilet/Исторический туалет, whose interior dates back to 1893. The toilet is beautiful and is continuously maintained to remain original.
The Moscow History Museum is part of the Russian National Museum. In the large red stone building from the 1880s, one can see larger archaeological collections, handicrafts, household goods and more from various periods in Russia’s history. The collections are overwhelming, and with several million effects, the museum’s caches are the largest of their kind in the country.
Behind the museum on Manezhnaya Ploshad/Манежная площадь you can see a statue of Marshal Shukov, one of the great heroes of World War II’s colossal military effort in the war against Germany, where the Soviet Union overcame the attacking Germans.
A detail of the statue is that Shukov rides with outstretched legs. This style is connected with the fact that, at the celebration of the victory over Germany in the Second World War, Shukov was equipped with a relatively wild horse by Stalin. Shukov was not an equestrian general, but chose the stiff legs in the stirrups to maintain control of the horse and ride as planned at the parade.
The Alexander Garden is a lovely park that was laid out in 1823 along the Kremlin’s western wall. The park measures around 865 meters in length and is divided into different sections from the northern Upper Garden to the Middle Garden and the Lower Garden.
The park was created on the initiative of Tsar Alexander I, after whom the green oasis is also named. It happened after devastation after the ravages of Napoleon’s French troops. On the site of the garden ran the stream Neglinnaya/Неглинная, and it was piped at the construction of the Alexander Garden.
The main entrance to the park is to the north and thus close to Den Røde Plads. Behind the beautiful lattice gates, along the Kremlin wall, you can see the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier/Могила Неизвестного Солдата, where an eternal flame burns, which was brought here from the eternal flame on the Field of Mars in Leningrad. The grave commemorates those who fell during World War II battles, and it was moved here from Zelenograd on the outskirts of Moscow in 1966 to mark the 25th anniversary of the Battle of Moscow in 1941. At the grave, every hour you can follow the changing of the guard by the Kremlin’s soldiers who stand guard On-site.
A short distance south from here and also up the Kremlin wall, you will find the Memorial Stone of Soviet Hero Cities and then a grotto with a memorial that is a monument to the victory over Napoleon in 1812. The grotto was built with stones from buildings destroyed during Napoleon’s attack on the city.
In the area in front of the grotto you can see the so-called Romanov obelisk. It was erected in 1914 at the park’s main entrance and since then moved to its current location. The Finnish granite obelisk was erected with the shield of the Romanov boyars and the double-headed eagle of the tsars on top. On the obelisk were written the names of the Romanov regents.
During the Soviet Union, Lenin decided to change the obelisk so that Soviet heroes and communist ideologues had their names on the obelisk instead of the row of Romanovs. In 2013, a replica of the original obelisk was erected to replace Lenin’s version.
Lubyanka square dates back to the end of the 15th century, when Ivan III let a number of people from Novgorod settle here. They built one church after another in their hometown; just as they called the place Lubyanka, which also referred to a place in Novgorod itself.
The square later became both famous and infamous for the Big House/Большой дом on the northeast side. It was built in a somewhat smaller version than the current one in the period 1897-1898. At the time, it housed the insurance company Rossija/Россия.
During the Soviet Union, the state security service was housed in the building, which was significantly expanded. The service was founded by the Belarusian Felix Dzerzhinskij, who also had Lubyanka Square named after him until 1990.
The security service became KGB/КГБ, which stands for Committee for National Security/Комитет доставка безопасности, and it’s a combination of letters most people are familiar with. The KGB was the Soviet intelligence service, whose successor is the Russian FSB/ФСБ.
If you want to take a closer look at the FSB and the history of Russian border security, there is a museum nearby; Tsentralnyj Pogranitsnyj Musey FSB Rossii/Центральный пограничный музей ФСБ России (Jauzkiy Bulvar 13/Яузский бульвар 13).
Incidentally, the term The Big HouseБольшой дом is one that was repeated all over Russia, where the KGB had offices. In order not to speak directly about the KGB, they called their local headquarters the Big House.
Along the walls of the Kremlin there are several defensive towers, and perhaps the most interesting is the Saviour’s Tower. At 71 metres, it is one of the tallest of them all, and its location facing Red Square also makes it one of the most distinctive and famous.
Built in 1491 by an Italian architect, the tower owes its stately exterior to the fact that this has always been the main entrance to the Kremlin. In 1624-1625 the tower was extended in a more ornate style, and in 1707 the first clock was installed here by order of Peter the Great. The clock seen today is from 1863, and it is the clock that all of Russia sees on TV when the New Year rings in. The dial of the clock is over 6 meters in diameter, and it is thus so large that a subway train could, for example, drive through the dial.
In 1935, the first red star was placed on top, and two years later it was replaced by a larger one, 3.75 meters high and lit from within. Before the star, the tower was crowned by the double-headed Russian eagle. Several other similar stars are set up on the top of the Kremlin’s main towers, and with their bright light they can be seen far around the city.
The Kremlin’s red stars have become a landmark, and there are two powerful bulbs in each star. If one goes out, the other turns on automatically, so the light never goes out in the stars.
Park Sarjade is a large and modern park, which was opened on 9 September 2017 in one of Moscow’s absolute best locations, right next to the Kremlin and Red Square. It is a park with many different activities and surprising possibilities. It’s just about exploring.
The park houses a concert hall, the city’s philharmonic, green areas, climate zones from all over Russia and much more. Probably the most spectacular part of the walkway The Floating Bridge/Париящий мост, which leads visitors in a V-shape from the park itself and out over the Moskva River and back again. From the bridge there is a fine view of the Kremlin, Red Square and many well-known buildings in the city centre.
