What to See in Moscow - Top Sights and Attractions

Collection of 21st-century Russian art. The State Tretyakov Gallery is an art gallery in Moscow, Russia, the foremost depository of Russian fine art in the world.

The gallery's history starts in 1856 when the Moscow merchant Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov acquired works by Russian artists of his day with the aim of creating a collection, which might later grow into a museum of national art. In 1892, Tretyakov presented his already famous collection of approximately 2,000 works (1,362 paintings, 526 drawings, and 9 sculptures) to the Russian nation. The museum attracted 894,374 (visitors in 2020 (down 68 percent from 2019), due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was 13th on the list of most-visited art museums in the world in 2020.

The façade of the gallery building was designed by the painter Viktor Vasnetsov in a peculiar Russian fairy-tale style. It was built in 1902–04 to the south from the Moscow Kremlin. During the 20th century, the gallery expanded to several neighboring buildings, including the 17th-century church of St. Nicholas in Tolmachi.

The collection contains more than 130,000 exhibits, ranging from Theotokos of Vladimir and Andrei Rublev's Trinity to the monumental Composition VII by Wassily Kandinsky and the Black Square by Kazimir Malevich.

In 1977 the Gallery kept a significant part of the George Costakis collection.

In May 2012, the Tretyakov Art Gallery played host to the prestigious FIDE World Chess Championship between Viswanathan Anand and Boris Gelfand as the organizers felt the event would promote both chess and art at the same time.^[3]

Monumental architectural complex. The Kremlin is a fortified complex in the centre of Moscow founded by the ruling dynasty of Rurikids. It is the best known of the kremlins, and includes five palaces, four cathedrals, and the enclosing Kremlin Wall with Kremlin towers. In addition, within this complex is the Grand Kremlin Palace that was formerly the Tsar's Moscow residence. The complex now serves as the official residence of the President of the Russian Federation and as a museum with almost 3 million visitors in 2017. The Kremlin overlooks the Moskva River to the south, Saint Basil's Cathedral and Red Square to the east, and the Alexander Garden to the west.

The name "Kremlin" means "fortress inside a city", and is often also used metonymically to refer to the government of the Russian Federation. It previously referred to the government of the Soviet Union (1922–1991) and its highest members (such as general secretaries, premiers, presidents, ministers, and commissars). The term "Kremlinology" refers to the study of Soviet and Russian politics.

The Kremlin is open to the public and offers individual and group guided tours. Visible are the Armoury Chamber, Tsar Cannon, Tsar Bell, artillery pieces, and the exposition of Russian wooden sculpture and carvings.^[4]

Museum in iconic former Orthodox church. The Cathedral of Vasily the Blessed, commonly known as Saint Basil's Cathedral, is an Orthodox church in Red Square of Moscow, and is one of the most popular cultural symbols of Russia. The building, now a museum, is officially known as the Cathedral of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos on the Moat, or Pokrovsky Cathedral. It was built from 1555 to 1561 on orders from Ivan the Terrible and commemorates the capture of Kazan and Astrakhan. It was the city's tallest building until the completion of the Ivan the Great Bell Tower in 1600.

The original building, known as Trinity Church and later Trinity Cathedral, contained eight chapels arranged around a ninth, central chapel dedicated to the Intercession; a tenth chapel was erected in 1588 over the grave of the venerated local saint Vasily (Basil). In the 16th and 17th centuries, the church, perceived (as with all churches in Byzantine Christianity) as the earthly symbol of the Heavenly City, was popularly known as the "Jerusalem" and served as an allegory of the Jerusalem Temple in the annual Palm Sunday parade attended by the Patriarch of Moscow and the Tsar.

The cathedral has nine domes (each one corresponding to a different church) and is shaped like the flame of a bonfire rising into the sky. Dmitry Shvidkovsky, in his book Russian Architecture and the West, states that "it is like no other Russian building. Nothing similar can be found in the entire millennium of Byzantine tradition from the fifth to the fifteenth century.. a strangeness that astonishes by its unexpectedness, complexity and dazzling interleaving of the manifold details of its design." The cathedral foreshadowed the climax of Russian national architecture in the 17th century.

