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City Guide - Moscow - Key Attractions | ||
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Key Attractions Kremlin The heart of Moscow, and of the Russian State itself, the Kremlin (literally 'fortified town') is a walled fortress dating back to the city's founding in 1147 (although the oldest extant walls and churches date from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries). It was the seat of government for the grand princes and tsars from 1276 to 1712 and for the Communist government from 1918 to the present. The red-brick walls and towers enclose a number of churches and palaces and, once past the soviet-era Palace of Congresses, the visitor will find a pleasing ensemble around the main square. The Uspensky Sobor (Assumption Cathedral) is the largest of the churches. It was the burial place for Orthodox patriarchs and was used for the coronations of tsars. The zakomary (arched gables) are a visual extension of the vaulting within the cathedral. The pretty Blagoveshchensky Sobor (Annunciation Cathedral), with its nine glittering copper-gilt domes, was the private chapel of the tsars. Ivan the Terrible added the Grosnenskiy Porch, because he was refused entry after contravening church doctrine by marrying for a fourth time. Archangelsky Sobor (Cathedral of the Archangel Michael), although built in 1505, houses the remains of the grand princes and tsars who reigned from 1325-1696. The Armoury Museum and Diamond Fund are worth visiting for the state and church treasures, including Fabergé eggs (in the former) and the 180-carat diamond given to Catherine the Great (in the latter). Also within the Kremlin are the Tsar Cannon and Tsar Bell, both the largest of their kind (40 and 200 tonnes, respectively) and neither used for its intended purpose. English-speaking guides will often approach tourists outside the main gates - there is no set price so bargaining is necessary. Tel: (095) 203 0349. Fax: (095) 203 4256. E-mail: press@kremlin.museum.ru Website: www.kremlin.museum.ru Transport: Metro Biblioteka imeni Lenina or Aleksandrovsky Sad. Opening hours: Fri-Wed 1000-1700. Admission: Rb270. Krasnaya Ploshchad (Red Square) & Pokrovsky Sobor (St Basil's Cathedral) The site of large May Day parades during the Soviet era, and a market before that, Krasnaya Ploshchad (Red Square, although krasnaya means 'beautiful' in Old Russian) is a dramatic 700m-long (2300ft) space. It also drew crowds to visit Lenin's Mausoleum, a cubic, Russian avant-garde structure with a crystal casket containing the preserved body of the Soviet Union's founder. The square is dominated by the walls and towers of the Kremlin on one side, and the façade of the GUM department store on the other, but these provide a frame for Russia's most famous image - the multicoloured onion domes of Pokrovsky Sobor (Cathedral of the Intercession, better known as St Basil's Cathedral). Each dome has distinctive patterning and colours, and the effect of the ensemble is stunning. It was built in the 1550s to commemorate Ivan the Terrible's victory over the Mongols at Kazan. Krasnaya ploshchad 4 Tel: (095) 298 3304. Transport: Metro Kitay-Gorod. Opening hours: Daily 1000-1630; closed Tues. Admission: Rb100. Muzey Izobrazitelnykh Iskusstv im A S Pushkina (Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts) Second only in reputation within Russia to the Hermitage (in St Petersburg), the Muzey Izobrazitelnykh Iskusstv im A S Pushkina contains a rich collection of artworks ranging from an Egyptian exhibit to Impressionist (notably Claude Monet) and Post-Impressionist paintings. Audio tours are available for a fee. Visitors should hold onto their entrance tickets - they are also valid in the adjacent Museum of Private Collections, which displays nineteenth- and twentieth-century Russian and foreign art. Volkhonka ulitsa 12 Tel: (095) 203 7998. Fax: (095) 203 4674. Website: www.museum.ru or www.global-one.ru/english/culture/pushkin/ Transport: Metro Kropotkinskaya. Opening hours: Tues-Sun 1000-1800. Admission: Rb150 for foreign visitors; Rb25 for Russians. Tretyakov Galereya (Tretyakov Gallery) The most important collection of traditional Russian painting in the world resides here, and the extensive collection of icons is well worth seeing as it covers the development of this art form from early Byzantine times to the more developed Russian schools of the seventeenth century. The most famous of these icons is the twelfth-century Vladimir Virgin, and there are works by Theophanes the Greek, Dionysius and Andrey Rublyov, some of Russia's greatest icon painters. The gallery's collection of paintings, sculptures and graphics covers Russian art from the eighteenth to early twentieth centuries. Lavrushensky pereulok 10-12 Tel: (095) 953 1416. Fax: (095) 953 1051. Website: www.museum.ru Transport: Metro Tretyakovskaya. Opening hours: Tues-Sun 1000-1900. Admission: Rb200. Novodevichy Monastyr Founded in 1524 by Grand Prince Vassily III (although the present towers and walls date from 1685-87), the Novodevichy Monastery contains the Sobor Smolensk Bogomateri (Cathedral of the Virgin of Smolensk), with its distinctive bell tower dating from 1690. The cathedral itself was built in 1525 and contains sixteenth-century frescoes and a magnificent late seventeenth-century iconostasis. The convent was a place of exile for noblewomen in mourning or disfavour, including Sophia, Peter the Great's sister, who instigated a coup against him from here in 1698. The adjacent Novodevichy Cemetery contains the graves of distinguished Muscovites, including Nikita Krushchev (the only Soviet leader buried outside the Kremlin), Nikolai Gogol, Sergei Prokofiev and Anton Chekhov. Novodevichy proezd 1 Tel: (095) 246 8526. Fax: (095) 246 1327. Transport: Metro Sportivnaya. Opening hours: Wed-Mon 1000-1700; closed first Mon of month. Admission: Rb25Rb30; Rb56 Rb65 (combined ticket for cathedral and exhibition). Moscow Metro Busier than New York's subway and London's underground combined, the metro transports eight million passengers a day with a surprising degree of efficiency. Up and running just four years after building started in 1931, the metro is one of the communist regime's few glories. The stations themselves are an attraction, their unique designs are often palatial and provide an introduction to the development of Soviet art and architecture over more than half a century. Mayakovskaya station (1938) has a central hall with a ceiling of socialist realist mosaics supported by stainless steel and red marble columns. In Ploshchad Revolyutsii, bronze sculptures of Red Army soldiers hold up the arches in the passageways. Komsomolskaya (1950s), the busiest station in Moscow, has upper walk-through galleries and offers a Russian history lesson in the mosaics near the Circle Line platforms. The Metro Museum displays interesting exhibits about the system. Metro Museum Sportivnaya metro station Tel: (095) 924 8490. Opening hours: Mon-Fri 1000-1700. Admission: Rb25. |