Sights: The Very Center                                                [Back]

  * * * Red Square - Any tour of Moscow should begin on Red Square in front of St. Basil's Cathedral. Surrounded on one side by the Kremlin walls and Lenin's Mausoleum and on the other by GUM, the largest department store in the country, you'll rightly feel at the administrative heart of a grand empire. It's even better at night when the square is empty, St. Basil's is illuminated, and red stars glow atop the Kremlin.
     
  *** Lenin's Mausoleum - Though there is no longer any ceremonial changing of the guard in front of the mausoleum, you can go inside for free and decide for yourself whether Lenin is wax or flesh (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday, 10:00-13:00). Large bags and cameras must be checked in the cloakroom on the side of the maroon-colored, closed Historical Museum. There's talk of burying Lenin in the family plot in St. Petersburg in '98.
     
  *** St. Basil's Cathedral - Red Square's top ornament is St. Basil's Cathedral. Now more of a plain museum with some old icons and a barren maze of rooms than a living church, its exterior is far more interesting than its interior. Even so, after you've given the outside a 360-degree marvel, consider peeking inside.
     
  *** GUM-moll - Once the best-stocked department store in the Soviet Union, it's now Russia's classiest mall (daily 8:00-21:00). Since 1992, hard-currency stores such as Benetton, Galeries Lafayette, and Samsonite have taken over more and more space in GUM. There are three corridors; enter at either end. Climb up to the top floor at either end of the building where there are no stores and treat yourself to a spectacular view and an amazing vantage point for photographing Russians as they go about their shopping unawares. The natural light from the skylights is especially pretty on bright days. There's a fast-food chicken restaurant and a stand-up pizza joint inside. Surprised to see Santa
   
  *** The Arbat - Once a prestigious address for Russia's eminent writers, this pedestrian street not only retains some of its original grandeur but also has the city's best concentration of kitschy tourist shops and (in summer) outdoor cafes. McDonald's graces its far end. You can walk to the Arbat from the Kremlin entrance, going past the Lenin Library down ulitsa Vozdvizhenka, or along the Boulevard Ring from Kropotkinskaya Metro and the Church of Christ the Savior. The closest Metro is the Arbatskaya station on the light blue line, directly across from the beginning of the Arbat go through the underground passage full of middle-aged women selling puppies and kittens while artists offer to sketch you. The Arbatskaya station on the dark blue line is also convenient: exit, turn left, and walk through the crowds for about 250 meters. The Smolenskaya station on the dark blue line is at the Arbat's outer end.

 
  *** Pushkin Museum - The museum is less remarkable for its standing collections (roomfuls of paintings by Monet, Renoir, van Gogh, Rembrandt, and Picasso) than for its temporary shows, such as the Trojan Gold ($8, students $4, Tuesday-Sunday 10:00-18:00). The Pushkin Museum and Church of Christ the Savior are within a couple blocks of each other (and Red Square) on Ulitsa Volkhonka, which runs away from the Kremlin from the southern end of Alexandrovskii Sad and the southwest corner of the Kremlin itself.
     
  *** Tretyakov Gallery Away from Center- To get to the Tretyakov Gallery, which has the world's best collection of Russian icons and a selection of 18th- and 19th-century art (especially portraiture), take the orange line Metro to Tretyakovskaya (don't go out through the connected Novokuznetskaya station, which will leave you several blocks away). Turn left at the top of the stairs, cross the street, and walk down the brick road about 100 meters to the large red-and-white building on the right ($8, students half-price, Tuesday-Sunday 10:00-20:00, ticket windows close at 18:30, closed Monday).
     
  * * * The Kremlin - A must-see, the Kremlin is a walled enclosure containing Russia's top government offices, as well as several beautiful Orthodox churches. The entrance is through Alexandrovskii Sad (Alexander's Garden); from Red Square, walk north past the mausoleum out of the square, go left into the garden and past the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and you'll come to the white Kremlin entrance tower, across from the Alexandrovskii Sad Metro exit. Ticket booths are beside the tower. You have to check your bags at the little office under the stairs (20 cents).

[Top]