Visits Information
Visiting Saint Petersburg and Moscow
For the Board of Trustees and Circle Donors of San Diego Museum of Art
31 May - 9 June 2019
Saint Petersburg
The 'Venice of the North', with its numerous canals and more than 400 bridges, is the result of a vast urban project begun in 1703 under Peter the Great. Later known as Leningrad (in the former USSR), the city is closely associated with the October Revolution. Its architectural heritage reconciles the very different Baroque and pure neoclassical styles, as can be seen in the Admiralty, the Winter Palace, the Marble Palace and the Hermitage.
The unique urban landscape of the port and capital city of Saint Petersburg, rising out of the Neva estuary where it meets the Gulf of Finland, was the greatest urban creation of the 18th century.
Saint Petersburg was built at the beginning of the 18th century in an astonishingly short period of time, according to an orderly plan based on many of Peter the Great's own ideas. The city was constructed under difficult conditions on lowlands unprotected from floodwaters, and in the face of severe shortages of materials and workers.
Within the first decades of its history, Saint Petersburg became a grandiose agglomeration consisting of the historical city core surrounded by ceremonial country residences, an advanced fortification system, estates and dachas, settlements and small towns linked by radial routes. It occupied the shore on both sides of the Gulf of Finland as well as the Kronstadt fortress-town on Kotlin Island, while moving up the Neva towards its source in Sсhlisselburg. This Russian-European city, surrounded by suburban ensembles, became a socio-cultural phenomenon with an incomparable historic urban landscape, characterized by an absolute hierarchy of structures.
A network of canals, streets and quays was built gradually, beginning in the reign of Peter the Great (1682-1725). The Nevski perspective did not become the city's major east-west axis until 1738. Similarly, under the Empresses Anna Ioannovna (1730-1740), Elisabeth Petrovna (1741-1762) and Catherine II the Great (1762- 1796), the urban landscape of Saint Petersburg took on the monumental splendour that assured the world-renowned of the "Venice of the North". An array of foreign architects (Rastrelli, Rinaldi, Quarenghi, Cameron and Vallin de la Mothe) rivaled one another with audaciousness and splendour in the capital's huge palaces and convents and in imperial and princely suburban residences, amongst which one numbers Peterhof (Petrodvorets), Lomonosov, Tsarskoуe Selo (Pushkin), Pavlovsk and Gatchina.
The greatness of Russia's northern capital, with its horizontal silhouette coupled with vertical landmarks and its ensembles of embankments and squares, lies in the heart of the city's “imperial” spirit, its genius loci. The main feature and attraction of Saint Petersburg's historical centre is characterized by a perfect harmony of architecture and waterscapes. The full-flowing Neva bequeathed the city an exceptional spatial scale and wealth of spectacle. It became its main square and chief thoroughfare.
The Neva water spaces were natural extensions of the system of city squares. The regularly-spaced network of streets superimposed on this natural background endowed the city with an artistic contrast and perceptual richness. With its “view of stern and grace”, Saint Petersburg required a unified construction as an ensemble with Teutonic unity, qualities which emerged simultaneously with its birth.
The city fabric is richly woven through with ensembles. These assemblages, linking one to another, create a complex multi-layered system where not one element exists alone or is isolated from its environment. The overarching value of all of the components in this system stems from their incorporation into a harmonious whole. It is precisely because of this that Saint Petersburg undoubtedly remains the only grand project in the history of urban planning to preserve its logical integrity despite rapid changes in architectural styles.
In modern times, the city bore witness to and participated in the majestic and tragic events of the 1917 February and October Revolutions and the heroic blockade of 1941-1944, in which some million human lives were lost. Having survived the unprecedented trials of the 20th century, the city continues to be a symbol and base of Russian culture for new times and one of its centres of science, culture and education tied eternally to the personalities and creative works of Outstanding Universal Value.
Saint Petersburg
Grand Palace, General Staff Builiding and Fabergé Museum
Peterhof or Grand Palace
One of St.Petersburg's most famous and popular visitor attractions, the palace and park at Peterhof (also known as Petrodvorets) are often referred to as "the Russian Versailles", although many visitors conclude that the comparison does a disservice to the grandeur and scope of this majestic estate.
