Moscow

The Arkhangelskoye Estate, just outside Moscow, is an old aristocratic estate home that has been a museum since the fall of the Russian tsars in 1917. It was built in 1703, featuring classical and neo-classical design elements. The estate is composed of various buildings including the main palace, a smaller palace called Caprice, a church, and a theatre. Beautifully decorated interiors can be found throughout, augmented by a very impressive collection of art. Unlike many other old aristocratic Russian estates, Arkhangelskoye is in very good condition as special, dedicated efforts have been made in recent years to ensure its upkeep. The estate is easily reached by train, a 30-minute journey from the Yaroslavsky train station in the west of Moscow. In the summer and early autumn, all of the buildings are open for viewing. Visitors are welcome to explore the grounds and can bring picnics to enjoy in the gardens. There are also usually several music concerts hosted by the estate throughout the summer months.While still beautiful and worth a visit during the winter, the gardens are obviously not much of a sight, and some of the buildings are occasionally closed in the winter.

Address : Arkhangelskoye, Moscow Oblast, Russia, 143420.

Website : www.arhangelskoe.su/

Telephone : +7 498 568-95-80

Transport : The estate is accessible by both bus and train out of Moscow.

Opening times : Weekdays: 10am to 5pm. Weekends: 10am to 6pm.

Admission : Admission costs vary widely based on areas viewed. Pricing can be found on the official website.

Moscow's oldest and most famous theatre, the Bolshoi, dates from 1824 and is home to world-renowned opera and ballet companies. Completely rebuilt after a fire in 1856, the grand building is a masterpiece of Russian neoclassicism, including an eight-columned entrance porch topped by the horse-drawn chariot of Apollo, patron of the arts. The glittering five-tiered interior is richly adorned with red velvet furnishings, ornate gold detailing and chandeliers, and the size of the auditorium makes it one of the largest theatres in the world. The Bolshoi Theatre has hosted some of the world's most celebrated premieres, including Swan Lake, Spartacus, and concerts by Richard Wagner. Attending an evening performance at the Bolshoi Opera and Ballet Theatre constitutes one of Moscow's best nights out.

Address : Theatre Square, 1, Moskva, Russia.

E-mail : [email protected]

Website : www.bolshoi.ru/en

Telephone : +7 495 455 5555

Transport : Metro stop Teatralnaya.

Opening times : 11am-8pm

Admission : Ticket prices for performances vary.

The battle of Borodino is regarded as the bloodiest of the Napoleonic battles, seeing over 70,000 casualties in a single day and leading Napoleon to brand the Russians as 'invincible'. The Borodino Panorama Museum was inaugurated in 1960 and serves as an exhibit of artefacts and displays from the Napoleonic wars, with a collection of wartime memorabilia on one level and the enormous panorama on another. The panorama referred to in the name is, incidentally, not an outdoor view but a 360º painting by Franz Roubaud depicting a crucial moment in the battle itself. The mural is 115 meters long and 15 meters high. The museum will delight military history buffs, but should also impress the uninitiated. Those with smartphones can download the museum's interesting audio guide, helped along by free wifi.

Address : Kutuzovsky Prospect, 38, bld. 1, Moscow, Russia.

Website : www.1812panorama.ru/english.html

Telephone : +7 499 148 1967

Transport : The Museum can be walked to from Metros Park Pobedy and Kutuzovskaya, respectively.

Opening times : Saturday to Wednesday: 10am-6pm. Thursday: 10am-9pm. Closed on Fridays.

After Napoleon retreated from Russia, Tsar Alexander I declared that a cathedral be built in remembrance of the soldiers who had died defending Mother Russia. The original cathedral took more than 40 years to build. Decades later the cathedral was demolished by Stalin (who found the monument abhorrent) to make way for the colossal Palace of the Soviets, intended to be a symbol of Russian Communism, which was never actually built. The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour was rebuilt again, on the same site, between 1990 and 2000 as a faithful duplicate of the original. It is currently one of the largest and tallest Orthodox Churches in the world. The contemporary Russian artwork, statues and memorials to the Russian Tsars, as well as a small indoor museum, are well worth a look.

Address : Ulitsa Volkhonka, 15, Moskva, Russia.