You can also visit the park’s media centre, where there are various experiences such as a flight over Russia and exhibitions about the history of Moscow and Russia, which are brought to life through several exciting films. In the park there is also an ice cave, where the development of the northern polar rains of Russia is depicted.
The name Sarjade comes from the historic quarter that was located here until a major renovation in the 1940s. At the time, the plan was for a skyscraper in the so-called Stalin Gothic style to be built on the site, and this would be the eighth of this type of building, which today is referred to as Moscow’s Seven Sisters. The foundation for the skyscraper was laid, but after Stalin’s death in 1953, the project was shelved. Later, the Eighth Sister was resurrected in a revised version as the Polish Warsaw Palace of Culture and Science.
Instead, Hotel Rossiya/Гостиница Россия was built on this site, and it was located here until 2006. The hotel was a five-star hotel, which was opened as the world’s largest in 1967. There were 3,000 rooms and many other facilities, such as a concert hall for 2,500 spectators at the hotel.
The Romanov family had, over generations, increased its political power in Moscow, when the development culminated in the election of the first Romanov as tsar in 1613. Mikhail Romanov became the first tsar of the dynasty, and the family sat on the Russian throne until 1917.
Before then, Mikhail’s grandfather, Nikita Zakharin, had built this mansion as the family residence in the capital. It was an underlining of the importance of family without Ivan the Terrible, who himself married Nikita’s sister Anastasia in 1547.
With Mikhail’s appointment as tsar, the Romanov family moved to the Kremlin, and their boyar mansion was first thoroughly renovated and brought back to its former glory in the 1800s under Tsar Nicholas I.
In 1859, the mansion was opened as a museum, where you get an impression of aristocratic life in historic Moscow. It is an exciting place where you can see, among other things, the division into the men’s and women’s rooms.
Zamoskvorechye is the name of the area south of the Moscow River and the island of Baltjug/Балчуг in central Moscow. The neighborhood grew in the 14th century, and many merchants and traders established themselves in the neighborhood’s streets. Over the centuries, they built, among other things, a long series of mansions and beautiful churches, many of which can still be seen.
The neighborhood is only a few minutes’ walk from Red Square and the large buildings north of the Moscow River. Still, a particularly elegant and relaxing atmosphere prevails here, where the buildings are low and the streets are narrow. The area has been assessed as worthy of preservation, and therefore nothing may be built or changed without special permission.
A walk in the neighborhood should, among other things, go along the street Pyatnitskaya ul./Пятницкая ул., where shops and eateries are located side by side. Here you will also find the cozy side street Chernigovskiy per. 3/Черниговский пер. 3, where three churches are within a short distance of each other.
In addition to the sights mentioned, there are other buildings that are worth seeing during a walk in the district. Along the street 2-j Raushskiy per. 1/2-й Раушский пер. 1 on the island of Balchug you can see, for example, Saint Nicholas Church/Церковь свт. Николая from 1751-1759; there is also a house from 1750 in Petrine Baroque directly opposite the church.
The Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts is the leading art museum in the Russian capital, and it is considered to be among the absolute largest in Russia when it comes to international art.
The museum’s large collections range from ancient art to 20th century productions. There are many works by major European artists, mainly representing the 1800s and 1900s. They include, among others, Monet, Degas, Gauguin and Matisse, and of earlier works you can see several by, for example, Dutch Rembrandt.
The museum opened in 1912 on the initiative of Professor Ivan Tsvetaev, who found great financial support for the project from the philanthropist and manufacturer Yuri Netjaev-Maltsev. Construction lasted 14 years and the building was designed by Roman Klein. Originally the place was named after Alexander III, and it got its current name in 1937, which was the 100th anniversary of Alexander Pushkin’s death.
Arbat Street is Moscow’s liveliest pedestrian street and is known throughout Russia as one of the places to stroll when in the capital. There are of course a large number of shopping opportunities and places to eat, and the street is also a good opportunity to look at Russian daily life, where many locals shop or simply enjoy a stroll.
Arbat is the main street in the district of the same name, and already in the 18th century the neighborhood became a popular place to live for the Russian upper class. During the Napoleonic War and the fire in Moscow in 1812, large parts of the Arbat were destroyed, and it had to be rebuilt. Several buildings are seen in the empire style of the time, and there are also fine examples of the later art nouveau, which goes by the name style moderne in Russia.
The street starts from the east at the square Arbatskaya Ploshad/Арбатская площадь, where one of the city’s ten historic city gates was located. To the southwest, the Arbat ends at Smolenskaja Ploshad/Смоленская площадь, from which there is a direct view of Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, housed in a skyscraper that is one of Stalin’s so-called Seven Sisters.
At Arbatskaya Ploshad you can see one of Moscow’s famous metro station buildings; the vestibule of Arbatskaya/Арба́тская, which opened as a station in 1935. Next to the station is the church Boris & Gleb Church/Храм Бориса и Глеба. The church was built in 1997 after a church that was originally built in the years 1763-1768.
In Moscow, in the early 1990s, there were plans to build a new large complex with offices, housing and entertainment. Central to the complex, located along the Moscow River, is an area where some of Europe’s tallest skyscrapers either stand, are planned, or are under construction.
A special high-rise is the twisted Evolution Tower with a height of 246 meters. It was built 2011-2014 and has, among other things, an observation deck of 51.-52. floor. The house almost bends the geometry, and the reflection of the clouds is an exciting sight.