Versailles was, however, the inspiration for Peter the Great's desire to build an imperial palace in the suburbs of his new city and, after an aborted attempt at Strelna, Peterhof - which means "Peter's Court" in German - became the site for the Tsar's Monplaisir Palace, and then of the original Grand Palace. The estate was equally popular with Peter's daughter, Empress Elizabeth, who ordered the expansion of the Grand Palace and greatly extended the park and the famous system of fountains, including the truly spectacular Grand Cascade.
Improvements to the park continued throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. Catherine the Great, after leaving her own mark on the park, moved the court to Pushkin, but Peterhof once again became the official Imperial Residence in the reign of Nicholas I, who ordered the building of the modest Cottage Palace in 1826.
Like almost all St. Petersburg's suburban estates, Peterhof was ravaged by German troops during the Second World War. It was, however, one of the first to be resurrected and, thanks to the work of military engineers as well as over 1,000 volunteers, the Lower Park opened to the public in 1945 and the facades of the Grand Palace were restored in 1952. The name was also de-Germanicized in 1944, becoming Petrodvorets, the name under which the surrounding town is still known. The palace and park are once again known as Peterhof.
General Staff Building at The State Hermitage Museum.
This spectacular, crescent-shaped neoclassical building, most famous for its central triumphal arch, which brings pedestrians out on to Palace Square from Nevsky Prospekt, was designed by renowned St. Petersburg architect Carlo Rossi and completed in 1829. Before the Revolution it housed not only the offices of the General Staff, in the East Wing, but also the Tsarist Foreign Ministry and Ministry of Finance in the West Wing. Now, it is home to one of the most celebrated and popular parts of the Hermitage's collection - the fourth floor of the General Staff Building is given over to works of the Impressionist and Post-impressionists. This collection, though controversial in its origins - the majority of works were seized from territories occupied by the Red Army during and after the Second World War, and their presence in the Hermitage vaults was only officially aknowledged in 1995 - is nonetheless one of the Hermitage's biggest draws and, unlike parts of the collections from earlier periods, is of remarkably consistent quality. There is also a collection of pre-Revolutionary Russian art which includes works by Vasiliy Kandinskiy and Kazimir Malevich. Second only to the state rooms of the Winter Palace in terms of popularity and prestige, this superb collection of mostly French painting and sculpture from the turn of the 20th century includes masterpieces by Matisse, Van Gogh, Monet and many others, now housed in purpose-built new exhibition space.
Fabergé Museum.
Since 2013 the lavish 18th century Shuvalov Palace has been the home of Museum Fabergé and holds the world’s largest collection of Fabergé eggs. Those in the collection were commissioned by the last Russian emperors Alexander III and Nicholas II. At the time European society considered Russia unparalleled in silver and gold decorative arts. The museum owes its existence to a staggering act of altruism by Viktor Vekselberg, who, in 2004 began The Link of Times Cultural and Historical Foundation with the idea of returning Russian culturally significant artefacts and artworks for public display to Russia. The nine Fabergé eggs which form the core of the collection were purchased by him from American entrepreneur Malcolm Forbes in 2004 at a cost of $100 million.
Saint Petersbug
St. Isaac Cathedral and Marble Palace
St. Isaac’s Cathedral.
St. Isaac's Cathedral was originally the city's main church and the largest cathedral in Russia. It was built between 1818 and 1858, by the French-born architect Auguste Montferrand, to be one of the most impressive landmarks of the Russian Imperial capital. One hundred and eighty years later the gilded dome of St. Isaac's still dominates the skyline of St. Petersburg. Although the cathedral is considerably smaller than the newly rebuilt Church of Christ the Savior in Moscow, it boasts much more impressive fades and interiors. The cathedral's facades are decorated with sculptures and massive granite columns (made of single pieces of red granite), while the interior is adorned with incredibly detailed mosaic icons, paintings and columns made of malachite and lapis lazuli. A large, brightly colored stained glass window of the "Resurrected Christ" takes pride of place inside the main altar. The church, designed to accommodate 14,000 standing worshipers, was closed in the early 1930s and reopened as a museum. Today, church services are held here only on major ecclesiastical occasions.
Marble Palace (The Ludwig Museum).
