State Historical Museum

The Historical Museum closes the north end of Red Square and is visible from anywhere on it. The red-brick mass with turrets, tent roofs and white ornament deliberately echoes the Kremlin walls and the Cathedral of the Intercession at the far end: the building was conceived as a link between them rather than as a monument in its own right.

The building

The museum was built between 1875 and 1883 to a design by Vladimir Sherwood and the engineer Anatoly Semyonov, on the site of the old Main Pharmacy, which had once housed Moscow University. Outwardly it is a pastiche of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Russian architecture, but behind the facade stands a structure advanced for its time, with cast-iron framing and rooms lit from above.

The rooms as exhibits

The interiors were painted and fitted out by Viktor Vasnetsov, Henryk Siemiradzki and Ivan Aivazovsky, each room matching the era it displayed, from the Stone Age to the nineteenth century. The painting was whitewashed over in the Soviet period and only gradually recovered at the end of the twentieth century, so some rooms now look much as they did when the museum opened.

The collection

This is the largest collection of Russian history in the country: birch-bark documents, weapons and armour, coins, manuscripts and the everyday belongings of every social class, from peasant utensils to court dress. The display runs chronologically, from prehistory to the end of the nineteenth century, in a single loop through the building.

Around it

An equestrian monument to Marshal Zhukov stands in front of the main entrance. The Resurrection Gate beside it is the short way through to Manezhnaya Square, and the museum's second venue occupies the former City Duma building next door. The Cathedral of the Intercession at the far end of the square is also a branch of the Historical Museum.

Address

Red Square 1, Moscow · metro Okhotny Ryad

Opening hours

Daily 10:00–19:00, Thu–Sat to 21:00; closed 1st Tuesday

Prices

Adult 700 RUB, concession 350, foreign 2000

On the map