Among the many tall buildings is also Merkur City Tower/Меркурий Сити Тауер, which was completed in 2012 with a height of approximately 339 meters as Europe’s tallest building, excluding towers. The majority of Europe’s tallest skyscrapers are located in Moscow City, and among the notable buildings is Capital City/Город Столиц, whose twin buildings were completed in 2006. The houses on one tower reach a height of over 300 meters and represent the metropolitan cities of Moscow and Saint Petersburg .
Naberezhnaya Tower/Башня на набережной at 268 meters consists of three buildings that were completed in 2007. It and the other works are beautiful and awe-inspiring to experience both during the day and in the evening light. The area is also called Moskva-City/Москва-Сити, and a significant part of it houses an exhibition center that was built in the years 1947-1950; Expocentr/Экспоцентр.
The 206 meter high Hotel Ukraine opened in 1957 and is still one of Moscow’s leading hotels. Its style is the imposing Stalin classicism. There are seven original buildings of this type in the city, and they were meant to express the Soviet Union’s victory in World War II and general prowess to mark the 800th anniversary of Moscow’s founding in 1147.
The buildings are among Moscow’s landmarks, and they are strategically placed around the old city center, so that there is almost always a view of one or more of them. There should have been an eighth sister next to Red Square; a skyscraper for each of the eight centuries, but this one was never built.
Hotel Ukraine is still a hotel, and you have the opportunity to live luxuriously in the historical setting from Stalin’s era. The lobby itself is magnificent, and here you can experience the beautiful and famous diorama of Moscow from 1977, which shows the Soviet capital as it looked then.
Of Moscow’s so-called Seven Sisters in Stalin-Gothic style, the University of Moscow is the tallest at 240 meters. The building’s location and dimensions are impressive. Among other things, more than 40,000 students go here, and there are 50,000 rooms in the building and 6,000 rooms distributed in dormitories.
The university building opened in 1953, and with its impressive height it was Europe’s tallest building until 1990, when tower constructions are excluded.
Ostankino TV tower was built 1963-1967 as the world’s tallest building with an impressive 540 meters in height. There is an observation deck at a height of 337 meters, from which the view of Moscow is fantastic.
The tower was designed by Nikolai Nikitin and built to mark and celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Russian October Revolution. Ostankino TV Tower can naturally be seen from large parts of Moscow, and when you get all the way under it, you can really see how impressive the slender construction is.
Tsaritsyno is a large, lovely park with lakes, fountains, green areas and, not least, Catherine the Great’s palace, which, with the name Tsaritsyno, is named after the tsarina’s title. At the end of the 16th century, the area with a then-residence belonged to Irina, who was Tsar Boris Godunov’s sister. However, the place only became really known and developed after Catherine the Great acquired the area in 1775.
The Tsarina commissioned the architect Vasiliy Bazhenov to build a palace, which he did in the years 1776-1785. The regent thought the result too small and dark, and she ordered the site demolished and the architect executed, which was done.
In 1786, Catherine the Great approved Matvej Kazakov’s drawings for a new palace, and the construction lasted until Catherine’s death in 1796. Pavel I became the new tsar, and neither he nor others in the following centuries wanted to continue building on Tsaritsyno, which thus ended up as a large unfinished palace building.
Tsaritsyno was completed in the years 2005-2007, and the style is Catherine the Great’s approved Neo-Gothic architecture. Around the grand and fashionable palace, you can see a number of smaller buildings, pavilions and bridges in the same style as the palace, and this makes Tsaritsino a fine 18th-century ensemble.
The decoration of the Tsaritsyno Palace was also carried out with the completion from 2005. The place is today a museum, where you can see impressive rooms and halls as from the tsarist residences in Saint Petersburg. The park around the palace is also very interesting; Among other things, the large fountain with music surrounding it, which is located between the palace and the metro station Tsaritsyno, impresses.
Sergiyev Posad is one of the famous cities in the so-called golden ring northeast of Moscow. The town’s history goes back to the monk Bartholomew’s founding of the Trinity Monastery in 1340. The monastery originally consisted of a simple wooden church dedicated to the Trinity, and over time it attracted more monks.
After Bartholomew’s canonization as Saint Sergius in 1422, the monastery became a place of pilgrimage for Orthodox believers from Russia. Already at this time, a settlement had arisen around the monastery, which particularly attracted merchants and craftsmen such as icon painters, who benefited from the many pilgrims in the monastery. Other crafts lived by servicing the monastery itself, and several separate settlements arose over time.
Vladimir is one of the Russian cities of culture in the area northeast of Moscow. According to the Nestor Chronicle, it was founded in 1108, but the establishment may have taken place earlier. In Vladimir’s first decades it was an outpost of the Principality of Rostov-Suzdal, but after the reign of Yuri Dolgoruky, which ended in 1157, Vladimir became the capital of the newly established Vladimir-Suzdal. The city grew rapidly and became prosperous. In this early period, the Golden Gate and the Ascension Cathedral were built, and the prince attempted to establish a metropolitanate in Vladimir.
The period from 1157 to the Mongol invasion of Russia in 1237 is considered the Golden Age of Vladimir, and masons worked on the city’s many stone cathedrals, monasteries, palaces and other structures, which were more ornate in their exteriors than in other contemporaries in Northern Europe. The Golden Age ended with the Mongols, who besieged and conquered Vladimir in 1238.
Suzdal is one of the Russian cities of culture in the so-called golden ring northeast of Moscow. Officially founded in 1024, the city grew so important that Yuri Dolgoruky made it the capital of the Principality of Rostov-Suzdal in 1125. However, the capital was moved to Vladimir in the newly established Vladimir-Suzdal in 1157, but Suzdal retained its position as an important trade center.