Standing between Millionaya Ulitsa and the Neva River at the north-west corner of the Field of Mars, the Marble Palace is among the most impressive of St. Petersburg's former Imperial residences, and arguably the finest work of architect Antonio Rinaldi, a pioneer of neoclassicism in Russia. The Marble Palace was originally built for Count Grigory Orlov, who as a young artillery officer had led the conspiracy to dethrone Peter III in favour of the Emperor's wife, the future Catherine the Great. Among the rewards for his support and counsel during the early years of her reign, construction began on the Marble Palace in 1768, and alongside Rinaldi many of the finest foreign and Russian craftsmen and sculptors of the day were employed to provide its intricately decorated interiors. The name of the palace comes from the fact that in total 32 different types of marble were used to create the exterior and interior ornamentation of the Palace.After the Revolution, the Marble Palace was used first to house the Academy of the History of Material Culture, and then from 1937 as the Lenin Museum (at which time the interiors on the second floor of the building were stripped of their original decor). In 1992, the palace was granted to the State Russian Museum, which has overseen massive renovation work and chosen the building as home of a permanent collection of modern art: The Ludwig Museum at the Russian Museum, which draws on the resources of the renowned Ludwig Museum in Cologne, and was established by Peter and Irene Ludwig in 1995 to help foster an understanding of later 20th century art among a Russian audience. Using the 118 works presented to the museum by the Ludwigs, including pieces by some of the biggest names in modern art, the collection strives to present as broad a range of styles and media as possible in the limited space.
Saint Petersburg
The Palace of Gran Duke ladimir Alexandrovic Romanov and Cathedral of St. Nicolas
Palace of Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich Romanov (Scientists’ House)
One of the last Imperial palaces to be built in St. Petersburg, the Palace of Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich was built between 1867 and 1872 for the third son of Emperor Alexander II. Just east of the Winter Palace and the Hermitage on Dvortsovaya Naberezhnaya ("Palace Embankment"), the Vladimir Palace was designed by a team of architects lead by Vasily Kenel. The palace's simple, somewhat dour facade is in stark contrast to the wonderfully preserved interiors, where the architects employed a hugely eclectic range of styles and periods, from neo-gothic to rococo to oriental. Fortunately, soon after the October Revolution, the Vladimir Palace was assigned as the Maxim Gorky House of Scientists, a social and cultural club for the scientific intelligentsia. For this reason, it has probably the most authentic and best preserved interiors of any of St. Petersburg's royal residences. While much of Vladimir's art collection has gone to the Hermitage collections and elsewhere, his impressive collection of fine porcelain is still mostly intact and on display in the palace. Grand Duke Vladimir was a fervent collector and patron of the arts and with his wife, Maria Pavlovna, he hosted soirees where the guests included Rachmaninov, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Chaliapin. This tradition is reflected in the regular concerts, as well as lectures and screenings, hosted in the palace.
Naval Cathedral of St. Nicolas.
The golden Baroque spires and domes of St. Nicholas' Cathedral (known locally as the Sailors' Cathedral) rises among the trees at the bottom of Ulitsa Glinki and shines above the bland residential and commercial buildings in the area. It is home to a number of revered 18th-century icons and a fine carved wooden iconostasis. Its beautiful bell tower overlooks Kryukov Canal. The cathedral houses 10 spectacular icons in gold frame that were a gift from Catherine the Great. The icons portray saints who are celebrated at Russian Navy celebrations. One of the most revered places in the cathedral is the image of Nicholas the Miracle-Worker, given to the church by Greek sailors, which was taken from Russia by the French in 1812, and returned to Nicholas I by the Prussians in 1835. St. Nicholas Cathedral is one of a very few cathedrals in the city that was not closed in Soviet times. In 1941, it became the official residence of Metropolitan of Leningrad and Novgorod Alexey (Simanskiy), who served in the cathedral from 1941 to 1944 during the 900-day siege of the city.
Moscow
Moscow, Russian Moskva, city, capital of Russia, located in the far western part of the country. Since it was first mentioned in the chronicles of 1147, Moscow has played a vital role in Russian history. It became the capital of Muscovy (the Grand Principality of Moscow) in the late 13th century; hence, the people of Moscow are known as Muscovites. Today Moscow is not only the political centre of Russia but also the country’s most populous city and its industrial, cultural, scientific, and educational capital. For more than 600 years Moscow also has been the spiritual centre of the Russian Orthodox Church.