Website : www.xxc.ru/

Consisting of a circuit of historic cities northeast of Moscow, the Golden Ring is a popular tourist route for travellers in Russia. The cities are popular for their distinctive architecture (recognizable for the uniquely-Russian onion-shaped domes and colourful ornamentation), and their tradition of handmade craftsmanship, offering tourists a good opportunity to buy beautiful Russian souvenirs. The official list of towns in the Golden Ring includes Ivanovo, Kostroma, Pereslavl-Zalessky, Rostov Veliky, Sergiev Posad, Suzdal, Vladimir, and Yaroslavl. They are all spaced close enough to each other (and to Moscow and St Petersburg) to reach on horseback within 24 hours, making them ideal for a driving tour. The cities are fairly similar, so it is not necessary to visit them all, and most travellers choose to see only four or five. One city that should not be missed, however, is Sergiev Posad, the centre of the Russian Orthodox Church and home to the impressive Sergiev Posad Monastery. Suzdal is another highlight on any Golden Ring tour, home of the St.Euthymius Monastery and the enormous Spaso-Evfimiev Monastery, which houses 10 museums and is nearly as impressive as St Basil's in Moscow.

Taken together, Moscow's Metro stations amount to the most beautiful public transport facility in the world. Visitors to Moscow should not miss taking a ride on this glorious underground rail system, and exploring the stations. Each one has its own, distinct aesthetic, variously adorned with Realist artworks, chandeliers, ornate pillars and marble floors. Moscow's Metro caters to something like two and half billion passenger rides per year, making it one of the busiest underground metro systems in the world. Despite this, the stations are more akin to palaces or five-star hotel lobbies rather than functional spaces. The depth of the elevators is also astounding. Most travellers will encounter the Metro system for practical reasons, but many will find that they choose to spend more time than necessary underground! There are nearly 200 stations but some of the most beautiful and ornate are Kiyevskaya, Dostoyevskaya, Prospekt Mira, Mayakovskaya and Ploshchad Revolyutsii.

Address : The Moscow Metro covers most of the city.

Website : engl.mosmetro.ru

Opening times : Daily 5:30am to 1am.

Poklonnaya Hill means 'bow hill', and lies in the west part of Moscow. Historically, is was a spot for Western visitors to pay homage to the city before entering. Today it is a beacon to Russia's military strength, having withstood invasions by both Napoleon and Hitler. Atop the hill is Victory Park which provides a scenic walk and contains a memorial Mosque and Synagogue for victims of the war, and an open air museum dedicated to the victory over Napoleon. There are many tanks and other wartime vehicles on display in Victory Park, along with several impressive monuments and statues. History buffs will love exploring the many attractions of Poklonnaya Hill and Victory Park, and even those not interested in military history will enjoy the art and the views.

Address : Moscow, Russia.

E-mail : [email protected]

Website : www.poklonnaya-gora.ru/en

Telephone : +7 499 148 8300

Transport : Disembark from the Metro at Park Pobedy.

Red Square is a dramatic cobbled square in the centre of Moscow. Originally the city's marketplace, the square also served as a public gathering place to celebrate festivals, listen to government announcements or witness executions, especially common during the reign of Ivan the Terrible. The Soviet state turned it into a memorial cemetery, and constructed Lenin's Mausoleum to one side - a crystal casket containing the preserved body of the founder of the Soviet Union that is still open for public viewing today. The communist government destroyed several ancient buildings around Red Square, including the Resurrection Gate and chapel, to make space for and to allow easy tank access to the demonstrations and military parades that were often held in the area. The current Resurrection Gate and chapel are replicas that were built in the 1990s. Red Square's most impressive military parade involved the gathering of thousands of Russian soldiers ready to march to war against the Nazis in 1941; it was also the site of many parades during the Cold War.The word 'red' doesn't apply to the colour of the brickwork, neither is it a reference to communism. The meaning of the word 'krasny' originally meant 'beautiful' in Old Russian, referring to St Basil's Cathedral at the southern end, but over the centuries the word changed to mean 'red' too, thus the square's present name. St Basil's Cathedral is the city's most well-known building and is crowned by the bulbous multi-coloured domes for which it is so famous.

Address : Red Square, Moscow, Russia.

Transport : Metro stop Ploshchad Revolutsii.