Later, the principality was united with Nizhny Novgorod, before both were annexed by the growing Moscow in 1392. Suzdal experienced great growth in the 16th century, with Vasiliy III and Ivan IV investing in the construction of churches and monasteries in the city, increasing Suzdal’s religious influence in the country.
Kostroma is one of the famous cultural cities in the so-called golden ring northeast of the Russian capital Moscow. The town was founded in 1152 by Yuri Dolgoruky, but there may very well have been a settlement much earlier on this site. Kostroma was attacked by Mongol armies in 1238, and subsequently the city was established as its own principality, where a brother of Alexander Nevsky became prince. His descendants ruled Kostroma until around 1330, when Ivan I of Moscow bought the city, which with the purchase became part of the Grand Duchy of Moscow.
As a northern city in the Grand Duchy, Kostroma came to be a place where Moscow’s Grand Dukes went to when the capital was besieged, which happened in 1382, 1408 and 1433, among others. The 16th century was a period of high growth, which not least happened because of the Muscovy Company and trade through the port city of Arkhangelsk.
Lubyanka/Лубянка
www.detmir.ru
Bagrationovskij pr. 7/Багратионовский пр. 7
www.gorbushkin.ru
Krasnaja ploshad 3/Красная площадь 3
www.gum.ru
Several addresses in Moscow
www.megamall.ru
Manezhnaja ploshad 1/Манежная площадь 1
www.okhot-ryad.ru
Petrovka 2/Петровка 2
www.tsum.ru
Streets around Arbat/Арбат, Novyj Arbat/Новый Арбат and Tverskaja ulitsa/Тверская улица
Gorky Park/Центральный парк им. М.Горького
Krymskij val 9/Крымский вал 9
www.park-gorkogo.com
Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics/Мемориальный музей космонавтики
pr. Mira 111/пр. Мира 111
www.space-museum.ru
Moscow Dolphinarium/Московский дельфинарий
ul. Mironovskaya 27/Ул. Мироновская 27
Moscow State Circus/Большой Московский государственный цирк
Prospekt Vernadskogo 7/Проспект Вернадского 7
www.bolshoicircus.ru
Moscow Zoo/Московский зоопарк
ul. B. Gruzinskaja 1/ул. Б. 1рузинская 1
www.zoo.ru/moscow
Ostankino TV tower/Останкинская башня
ul. Akademika Koroljova 15/ул. Академика Королёва 15
www.tvtower.ru
In the 8th century, the river Oka was used as a trade route, and the area around the upper part of Volga became a meeting place for various tribes such as Germans, Indians and the slaves who came to inhabit the places.
Actual settlements in the large area between the Volga and Oka rivers are believed to be established in the 1000s; in the central part of present-day Moscow was a small village around the year 1100.
Moscow’s official foundation was in 1147, when Jurij I Dolgorokij, prince of Suzdal, met here with a prince from Novgorod. The meeting brought the village, located in the western part of Vladimir-Suzdal, into the history books.
In 1156, Jurij Dolgorokij expanded and fortified the city by establishing a moat and the first wooden defenses.
The Asian Mongols ravaged and conquered vast land masses during the 13th century, and their advance and subsequent administration had consequences for the entire East Slavic area that has become present-day Russia, Belarus and Ukraine.
In 1237-1238, the grandson of Genghis Khan, Batu Khan conquered Vladimir-Suzdal, under which Moscow belonged. The capital Vladimir and Moscow itself were burnt, and the Mongols built their new capital Saray to the south. They even became known as the Golden Horde.
The internal Russian battles under the Mongols supremacy were important to which cities and regions flourished. In 1283, Moscow became a prince with Daniel as the first prince.
The cities of Moscow and Tver were some of the beneficiaries of economic prosperity, but in 1327 Tver’s prince joined the rebellion against the Mongols. Moscow Prince Ivan I joined the Mongols, destroying Tver and thereby one of the city’s competitors in the region.
The rival Tver had fallen, and Moscow was now able to attract and establish the Russian Orthodox Church’s headquarters in the city. Ivan I was also given the title of Grand Duke of the Mongols, which meant a greater status and power than before.
While the Mongols continued to ravage on a regular basis in the Russian territory, Moscow, as a partner, enjoyed relative peace and freedom. The ruler of the city was used as part of the Mongols and other Russian peoples and states, and the peace with the Mongols prompted many prosperous people to move to Moscow, which grew.
Moscow, with its economically significant river trade, had the opportunity to form an independent city state. However, the city state continued to pay money to the Golden Horde well into the 15th century, when Prince Ivan the Great increased Moscow’s power and sphere of influence considerably.
With victories over other Russian princes, Moscow was able to expand its territory through the same century. Novgorod was conquered in 1478 and Tver fell seven years later. At the end of the 15th century, Ivan III, nicknamed the Great Kingdom, stretched to Novrogod to the northwest, the Barents Sea to the north, Ural to the east and Tula to the south. Ivan, for good reason, called himself the entire ruler of Russia, and he called on Italian architects to expand the central power base, the Kremlin, with cathedrals, among others. It was also during Ivan III that the Red Square was built.
By this time, most of the ethnic Russian territory was thus gathered and strengthened, and the Mongols had begun their final retreat after the Battle of Ugra, which despite its name never developed into a real battle.
Moscow’s defense was continually strengthened over the following centuries; for example, the boroughs of Murbyen / Китай-город, the White City / Белый город, and the City of Earth / Земляной город were established as a kind of circular defense around the Kremlin.
However, attacks and destruction also occurred. In 1547 a large part of the city burned, and in 1571 the Crimean Tatars plundered the city, which was again burnt down; only about 30,000 of the city’s 200,000 were left after that.
