Moscow (Moskva) is the largest city in Europe — a metropolis of 13 million people built around the medieval walled fortress of the Kremlin (11th century) on the Moscow River. Russia's political, cultural and economic capital for most of the past 700 years, Moscow was built, burned, rebuilt and transformed repeatedly: by Ivan the Terrible, by Peter the Great (who moved the capital to St. Petersburg), by Napoleon (who burned it in 1812), by Stalin (who demolished half the historic centre and replaced it with the seven Stalinist skyscrapers — the "Seven Sisters"), and by the post-Soviet oligarchy. The result is one of the most layered and contradictory cities in the world: Byzantine gold-domed churches beside Soviet-era monuments, the world's most ornate metro system, and a street food culture built on dumplings and blini.
Krasnaya Ploshchad (Red Square — "red" meaning both the color and "beautiful" in Old Russian) is the most famous public space in Russia — bordered by the Kremlin walls, St. Basil's Cathedral, GUM department store, and the Lenin Mausoleum. The cobblestone square where Ivan the Terrible proclaimed laws, Napoleon stood during the Moscow fire, and Soviet tanks rolled on Revolution Day. Free to enter.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Moscow Kremlin (11th-century origin, current walls 15th-century Italian-designed brick) is the seat of the Russian president and the most significant historical complex in Russia — the Armoury Chamber (the finest treasure museum in Russia: Fabergé eggs, royal carriages, crowns, Orlov Diamond), the Cathedral Square (Assumption Cathedral, Archangel Cathedral, Annunciation Cathedral), and the Ivan the Great Bell Tower.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuidePokrovsky Sobor (Cathedral of Vasily the Blessed, 1555-1561) was built by Ivan the Terrible to celebrate his victory over the Tatars at Kazan. The ten polychrome onion domes (no two identical), the labyrinthine interior passages, and the remarkable story of its architect (Postnik Yakovlev — Ivan allegedly had him blinded to prevent him building anything more beautiful). Now a museum. The exterior is the most photographed building in Russia.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideGUM (Gosudarstvenny Universalny Magazin — State Department Store, 1893) on Red Square is the finest 19th-century shopping arcade in Russia — the three-level galleries under glass arches, the State Ice Cream (the most famous ice cream in Russia, sold from the 1950s GUM stalls in the center of the arcade), and the luxury boutiques where Soviet apparatchiks once shopped for scarce goods. Free to browse.
Café Pushkin (Tverskoy Bulvar 26a, 1999) is Moscow's most famous restaurant — a three-story 19th-century mansion recreating pre-revolutionary Russian aristocratic cuisine: borsch with sour cream, pelmeni (Siberian dumplings), blini with caviar, beef Stroganoff, and the full imperial Russian breakfast menu available 24 hours. Expensive but theatrical and central.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideMoscow has one of Europe's most active bar and club scenes — the streets around Bolshaya Nikitskaya and Patriarch's Ponds (the neighbourhood from Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita) have the finest cocktail bars and live music venues. Noor Bar, El Copitas and Chainaya tea rooms.
The State Tretyakov Gallery (founded 1856 by merchant Pavel Tretyakov) is the finest collection of Russian art in the world — from 12th-century icons to the Wanderers (Repin's Ivan the Terrible, Levitan's landscapes), from Vrubel's Demon to Malevich's Black Square and Kandinsky's early abstracts. The original Rublev Trinity icon (1411) is here. Essential viewing.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Moscow Metro (1935) was built by Stalin as the "people's palace" — each station of the Circle Line is designed as a distinct architectural monument: Komsomolskaya (Baroque ceiling mosaics), Novoslobodskaya (stained glass), Mayakovskaya (Art Deco with wartime mosaics), Kiyevskaya (Ukrainian folk motifs). A 90-minute metro tour costs nothing beyond the €1 single fare.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideStary Arbat (Old Arbat, pedestrianised) is Moscow's historic bohemian street — street musicians, portrait painters, antique shops, souvenir stalls (the finest matryoshka selection in Moscow), and the flat where Alexander Pushkin lived after his wedding (Museum-Apartment of A.S. Pushkin). Also the street where Bulgakov, Tsvetaeva and the Russian intelligentsia gathered.
Teremok (the Russian fast-food chain with the best blini in Moscow — buckwheat blini with smetana, salmon, caviar, or mushroom and cheese) for a quick and cheap dinner; or Volkonsky (the finest Russian bakery, with sourdough bread, pastries, and café dishes). For a proper restaurant: Bon (Bolshaya Nikitskaya) or the restaurant of the Metropol Hotel.
The Bolshoi Theatre (rebuilt 2011 after a 6-year restoration) is the most famous opera and ballet house in Russia — tickets for the main stage available 30 days in advance online (bolshoi.ru). Even the new building has extraordinary Imperial Russian interiors. Standing tickets available from 100 RUB. An evening at the Bolshoi is the quintessential Moscow experience.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Cathedral of Christ the Saviour (demolished by Stalin in 1931 to build an unfinished "Palace of Soviets," then rebuilt 1994–2000) is the largest Orthodox church in Russia — the golden dome (103m) visible from across central Moscow. The outdoor deck (free) has the finest panoramic view of the Kremlin across the Moscow River.
Gorky Park (Gorky Culture and Rest Park, 1928) on the Moscow River is the largest park in central Moscow — redesigned in 2011 with outdoor museums, art installations, tennis courts, bicycle hire and the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art (Rem Koolhaas building). In winter: the largest outdoor ice rink in Europe. The park embankment has the finest riverside promenade in Moscow.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuidePatriarch's Ponds (Patriarshiye Prudy) is the neighbourhood where Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita opens — the scene where the Devil appears on a bench and the unfortunate Berlioz meets his end under a tram. The single ornamental pond surrounded by a 19th-century residential quarter (the finest preserved pre-revolutionary streetscape in Moscow) and the Bulgakov Museum nearby.
Izmailovsky Vernisazh (the largest souvenir market in Moscow, open weekends) has every Russian collectible imaginable — Soviet propaganda posters, Palekh lacquer boxes, Gzhel porcelain, antique samovars, CCCP military badges, genuine matryoshka dolls (hand-painted, not the imported imitations). The adjacent Izmailovsky Kremlin (a replica kremlin built 2000) is photogenic.
Lepim i Varim (We Sculpt and Cook — a small chain serving only hand-made pelmeni) is the finest casual pelmeni restaurant in Moscow — Siberian pelmeni with beef and pork, deep-fried or boiled, with smetana (sour cream) or butter. The most Russian possible dinner. Shots of vodka from the freezer: Beluga, Tsarskaya or the house infusion.
The Krymskaya Embankment (from Gorky Park to the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour) at night — the illuminated Kremlin towers across the river, the Cathedral dome in gold light, and the Moscow City skyscrapers in the distance. The finest night walk in the city.