The capital of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.) until the union dissolved in 1991, Moscow attracted world attention as a centre of communist power; indeed, the name of the seat of the former Soviet government and the successor Russian government, the Kremlin (Russian: Kreml), was a synonym for Soviet authority. The dissolution of the U.S.S.R. brought tremendous economic and political change, along with a significant concentration of Russia’s wealth, into Moscow.
If St. Petersburg is Russia’s “window on Europe,” Moscow is Russia’s heart. It is an upbeat, vibrant, and sometimes wearisome city. Much of Moscow was reconstructed after it was occupied by the French under Napoleon I in 1812 and almost entirely destroyed by fire. Moscow has not stopped being refurbished and modernized and continues to experience rapid social change. Russia’s Soviet past collides with its capitalist present everywhere in the country, but nowhere is this contrast more visible than in Moscow. Vladimir Ilich Lenin’s Mausoleum remains intact, as do many dreary five-story apartment buildings from the era of Nikita Khrushchev’s rule (the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s), yet glitzy automobiles and Western-style supermarkets, casinos, and nightclubs are equally visible. Many Orthodox churches, as well as some synagogues and mosques, have been restored, Moscow’s novel theatres have reclaimed leadership in the dramatic arts, and traditional markets have been revived and expanded. These markets, which under the Soviets were known as kolkhoz (collective-farm) markets and sold mainly crafts and produce, are now more sophisticated retail establishments.
It has become habitual to compare Moscow with St. Petersburg, its rival and the former (1712–1918) capital of Russia. While St. Petersburg has absorbed western European influences, Moscow is viewed as a traditional Russian city. Unlike its rival, Moscow has a well-defined city centre marked by the Kremlin. Other characteristics of Moscow are its physical layout in radial spokes and rings that have been extended over time, its hodgepodge of architectural styles, and its historical buildings that were mainly built by Russian architects. Moscow’s buildings were predominantly wooden until the 1920s, when brick and stone came into use.
Moscow
Red October Chocolate Factory
Red October Chocolate Factory.
If you stand on the bridge that runs from Church of Christ the Saviour across the Moscow River, you will find yourself looking out towards Bolotny Island, one of Moscow’s most creative spaces. Notorious for being home to some of the city’s hottest (and indeed most exclusive) clubs, the area is a magnet for tourists and locals alike. The focal point of the island is Red October, which was once the factory that produced the famous Alenka chocolate. The image of a young girl in a headscarf has become a nostalgic relic of the Soviet Union and still adorns the packaging of Red October chocolate today. Across the old factory, the image is blown up on a billboard, which coupled with the striking red brick of the building, creates a visual feast that draws the eyes of those crossing the bridge towards Bolotny Island. The factory produced the iconic Red October chocolate for decades. However, in 2007, the company ceased operations on the island and moved premises, leaving the space open for development. Originally, the plan was to convert the space into expensive flats, but thankfully the financial crisis called an end to that plan, and now the factory is home to restaurants, bars, exhibitions, shops and studios. This riverside complex is a true gem and is teeming with delights for both the arty, the technological and anyone who simply enjoys discovering new and magical spots in Moscow.
Moscow
Old Tretyakov Gallery
This is a historical building, which housed the collection of the founder of the Gallery P.M. Tretyakov (since 1856). Here you can see more than 1300 works of Russian art from the 11th till the early 20th century, beginning from pre-Mongolian icons and mosaics and ending with landscape, portrait and historical painting and masterpieces, including works as "Trinity" by Andrei Rublev and "The Apparition of Christ Before the People" by Alexander Ivanov. The works of the great artists V.I.Surikov, V.V.Vereshchagin, I.E.Repin, V.A.Serov and others are represented in different sides.
Moscow
Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Church of Christ the Savior, Museum of Multimedia Art, Moscow MoMA
Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts ., Impressionists Collection.