From Moscow, Ivan increased the sphere of cruel Moscow with the colonization of Siberia. It infected Moscow, which had a population of more than 200,000, making it one of the world’s largest cities.
Between 1584 and 1591, a city wall was constructed and it quickly proved useful. The Crimean Tatars attacked again in 1591, but this time the fortifications could hold them back. The following year, the defense was expanded again with an external earth tower with 50 towers. The location of the earthviolence can now be seen on a city map, as the ring road Garden Ring/Садовое кольцо is now here. Outside the violence, several fortified monasteries lay as southernmost hedges.
Boris Godunov was prime minister and later czar around the year 1600, and the city was then hit hard times. First, a severe famine struck in 1602-1603, and then troops from Poland-Lithuania came and occupied the city in 1610. It took two years before a rebellion led to their defeat and retreat.
The hardships were not over with that. In 1626 and again in 1648, large parts of the city’s many wooden houses burned, and in the years 1654-1655 the majority of Moscow’s inhabitants died in the plague epidemic that hit.
Meanwhile, the Romanov dynasty had been established as tsars. It began with Mikhail Romanov in 1613, and the dynasty sat on the Russian zartrone right up to the Bolshevik political upheaval in 1917. With Mikhail Romanov’s accession, Moscow, despite fires and plagues, entered a time when the city was once again flourishing, and the kingdom was expanding continuously. to the south.
Zar Peter the Great traveled around Europe 1697-1698, and it became of great importance to Moscow. The Czar founded St. Petersburg in 1703, and the Russian capital was moved from Moscow to the new city, taking over Moscow’s role as the politically and culturally dominant city in the kingdom.
The Russian nobility built mansions in the new capital, and from a size of about 200,000 inhabitants, that number dropped to about 150,000 in the mid-18th century.
However, the declining population did not continue, as Moscow’s considerable size and economic importance was maintained over time, and the number of citizens again began to rise rapidly.
In the reign of Peter the Great, Moscow’s streets were being paved, permanent street lighting was introduced in 1730, and 25 years later, the city’s university was founded. Although the capital was in St. Petersburg, the city’s defense was also expanded.
Moscow’s status was no longer capital, but its importance to Russia was emphasized by its being French Napoleon’s invasion target.
The French troops achieved massive advances through Europe and the large Russian territories. In 1812 the decisive battle was fought; it took place at Borodino 130 kilometers west of Moscow and was on Napoleon’s road towards the city.
Here 44,000 Russian soldiers and 35,000 French were killed. After the battle, the Russians withdrew and Napoleon was able to take Moscow. Instead of the czar’s surrender and negotiation for peace, the city was evacuated and partially burned. Napoleon and the French forces left the city within a month.
A great deal of construction work was carried out following Napoleon’s siege and short-term conquest of Moscow, and the city’s population quickly rose rapidly as the 19th century began industrialization, which brought with it new districts and city plans.
The railways’ entry into the Russian metropolis also gained momentum throughout the century. Several railway stations were built on the periphery of the city center, and with the Trans-Siberian Railway one could get from Moscow to eastern Russia on the Pacific coast.
Up to the early 1900s, political decisions continued to be made by the Tsars in the capital of St. Petersburg, but tensions in the country and in Moscow increased over the years, and it ended with a revolution.
During the October 1917 Revolution, Moscow was the Russian city, with the most fighting in the streets. The Kremlin was occupied by the communist Bolsheviks and the revolutionary hero and communist leader Vladimir Lenin decided to move the capital from Petrograd (Saint Petersburg) to Moscow. He aligned himself with his government in Moscow, and it marked the beginning of Moscow’s next heyday as one of the world’s most important political centers.
Moscow became the center of the whole country and part of the world reorganization. Moscow itself, under Josef Stalin, was subject to the most comprehensive urban planning of world history. The boulevards, institutions and countless new residential neighborhoods were built and linked by the world famous metro, whose first line opened in 1935.
Germany invaded Russia in 1941, and the German troops reached the outskirts of Moscow. Only 40 kilometers from the city, they were stopped by Russian resistance – and the cold Russian winter, which had also caused Napoleon problems.
After World War II, Moscow was expanded with colossal new residential areas and large-scale buildings, following Stalin’s desire to show Soviet ability in the form of a monumental capital, if none existed.
The city’s population increased significantly, as did the city’s importance throughout the Soviet Union. From a population of 1.8 million at the time of the revolution in 1917, the city grew million by million, and today it is Europe’s largest city.
Following President Mikhail Gorbachev’s glass nest in the 1980s, Boris Yeltsin went on the barricades in 1991 and established Moscow as the new Russia’s capital, which in recent years has been a city with a great deal of investment in new buildings as well as maintenance of monuments for the city’s historic events.
The whole story is represented from the buildings of the princes, the elegance of the tsars, the monumental grandeur of the Soviet Union and today’s ambitious and forward-thinking Russia.
All over the city you will find prosperity, shopping opportunities, good food and attractions, of which the many inhabitants are large consumers.
Moscow, Russia[/caption]
Overview of Moscow
Moscow is the capital of the Russian Federation and it is at the same time one of history’s great cultural and political centers. With its 15 million citizens, it is Europe’s largest city, and there are countless major sights, prestigious museums, fine monuments and interesting attractions.
The exploration of the city may well start in the heart of Moscow, where the colorful onion domes of St. Basil’s Cathedral adorn the center of the Red Square in front of the Kremlin’s impressive towers, spiers, cathedrals and fine museums. Much of the architecture dates from Russia’s time with czarist rule, but there are colossal monuments from the superpower times of the Soviet Union.