As part of the program of state atheism, the church was confiscated from the Russian Orthodox community as part of the Soviet Union's antireligious campaigns and has operated as a division of the State Historical Museum since 1928. It was completely secularized in 1929, and remains a federal property of the Russian Federation. The church has been part of the Moscow Kremlin and Red Square UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1990. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, weekly Orthodox Christian services with prayer to St. Basil have been restored since 1997.^[5]

Russian Orthodox medieval cathedral. The Cathedral of the Dormition, also known as the Assumption Cathedral or Cathedral of the Assumption, is a Russian Orthodox church dedicated to the Dormition of the Theotokos. It is located on the north side of Cathedral Square of the Moscow Kremlin in Russia, where a narrow alley separates the north from the Patriarch's Palace with the Twelve Apostles Church. Separately in the southwest, also separated by a narrow passage from the church, stands the Palace of Facets. The Cathedral is regarded as the mother church of Muscovite Russia. In its present form it was constructed between 1475 and 1479 at the behest of the Moscow Grand Duke Ivan III to a design by the Italian architect Aristotele Fioravanti. From 1547 to 1896 the coronation of Russian monarchs took place here. In addition, the cathedral is the burial place for most of the Moscow Metropolitans and Patriarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church; it also serves as a part of Moscow Kremlin Museums.^[12]

Zoo in Moscow, Russia. The Moscow Zoo or Moskovsky Zoopark is a 21.5-hectare zoo founded in 1864 by professor-biologists, K.F. Rulje, S.A. Usov and A.P. Bogdanov, from the Moscow State University. In 1919, the zoo was nationalized. In 1922, the ownership was transferred to the Government of Moscow and has remained under Moscow's control ever since.

The zoo had an area of 10 hectares (25 acres) when it first opened, with 286 animals. In 1926, the zoo was expanded to adjacent lands, increasing the area to 18 hectares (44 acres). The zoo's original buildings were wooden, built in the old Russian style with intricate wood trims.

In 1990, the zoo was renovated. Notable additions include a new main entrance in the shape of a large rock castle, and a footbridge that connected the old (1864) and new (1926) properties of the zoo. Prior to construction of the footbridge, the zoo operated as two 'separate zoos' because the Bolshaya Gruzinskaya Street divides the properties.

In addition, the zoo was expanded once more. New exhibits were opened including a sea aquarium, an aviary, a creatures of the night exhibit, a sea lion exhibit and a section aimed at children. Waterfalls and streams were added throughout to give the zoo a more natural feeling.

The Moscow zoo has over 7,500 animals representing about 1,000 species and covers an area of about 21.5 hectares (53 acres). The zoo studies animal's behavior, feeding and reproduction, and breeds rare endangered species.

Some of the species at the zoo are:

• Marsupial (Marsupialia)
  • Didelphimorphia (Didelphidae)
  • Dasyuromorphia (Dasyuridae)
  • Macropod (Macropodidae)
• Insectivora (Insectivora)
  • Erinaceidae (Erinaceidae)
  • Elephant shrew (Macroscelididae)
  • Treeshrew (Tupaiidae)
• Bat (Chiroptera)
  • Megabat (Pteropodidae)
• Primate (Primates)
  • Lemuridae (Lemuridae)
  • Lorisidae (Lorisidae)
  • Cebidae (Cebidae)
  • (Callithricidae)
  • Old World monkey (Cercopithecidae)
  • Hominid (Pongidae)
• Xenarthra (Edentata)
  • Sloth (Bradypodidae)
  • Armadillo (Dasypodidae)
• Lagomorpha (Lagomorpha)
  • Leporidae (Leporidae)
• Rodent (Rodentia)
• Carnivora (Carnivora)
  • Bear (Ursidae)
    • Brown bear (Ursus arctos)
  • Pinniped (Pinnipedia)
  • Cetacean (Cetacea)
    • Bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncates)
• Proboscidea (Proboscidea)
  • Elephant (Elephantidae)
• Odd-toed ungulate (Perissodactyla)
  • Equidae (Equidae)
• Even-toed ungulate (Artiodactyla)
  • Suidae (Suidae)
  • Camelid (Camelidae)
  • Deer (Cervidae)
  • Giraffidae (Giraffidae)
  • Bovid (Bovidae)

Museum. Moscow Kremlin Museums is a major state-run museum in Moscow Kremlin. Its roots lie in the Kremlin Armoury museum founded in 1806, the current form of the museum started in 1991. The Head of the museum is Yelena Gagarina, daughter of cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. There were 424,922 visitors to the Kremlin Museums in 2020, a drop of 86 percent from 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but it still ranked 46th on the List of most-visited art museums in the world in 2020.