The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts is a museum complex that is currently in possession of one of the largest world art collections from Ancient Egypt and Greece to our days. Today the holdings of the museum contain around 700 000 art works of different epochs. The jewel of the collection is French art of the XIX – XX centuries – one of the most famous collections of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings in the world. The museum founded in 1912 is located in the historical center of Moscow, not far from the Kremlin. Each year The Pushkin Museum presents world-class exhibitions to the public. The Museum is also opened to contemporary art and attempts to engage modernity and classic art works in a mutual dialogue. Due to the active scientific, research and exhibition activities, music festivals, artistic and educational work with adults and children The Pushkin Museum is now one of the most important cultural centers of Russia, which is visited by more than one million people per year. Nowadays the museum is going through extensive reconstruction, the development of the Museum Town will be the first of its kind in Russia. The Gallery of 19th and 20th Century European and American Art, a new section of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, opened its doors to the public in August 2006. The setting up of the Gallery was the next step in the development of the Museum, following the opening of a new building for the Museum of Private Collections in 2005 and the Museion Centre of Aesthetic Training for children and young people in 2006. The Gallery's twenty-six rooms contain a collection of works by masters of the 19th and 20th centuries. Whole rooms are devoted to a single movement in European art or the work of a single artist. There is a special room for the early 19th-century German school of painting represented by the works of Caspar David Friedrich and the Nazarenes. Smaller rooms enable visitors to take a new look at the well-known pictures of Eugene Delacroix and Jean-Dominique Ingres. The Spanish school is represented by Francisco de Goya. There is a special room for the Paris Salon painters Jean-Leon Gerome, Paul Delaroche and Eugene Louis Isabey. The works of the French landscape painters Camille Corot and members of the Barbizon School Theodore Rousseau, Jules Duprd, Diaz de la Pena and Charles Daubigny seem to have been specially intended for the Gallery's interiors. Canvases by Gustave Courbet, Jean-Franqois Millet and Honore Daumier complete the panorama of French realist art. The pride of the Gallery consists of the paintings by French Impressionists and Post-Impressionists and masters of the early 20th century: Claude Monet, August Renoir, Alfred Sisley, Camille Pissarro, Edgar Degas, Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, Andre Derain and Menri Rousseau. In the new display you can see works by representatives of other European schools, and also American art. Alongside the canvases of Vasily Kandinsky, Marc Chagall and Giorgio de Chirico are pictures by Aquille Funi, Carl Hofer, Felice Casorati, Hans Grundig, Volker Bohringer and Rockwell Kent. The work of such eminent European sculptors as Antoine-Louis Barye, Auguste Rodin, Aristide Maillol, Emile-Antoine Bourdelle, Ossip Zadkine and Hans Arp is also represented.
Church of Christ the Savior.
It was the largest church in the orthodox Russian Empire. Following its construction in 1883, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior was a symbol for the close connection between church and state in the empire. But just 34 years after its sanctification, the Soviets took power during the October Revolution of 1917. "Religion is the opium of the masses" then became the guiding principle in Lenin's politics of culture. The Soviets acted quickly: nearly all churches were closed down, church property was confiscated and thousands of clergy members were shot. All of it was a matter of course for the new communist state.The old Cathedral of Christ the Savior was 103 meters (338 feet) tall - its magnificent cupolas visible from the Kremlin. But this prominent location would also become a curse in 1931. Joseph Stalin was floating the idea of using the prime piece of property for a prestigious project: A Soviet palace was to replace the cathedral, complete with a statue of Lenin crowning the top of the 415-meter building. The conspicuous monument was to represent this new communist society. Thus, the Soviets blew up the cathedral in 1931. In was no major loss in the eyes of those in power at the time. But the construction project was never completed. It came to an end when German armed forces attacked the Soviet Union in 1941. The largest building in the world to commemorate communism remained a mere idea - with nothing more than a drab gray foundation bearing witness to the project. Years later, another construction project managed to set a record: the largest swimming pool in the USSR was built, measuring twice the size of a soccer field. The construction of the new Cathedral of Christ the Savior was financed through donations, with the project costing some $170 million. It took five years to rebuild, but then, it could shine again in all its majesty - at the spot where Stalin ordered the original one to be blown up. Patriarch Alexy II, then head of the Russian Orthodox Church, sanctified it in 2000. It was a perfect replica of the beautiful old cathedral.
Museum of Multimedia Art (Moscow House of Photography).