About the Whitehorse travel guide
Contents: Tours in the city + tours in the surrounding area
Published: Released soon
Author: Stig Albeck
Publisher: Vamados.com
Language: English
About the travel guide
The Whitehorse travel guide gives you an overview of the sights and activities of the Canadian city. Read about top sights and other sights, and get a tour guide with tour suggestions and detailed descriptions of all the city’s most important churches, monuments, mansions, museums, etc.
Whitehorse is waiting for you, and at vamados.com you can also find cheap flights and great deals on hotels for your trip. You just select your travel dates and then you get flight and accommodation suggestions in and around the city.
Read more about Whitehorse and Canada
Canada Travel Guide: https://vamados.com/canada
City tourism: https://visitwhite-horse.ca
Main Page: https://www.vamados.com/
Buy the travel guide
Click the “Add to Cart” button to purchase the travel guide. After that you will come to the payment, where you enter the purchase and payment information. Upon payment of the travel guide, you will immediately receive a receipt with a link to download your purchase. You can download the travel guide immediately or use the download link in the email later.
Use the travel guide
When you buy the travel guide to Whitehorse you get the book online so you can have it on your phone, tablet or computer – and of course you can choose to print it. Use the maps and tour suggestions and you will have a good and content-rich journey.
GUM is perhaps the world’s best-known department store, and it is located in the heart of Moscow. The large old state department store was built in New Russian style 1890-1893 on the site that had been the city’s central market place since the 17th century.
In the Soviet Union, the building was a colossal department store, and here it was named GUM, which means the State Universal Warehouse/Государственный уверенслейный магазин. Today, there are hundreds of smaller shops in the beautiful arcades under the glass roofs, and thereby the original idea of small traders has been recreated.
In GUM’s western end, you can also have a special experience in the form of a visit to the Historical Toilet/Исторический туалет, whose interior dates back to 1893. The toilet is beautiful and is continuously maintained to remain original.
The Moscow History Museum is part of the Russian National Museum. In the large red stone building from the 1880s, one can see larger archaeological collections, handicrafts, household goods and more from various periods in Russia’s history. The collections are overwhelming, and with several million effects, the museum’s caches are the largest of their kind in the country.
Behind the museum on Manezhnaya Ploshad/Манежная площадь you can see a statue of Marshal Shukov, one of the great heroes of World War II’s colossal military effort in the war against Germany, where the Soviet Union overcame the attacking Germans.
A detail of the statue is that Shukov rides with outstretched legs. This style is connected with the fact that, at the celebration of the victory over Germany in the Second World War, Shukov was equipped with a relatively wild horse by Stalin. Shukov was not an equestrian general, but chose the stiff legs in the stirrups to maintain control of the horse and ride as planned at the parade.
The Alexander Garden is a lovely park that was laid out in 1823 along the Kremlin’s western wall. The park measures around 865 meters in length and is divided into different sections from the northern Upper Garden to the Middle Garden and the Lower Garden.
The park was created on the initiative of Tsar Alexander I, after whom the green oasis is also named. It happened after devastation after the ravages of Napoleon’s French troops. On the site of the garden ran the stream Neglinnaya/Неглинная, and it was piped at the construction of the Alexander Garden.
The main entrance to the park is to the north and thus close to Den Røde Plads. Behind the beautiful lattice gates, along the Kremlin wall, you can see the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier/Могила Неизвестного Солдата, where an eternal flame burns, which was brought here from the eternal flame on the Field of Mars in Leningrad. The grave commemorates those who fell during World War II battles, and it was moved here from Zelenograd on the outskirts of Moscow in 1966 to mark the 25th anniversary of the Battle of Moscow in 1941. At the grave, every hour you can follow the changing of the guard by the Kremlin’s soldiers who stand guard On-site.
A short distance south from here and also up the Kremlin wall, you will find the Memorial Stone of Soviet Hero Cities and then a grotto with a memorial that is a monument to the victory over Napoleon in 1812. The grotto was built with stones from buildings destroyed during Napoleon’s attack on the city.
In the area in front of the grotto you can see the so-called Romanov obelisk. It was erected in 1914 at the park’s main entrance and since then moved to its current location. The Finnish granite obelisk was erected with the shield of the Romanov boyars and the double-headed eagle of the tsars on top. On the obelisk were written the names of the Romanov regents.
During the Soviet Union, Lenin decided to change the obelisk so that Soviet heroes and communist ideologues had their names on the obelisk instead of the row of Romanovs. In 2013, a replica of the original obelisk was erected to replace Lenin’s version.
Lubyanka square dates back to the end of the 15th century, when Ivan III let a number of people from Novgorod settle here. They built one church after another in their hometown; just as they called the place Lubyanka, which also referred to a place in Novgorod itself.
The square later became both famous and infamous for the Big House/Большой дом on the northeast side. It was built in a somewhat smaller version than the current one in the period 1897-1898. At the time, it housed the insurance company Rossija/Россия.
During the Soviet Union, the state security service was housed in the building, which was significantly expanded. The service was founded by the Belarusian Felix Dzerzhinskij, who also had Lubyanka Square named after him until 1990.
The security service became KGB/КГБ, which stands for Committee for National Security/Комитет доставка безопасности, and it’s a combination of letters most people are familiar with. The KGB was the Soviet intelligence service, whose successor is the Russian FSB/ФСБ.
If you want to take a closer look at the FSB and the history of Russian border security, there is a museum nearby; Tsentralnyj Pogranitsnyj Musey FSB Rossii/Центральный пограничный музей ФСБ России (Jauzkiy Bulvar 13/Яузский бульвар 13).
