The great princes of Vladimir and Moscow were placed under the protection of St. Michael. The cathedral, a royal necropolis built between 1505 and 1508, thus bears the name of the archangel. From Ivan Kalita buried here in 1340 to Ivan V, who died in..

The sumptuous Palace of Facets, built between 1487 and 1491 by Marco Friazine and Pietro Antonio Solari, is not open to the public (what a pity!). Its ceremonial hall occupying the entire first floor was used as a throne room for the tsars residing i..

Kitay-Gorod, an area formerly devoted to teaching and trade, then to business, is Moscow’s oldest quarter. Once fortified, it has preserved some if not all of its past appearance, and its little streets lined with renovated old houses only add to its..

Although a bit squashed by all the post-war buildings around it, the Church of the Trinity in Nikitniki, built in the first half of the 17C, is a little gem that is all refinement and curves. Its typically Muscovite architecture is strikingly polychr..

Foreign art forms the heart of the great Pushkin Museum, with two groups of portraits constituting the collections’ centrepieces. In the Hellenistic, Coptic and Ancient Egyptian rooms, the Fayum portraits (1C BC) are striking for the depth of the fac..

Since 2005 works donated to the Pushkin Museum throughout its history have been exhibited separately. The private collections of 20C paintings are highlighted by the interior design of the building, and the way they are hung and lit. Some of the dono..

The great musician Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915) lived in this apartment for the last three years of his life, and everything has been left as it was. Press clippings, posters and photographs take you on a journey through the brilliant career of thi..

Set in a delightful garden, this is one of the loveliest churches in Moscow, characteristic of the Naryshkin Baroque style. Built in 1682 by the weavers’ guild, the Church of St. Nicholas of the Weavers beguiles you with its exuberant gilded domes hi..

Fyodor Schechtel, leader of the Muscovite Art Nouveau movement, was the architect of this townhouse built between 1903 and 1905. It illustrated the full range of the style’s vocabulary down to the smallest details, including stained glass, wrought ir..

You’ve booked a table at the Metropol . Now you can enjoy the evening admiring its palatial décor, mythological frescoes and glass ceiling, and follow in the footsteps of famous guests like George Bernard Shaw and Berthold Brecht. The façade of this..

You’ll have to wait until 2011 to take in an opera or dance performance under the painted ceiling and five gilded tiers of balconies in the Bolshoi’s main theatre. Behind the columns and the triangular pediment topped by Apollo’s Chariot, the famous ..

You can relax after a shopping spree at this place at the end of Petrovka Street. Three sanctuaries in different styles and a building for the monks make up this colourful complex dominated by red and white. In addition to the Church of St-Sergei Ra..

The splendid Church of the Nativity of Our Lady of Putinky was built between 1649 and 1652 at the request of its parishioners, and thanks to the largesse of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. It was at the time the first station along a road dotted with churc..

A residence of the tsars in the 16C, the Kolomenskoye Estate is a wonderful architectural complex in an enchanting setting. After the entrance, the Church of Our Lady of Kazan (17C) thrusts skyward its blue onion domes topped by a cross. The Churc..

The Church of Our Lady of Kazan, topped with starry blue onion domes, dates from about 1650 and was once connected to the palace of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. Characteristic of the “suburban churches”, it has a doorway leading to an arcade which is al..

This museum, housed in the two side wings of the “front” Gate, exhibits the “treasures of Kolomenskoye”, a collection of liturgical objects, old icons, wooden doors, earthenware tiles, Russian crafts and, above all, a model of the famous palace of Ts..

The Church of the Ascension was built in around 1533 by Petrok the Younger, who designed the ramparts of Kitay-Gorod , to celebrate the birth of the future Ivan IV. Topped by a pyramid-shaped tower ( chatior ), the church became a model for many san..

The massive and now ephemeral presence of the hotel never succeeded in dissipating the charming atmosphere on this street lined by the former Merchants’ Court and numerous churches and palaces. Known since the 12C, Ulitsa Varvarka attracted silk merc..

With its five-domed tower, the Church of the Resurrection of the Coopers (1695), standing in a derelict garden, is one of the most beautiful examples of the Naryshkin Baroque style. Note the décor of white stone pediments in place of kokoshniki , th..

With its caricaturists, jugglers, fortune tellers and souvenir pedlars, Arbat Street, the hub of this quarter, is part Beaubourg, part Montmartre. And even if Moscow’s most famous street does have its share of tourists, it’s still fun to stroll aroun..