Officially the Moscow House of Photography was founded in 1996 although the arrangements were started two years earlier when the first «International Month of Photography» had been organized. The Moscow House of Photography became the first Russian museum fully and thoroughly representing the development and the present state of the photographic art in Russia. The unique Museum has chosen the unusual for Russian museums strategy of festivals and broad scale projects that has turned out to be a success. In a few years hundreds of interesting exhibitions were held, they made the House of Photography popular and one of the most visited museum of the Russian capital.
Moscow MoMA.
Moscow Museum of Modern Art is the first state museum in Russia that concentrates its activities exclusively on the art of the 20th and 21st centuries. Since its inauguration, the Museum has expanded its strategies and achieved a high level of public acknowledgement. Today the Museum is an energetic institution that plays an important part on the Moscow art scene.The Museum was unveiled on December 15, 1999, with the generous support of the Moscow City Government, Moscow City Department of Culture. Its founding director was Zurab Tsereteli, President of the Russian Academy of Arts. His private collection of more than 2.000 works by important 20th century masters was the core of the Museum’s permanent display. Later on, the Museum’s keepings were enriched considerably, and now this is one of the largest and most impressive collections of modern and contemporary Russian art, which continues to grow through acquisitions and donations.
Moscow
Kremlin Armoury, Kremlin Territory, Red Square, New Tretyakov Gallery and Gorgy Park and Garage CCC
Kremlin’s Armoury.
As important Russia's landmark as the Kremlin Cathedrals, Red Square and the Hermitage is the Kremlin Armoury Museum. It seems this national pride as if on purpose confuses people with its name and make them think it is all about arms and amour. The former Treasury and one of the world’s top five Royal Treasure Houses – that’s the exclusive collection protected by the title Kremlin Armory. Covering an extensive period from the 12th to early 20th century, the Russian Gold and Silverware art impresses with its splendor and delicacy. By far, itoccupies a special place in the world art. The State Regalia is the most important part of the Collection. It includes the marvelous individual crowns (or rather luxurious caps?) of the Russian Tsars and the most important one – the Monomakh’s Cap used for the coronations for two centuries. Their artwork is impeccable. The massive diamonds, emeralds, rubies, and sapphires, adorning the crowns, is an evidence of the former wealth of the Russian Royal court. And where else in the world one can see crowns decorated with sable fur?! The Armoury Chamber is also proud to have one of the world’s best collections of carriages, if not the best! There are brilliant examples of royal carriages executed by such talented masters as John Buckendal, Francois Boucher and Johann Hoppenhaupt. The collection is impressive in size, as only Empress Elisabeth on her own had possessed 5 personal carriages!
Kremlin Territory with the Assumption Cathedral
At the geographic and historic centre of Moscow, the Moscow Kremlin is the oldest part of the city. First mentioned in the Hypatian Chronicle in 1147 as a fortification erected on the left bank of the Moskva river by Yuri Dolgoruki, Prince of Suzdal, the Kremlin developed and grew with settlements and suburbs which were further surrounded by new fortifications - Kitaigorodsky Wall, Bely Gorod, Zemlyanoy Gorod and others. This determined a radial and circular plan of the centre of Moscow typical of many other Old Russian cities. In 13th century the Kremlin was the official residence of supreme power - the center of temporal and spiritual life of the state. The Kremlin of the late 15th – early 16th century is one of the major fortifications of Europe (the stone walls and towers of present day were erected in 1485–1516). It contains an ensemble of monuments of outstanding quality. The most significant churches of the Moscow Kremlin are situated on the Cathedral Square; they are the Cathedral of the Dormition, Church of the Archangel, Church of the Annunciation and the bell tower of Ivan Veliki. Almost all of them were designed by invited Italian architects which is clearly seen in their architectural style. The five-domed Assumption Cathedral (1475–1479) was built by an Italian architect Aristotele Fiorvanti. Its interior is decorated with frescos and a five-tier iconostasis (15th–17th century). The cathedral became the major Russian Orthodox church; a wedding and coronation place for great princes, tsars and emperors as well as the shrine for metropolitans and patriarchs. In the same square another Italian architect, Alevisio Novi, erected the five-domed Church of the Archangel in 1505-1508. From the 17th to 19th century, its interior was decorated by wonderful