Incidentally, the term The Big HouseБольшой дом is one that was repeated all over Russia, where the KGB had offices. In order not to speak directly about the KGB, they called their local headquarters the Big House.
Along the walls of the Kremlin there are several defensive towers, and perhaps the most interesting is the Saviour’s Tower. At 71 metres, it is one of the tallest of them all, and its location facing Red Square also makes it one of the most distinctive and famous.
Built in 1491 by an Italian architect, the tower owes its stately exterior to the fact that this has always been the main entrance to the Kremlin. In 1624-1625 the tower was extended in a more ornate style, and in 1707 the first clock was installed here by order of Peter the Great. The clock seen today is from 1863, and it is the clock that all of Russia sees on TV when the New Year rings in. The dial of the clock is over 6 meters in diameter, and it is thus so large that a subway train could, for example, drive through the dial.
In 1935, the first red star was placed on top, and two years later it was replaced by a larger one, 3.75 meters high and lit from within. Before the star, the tower was crowned by the double-headed Russian eagle. Several other similar stars are set up on the top of the Kremlin’s main towers, and with their bright light they can be seen far around the city.
The Kremlin’s red stars have become a landmark, and there are two powerful bulbs in each star. If one goes out, the other turns on automatically, so the light never goes out in the stars.
Park Sarjade is a large and modern park, which was opened on 9 September 2017 in one of Moscow’s absolute best locations, right next to the Kremlin and Red Square. It is a park with many different activities and surprising possibilities. It’s just about exploring.
The park houses a concert hall, the city’s philharmonic, green areas, climate zones from all over Russia and much more. Probably the most spectacular part of the walkway The Floating Bridge/Париящий мост, which leads visitors in a V-shape from the park itself and out over the Moskva River and back again. From the bridge there is a fine view of the Kremlin, Red Square and many well-known buildings in the city centre.
You can also visit the park’s media centre, where there are various experiences such as a flight over Russia and exhibitions about the history of Moscow and Russia, which are brought to life through several exciting films. In the park there is also an ice cave, where the development of the northern polar rains of Russia is depicted.
The name Sarjade comes from the historic quarter that was located here until a major renovation in the 1940s. At the time, the plan was for a skyscraper in the so-called Stalin Gothic style to be built on the site, and this would be the eighth of this type of building, which today is referred to as Moscow’s Seven Sisters. The foundation for the skyscraper was laid, but after Stalin’s death in 1953, the project was shelved. Later, the Eighth Sister was resurrected in a revised version as the Polish Warsaw Palace of Culture and Science.
Instead, Hotel Rossiya/Гостиница Россия was built on this site, and it was located here until 2006. The hotel was a five-star hotel, which was opened as the world’s largest in 1967. There were 3,000 rooms and many other facilities, such as a concert hall for 2,500 spectators at the hotel.
The Romanov family had, over generations, increased its political power in Moscow, when the development culminated in the election of the first Romanov as tsar in 1613. Mikhail Romanov became the first tsar of the dynasty, and the family sat on the Russian throne until 1917.
Before then, Mikhail’s grandfather, Nikita Zakharin, had built this mansion as the family residence in the capital. It was an underlining of the importance of family without Ivan the Terrible, who himself married Nikita’s sister Anastasia in 1547.
With Mikhail’s appointment as tsar, the Romanov family moved to the Kremlin, and their boyar mansion was first thoroughly renovated and brought back to its former glory in the 1800s under Tsar Nicholas I.
In 1859, the mansion was opened as a museum, where you get an impression of aristocratic life in historic Moscow. It is an exciting place where you can see, among other things, the division into the men’s and women’s rooms.
Zamoskvorechye is the name of the area south of the Moscow River and the island of Baltjug/Балчуг in central Moscow. The neighborhood grew in the 14th century, and many merchants and traders established themselves in the neighborhood’s streets. Over the centuries, they built, among other things, a long series of mansions and beautiful churches, many of which can still be seen.
The neighborhood is only a few minutes’ walk from Red Square and the large buildings north of the Moscow River. Still, a particularly elegant and relaxing atmosphere prevails here, where the buildings are low and the streets are narrow. The area has been assessed as worthy of preservation, and therefore nothing may be built or changed without special permission.
A walk in the neighborhood should, among other things, go along the street Pyatnitskaya ul./Пятницкая ул., where shops and eateries are located side by side. Here you will also find the cozy side street Chernigovskiy per. 3/Черниговский пер. 3, where three churches are within a short distance of each other.
In addition to the sights mentioned, there are other buildings that are worth seeing during a walk in the district. Along the street 2-j Raushskiy per. 1/2-й Раушский пер. 1 on the island of Balchug you can see, for example, Saint Nicholas Church/Церковь свт. Николая from 1751-1759; there is also a house from 1750 in Petrine Baroque directly opposite the church.
The Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts is the leading art museum in the Russian capital, and it is considered to be among the absolute largest in Russia when it comes to international art.
The museum’s large collections range from ancient art to 20th century productions. There are many works by major European artists, mainly representing the 1800s and 1900s. They include, among others, Monet, Degas, Gauguin and Matisse, and of earlier works you can see several by, for example, Dutch Rembrandt.
The museum opened in 1912 on the initiative of Professor Ivan Tsvetaev, who found great financial support for the project from the philanthropist and manufacturer Yuri Netjaev-Maltsev. Construction lasted 14 years and the building was designed by Roman Klein. Originally the place was named after Alexander III, and it got its current name in 1937, which was the 100th anniversary of Alexander Pushkin’s death.