Moscow Kremlin Museums have the following parts:

• Kremlin Armoury
• Diamond Fund
• Dormition Cathedral
• Cathedral of the Archangel
• Cathedral of the Annunciation
• Residence of Patriarchs and Church of the Twelve Apostles
• Church of the Deposition of the Robe
• Ivan the Great Bell Tower

Strategic site with victory monuments. Poklonnaya Gora is, at 171.5 meters, one of the highest natural spots in Moscow. Its two summits used to be separated by the Setun River, until one of the summits was razed in 1987. Since 1936, the area has been part of Moscow and now contains the Victory Park with many tanks and other vehicles used in the Second World War on display.

Historically, the hill had great strategic importance, as it commanded the best view of the Russian capital. Its name is derived from the Russian for "to bow down", as everyone approaching the capital from the west was expected to do homage here. During the French invasion of Russia in 1812, it was the spot where Napoleon in vain expected the keys to the Kremlin to be brought to him by Russians.^[26]

Iconic home of Russian ballet and opera. The Bolshoi Theatre is a historic theatre in Moscow, Russia, originally designed by architect Joseph Bové, which holds ballet and opera performances. Before the October Revolution it was a part of the Imperial Theatres of the Russian Empire along with Maly Theatre in Moscow and a few theatres in Saint Petersburg.

The Bolshoi Ballet and Bolshoi Opera are among the oldest and best known ballet and opera companies in the world. It is by far the world's biggest ballet company, with more than 200 dancers. The theatre is the parent company of The Bolshoi Ballet Academy, a leading school of ballet. It has a branch at the Bolshoi Theater School in Joinville, Brazil.

The main building of the theatre, rebuilt and renovated several times during its history, is a landmark of Moscow and Russia (its iconic neoclassical façade is depicted on the Russian 100-ruble banknote). On 28 October 2011, the Bolshoi re-opened after an extensive six-year renovation. The official cost of the renovation is 21 billion rubles ($688 million). However, other Russian authorities and other people connected to it claimed much more public money was spent. The renovation included restoring acoustics to the original quality (which had been lost during the Soviet Era), as well as restoring the original Imperial decor of the Bolshoi.^[28]

Bronze statue of Russian patriots. The Monument to Minin and Pozharsky is a bronze statue designed by Ivan Martos and located on the Red Square in Moscow, Russia, in front of Saint Basil's Cathedral. The statue commemorates Prince Dmitry Pozharsky and Kuzma Minin, who gathered an all-Russian volunteer army and expelled the forces of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth under the command of King Sigismund III of Poland from Moscow, thus putting an end to the Time of Troubles in 1612.

The monument was conceived by the Free Society of Lovers of Literature, Science, and the Arts to commemorate the 200th anniversary of those events. Construction was funded by public conscription in Nizhny Novgorod, the city from where Minin and Pozharsky came to save Moscow. Tsar Alexander I, however, decided the monument should be installed on Red Square next to the Moscow Kremlin rather than in Nizhny Novgorod. The competition for the best design was won by the celebrated sculptor Ivan Martos in 1808. Martos completed a model, which was approved by Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna and the Russian Academy of Fine Arts in 1813. Casting work using 500 kilograms (1,100 lb) of copper was carried out in 1816 in St Petersburg. The base, made of three massive blocks of granite from Finland, was also carved at St Petersburg. Moving the statue and base to Moscow presented logistical challenges and was accomplished in winter by using the frozen waterways. However, in the wake of Napoleon's invasion of Russia, the monument could not be unveiled until 1818.

The front of the base carries a bronze plaque depicting a scene of patriotic citizens sacrificing their property for the benefit of the motherland. On the left is an image of the sculptor Martos giving away his two sons (one of whom was killed in 1813)

Originally, the statue stood in the centre of Red Square, with Minin extending his hand towards the Moscow Kremlin. However, after the 1917 Revolution, the Communist authorities found the monument was obstructing parades on the square and discussed its demolition or transfer to some indoor museum. In 1936, the statue was moved closer to the cathedral where it remains to the present day.

On the first celebration of the Unity Day (November 4, 2005) an almost exact copy of this monument by Zurab Tsereteli was erected in Nizhny Novgorod. The copy is 5 cm shorter than the Moscow original.

As it was originally conceived by the sculptor Martos, Prince Pozharsky and Minin were standing side by side. But nobility opposed the concept. It wasn't appropriate for people of different classes to be portrayed on equal terms. Martos redesigned the concept. He has turned the 17th-century heroes of the resistance into ancient history characters. Inequality is highlighted by clothing. Noble prince is in a toga, Minin is in a shirt and trousers.^[29]