St Basil's Cathedral stands on the edge of Moscow's Red Square, and is the most famous landmark in Russia. Its striking design was commissioned by Ivan the Terrible to commemorate his victorious military campaign against the Tartar Mongols at Kazan in 1552. Legend has it that Ivan was so overwhelmed by its beauty that he had the architect blinded to prevent him from creating anything to rival it. St Basil's Cathedral includes a central chapel surrounded by eight tower-like chapels, each crowned with a different coloured and uniquely patterned onion-shaped dome. The church escaped demolition many times during the city's turbulent history and with the beginning of the Soviet regime the cathedral was closed and later turned into a museum. The interior is a dimly lit maze of corridors and delicately decorated chapels. One of them houses a priceless, icon-decorated 16th century screen that shields the inner sanctuary. In comparison to the exquisite exterior, the interior can seem disappointing, but there is no question St Basil's is worth exploring.

Address : Red Square, Moscow, Russia.

Telephone : +7 495 698 3304

Transport : Metro stop Kitai Gorod.

Opening times : The museum is open 11am to 5pm in winter, and 10am to 7pm in summer.

The Kremlin is a fortress surrounded by a thick red wall interspersed with 20 towers that was built between 1482 and 1495. The complex consists of a number of glittering, golden-domed churches and palaces, museums, residences, offices, assembly halls and monuments. It was home to the royal regime during Tsarist rule and the seat of the Communist government from 1918 onward. Cathedral Square is the religious centre of Moscow and the historic heart of the Kremlin. The attractive Annunciation Cathedral was set aside for the private use of royalty and contains beautifully painted murals and icons on the interior walls. The throne of Ivan the Terrible can be found in the Cathedral of the Assumption, which was used for the coronation of tsars; most of the leaders of the Russian Orthodox Church are buried here and their tombs line the walls of the spacious, richly coloured interior.The Belfry of Ivan the Great is the tallest structure within the walls and a visible city landmark. At its foot lies one of the world's biggest bells, broken in a fall from its bell tower in 1701, and nearby is one of the world's largest cannons, the Tsar Cannon. Also within the Kremlin is the Armoury Palace. It is the richest and oldest museum and houses a staggering collection of treasures gathered over the years by the church and Russian state. These include jewel-studded coronation capes, thrones encrusted with diamonds, royal coaches and sleighs and the renowned jewelled Fabergé Easter eggs, each containing an exquisitely detailed miniature object of precious metal inside. The Diamond Fund Exhibition in the same building contains the 180-carat diamond given to Catherine the Great by Count Orlov.

Website : www.kreml.ru/en

Transport : Metro stop Biblioteka imeni Lenina or Aleksandrovsky Sad.

The Tretyakov Gallery houses some of the great masterpieces of traditional Russian art from before the Revolution and has the world's finest collection of Russian icons from the 11th to the 17th-centuries. The gallery's collection of paintings, graphics and sculptures covers Russian art from the 18th to the 20th century. The gallery was named after its founder, Pavel Tretyakov, an art collector who donated about 2,000 works of art from his private collection to the city of Moscow, forming the basis of the collection to which state acquisitions were later added. He also donated his own house, which became the original site of the art gallery. Two separate buildings at different locations house the works selected for display.

Address : Lavrushinsky Ln, 10, Moscow, Russia.

E-mail : [email protected]

Website : www.tretyakovgallery.ru/en

Telephone : +7 495 957 07 01

Transport : Take to metro to the Tretyakovskaya metro stop, and walk for 317 yards (290m).

Opening times : Tuesday, Wednesday, and Sunday: 10am to 6pm. Thursday, Friday, Saturday: 10am to 9pm.

Admission : Adults: RUB 500. Minors enter for free.

Located 120 miles (193km) from Moscow, Yasnaya Polyana is the estate where Leo Tolstoy was born in 1828. In 1921, the property became a memorial to the celebrated author of War and Peace and Anna Karenina, and contains a museum with his personal effects, including an extensive library of nearly 22,000 volumes. Nearly a century later, the museum is still run by Tolstoy's descendants. Tolstoy spent 60 years living at Yasnaya Polyana with his family, and all of his 13 children were born there (although four died young). He founded a working farm and children's school on the estate, and is buried in an area called the Forest of the Old Order (so called because it was forbidden to cut down trees there).

Address : Yasnaya Polyana, Tula Oblast, Russia.

E-mail : [email protected]

Website : www.yasnayapolyana.ru

Telephone : +7 487 517 6073

Transport : Buses are available from Moscow, stopping in the nearby town of Tula.

Opening times : Tuesday to Sunday: 9am to 8pm.

Admission : Admission is RUB 100. A guided tour is RUB 350 on weekdays and RUB 400 on weekends. Students and senior citizens are entitled to a RUB 50 discount for admission and for tours.