Arbat Street is Moscow’s liveliest pedestrian street and is known throughout Russia as one of the places to stroll when in the capital. There are of course a large number of shopping opportunities and places to eat, and the street is also a good opportunity to look at Russian daily life, where many locals shop or simply enjoy a stroll.
Arbat is the main street in the district of the same name, and already in the 18th century the neighborhood became a popular place to live for the Russian upper class. During the Napoleonic War and the fire in Moscow in 1812, large parts of the Arbat were destroyed, and it had to be rebuilt. Several buildings are seen in the empire style of the time, and there are also fine examples of the later art nouveau, which goes by the name style moderne in Russia.
The street starts from the east at the square Arbatskaya Ploshad/Арбатская площадь, where one of the city’s ten historic city gates was located. To the southwest, the Arbat ends at Smolenskaja Ploshad/Смоленская площадь, from which there is a direct view of Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, housed in a skyscraper that is one of Stalin’s so-called Seven Sisters.
At Arbatskaya Ploshad you can see one of Moscow’s famous metro station buildings; the vestibule of Arbatskaya/Арба́тская, which opened as a station in 1935. Next to the station is the church Boris & Gleb Church/Храм Бориса и Глеба. The church was built in 1997 after a church that was originally built in the years 1763-1768.
In Moscow, in the early 1990s, there were plans to build a new large complex with offices, housing and entertainment. Central to the complex, located along the Moscow River, is an area where some of Europe’s tallest skyscrapers either stand, are planned, or are under construction.
A special high-rise is the twisted Evolution Tower with a height of 246 meters. It was built 2011-2014 and has, among other things, an observation deck of 51.-52. floor. The house almost bends the geometry, and the reflection of the clouds is an exciting sight.
Among the many tall buildings is also Merkur City Tower/Меркурий Сити Тауер, which was completed in 2012 with a height of approximately 339 meters as Europe’s tallest building, excluding towers. The majority of Europe’s tallest skyscrapers are located in Moscow City, and among the notable buildings is Capital City/Город Столиц, whose twin buildings were completed in 2006. The houses on one tower reach a height of over 300 meters and represent the metropolitan cities of Moscow and Saint Petersburg .
Naberezhnaya Tower/Башня на набережной at 268 meters consists of three buildings that were completed in 2007. It and the other works are beautiful and awe-inspiring to experience both during the day and in the evening light. The area is also called Moskva-City/Москва-Сити, and a significant part of it houses an exhibition center that was built in the years 1947-1950; Expocentr/Экспоцентр.
The 206 meter high Hotel Ukraine opened in 1957 and is still one of Moscow’s leading hotels. Its style is the imposing Stalin classicism. There are seven original buildings of this type in the city, and they were meant to express the Soviet Union’s victory in World War II and general prowess to mark the 800th anniversary of Moscow’s founding in 1147.
The buildings are among Moscow’s landmarks, and they are strategically placed around the old city center, so that there is almost always a view of one or more of them. There should have been an eighth sister next to Red Square; a skyscraper for each of the eight centuries, but this one was never built.
Hotel Ukraine is still a hotel, and you have the opportunity to live luxuriously in the historical setting from Stalin’s era. The lobby itself is magnificent, and here you can experience the beautiful and famous diorama of Moscow from 1977, which shows the Soviet capital as it looked then.
Of Moscow’s so-called Seven Sisters in Stalin-Gothic style, the University of Moscow is the tallest at 240 meters. The building’s location and dimensions are impressive. Among other things, more than 40,000 students go here, and there are 50,000 rooms in the building and 6,000 rooms distributed in dormitories.
The university building opened in 1953, and with its impressive height it was Europe’s tallest building until 1990, when tower constructions are excluded.
Ostankino TV tower was built 1963-1967 as the world’s tallest building with an impressive 540 meters in height. There is an observation deck at a height of 337 meters, from which the view of Moscow is fantastic.
The tower was designed by Nikolai Nikitin and built to mark and celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Russian October Revolution. Ostankino TV Tower can naturally be seen from large parts of Moscow, and when you get all the way under it, you can really see how impressive the slender construction is.
Tsaritsyno is a large, lovely park with lakes, fountains, green areas and, not least, Catherine the Great’s palace, which, with the name Tsaritsyno, is named after the tsarina’s title. At the end of the 16th century, the area with a then-residence belonged to Irina, who was Tsar Boris Godunov’s sister. However, the place only became really known and developed after Catherine the Great acquired the area in 1775.
The Tsarina commissioned the architect Vasiliy Bazhenov to build a palace, which he did in the years 1776-1785. The regent thought the result too small and dark, and she ordered the site demolished and the architect executed, which was done.
In 1786, Catherine the Great approved Matvej Kazakov’s drawings for a new palace, and the construction lasted until Catherine’s death in 1796. Pavel I became the new tsar, and neither he nor others in the following centuries wanted to continue building on Tsaritsyno, which thus ended up as a large unfinished palace building.
Tsaritsyno was completed in the years 2005-2007, and the style is Catherine the Great’s approved Neo-Gothic architecture. Around the grand and fashionable palace, you can see a number of smaller buildings, pavilions and bridges in the same style as the palace, and this makes Tsaritsino a fine 18th-century ensemble.
The decoration of the Tsaritsyno Palace was also carried out with the completion from 2005. The place is today a museum, where you can see impressive rooms and halls as from the tsarist residences in Saint Petersburg. The park around the palace is also very interesting; Among other things, the large fountain with music surrounding it, which is located between the palace and the metro station Tsaritsyno, impresses.
Similar to Moscow Travel Guide