frescos and an iconostasis. In this church many great princes and tsars of Moscow are buried. Among them are Ivan I Kalita, Dmitri Donskoi, Ivan III, Ivan IV the Terrible, Mikhail Fedorovich and Alexei Mikhailovich Romanovs. The Cathedral of the Dormition was built by Pskov architects in 1484–1489. Inside the cathedral some mural paintings of 16th–19th century have been preserved and the icons of Andrei Rublev and Theophanes the Greek are part of the iconostasis. In 1505-1508 the bell tower of Ivan Veliki was built. Being 82 metres high it was the highest building in Russia which became the focal point of the Kremlin ensemble. Among the oldest civil buildings of the Moscow Kremlin, the Palace of the Facets (1487–1491) is the most remarkable. Italian architects Marco Fryazin and Pietro Antonio Solario built it as a great hall for holding state ceremonies, celebrations and for receiving foreign ambassadors. The most noteworthy civil construction of the 17th century built by Russian masters is the Teremnoi Palace. From the early 18th century, when the capital of Russia moved to St. Petersburg, the Kremlin mainly played a ceremonial role with religious functions. By the end of the century the architectural complex of the Kremlin expanded with the Arsenal reconstructed after the Fire of 1797 by Matvei Kazakov. The Senate was built in 1776–1787 according to the plans of the same architect as the home of the highest agency of State power of the Russian Empire - the Ruling Senate. Today it is the residence of the President of Russia. From 1839 to 1849 a Russian architect K.A. Thon erected the Great Kremlin Palace as a residence of the imperial family which combined ancient Kremlin buildings such as the Palace of the Facets, the Tsarina’s Golden Chamber, Master Chambers, the Teremnoi Palace and the Teremnoi churches. In the Armory Chamber built by K.A. Thon within the complex of the Great Kremlin Palace, there is a 16th century museum officially established by the order of Alexander I in 1806.
Red Square
Inextricably linked to all the most important historical and political events in Russia since the 13th century, the Kremlin (built between the 14th and 17th centuries by outstanding Russian and foreign architects) was the residence of the Great Prince and also a religious centre. At the foot of its ramparts, on Red Square, St Basil's Basilica is one of the most beautiful Russian Orthodox monuments.Red Square, closely associated with the Kremlin, lies beneath its east wall. At its south end is the famous Pokrovski Cathedral (Cathedral of St Basil the Blessed), one of the most beautiful monuments of Old Russian church architecture, erected in 1555–1560 to commemorate the victory of Ivan the Terrible over the Kazan Khanate. In the 17th century the cathedral gained its up-to-date appearance thanks to the decorative finishing of the domes and painting both inside and outside the cathedral. The construction of Red Square was finished by the late 19th century together with the erection of the Imperial Historic Museum (today the State Historical Museum), the Upper Trading Rows (GUM) and the Middle Trading Rows. In 1929, , Lenin’s Mausoleum, designed by A.V. Shchusev and an outstanding example of the Soviet monumental architecture, was finished.
The New Tretyakov Gallery on Krimsky Val
The New Tretyakov Gallery presents the most complete permanent exhibition of Russian art of the 20th century in all its diversity - avantgarde, socialistic realism and art of the "austere style" and "underground" and some new art trends. Here are held not only large-scale retrospectives of great Russian artists, but also showed experimental exhibitions of young authors. A lecture hall and a creative workshop offer a wide range of theoretical knowledge and practical trainings about the art of the 20th and early 21st century for children, students and adults.
Gorky Park and Garage CCC.
Founded by Dasha Zhukova in 2008, Garage Center for Contemporary Culture is a major non-profit international project based in Moscow, dedicated to exploring and developing contemporary culture. Garage aims to bring important international modern and contemporary art and culture to Moscow, to raise the profile of Russian contemporary culture and to encourage a new generation of Russian artists. These aims are explored through a series of exhibitions, ranging from major surveys of important collections to single-artist retrospectives and surveys and group exhibitions. Garage also hosts a strong program of special events including talks, film screenings, workshops, performances and creative activities for children and young people.Garage relocated from the Bakhmetevsky Bus Garage to a new site in Gorky Park, Moscow, developed by Rem Koolhaas’s OMA and opened in 2013. In the longer term, Garage plans to develop an 8,500 square meter hexagonal pavilion in the park. This historic 1920s structure, which consists of six sections built around a central courtyard, was first constructed to house the first All-Union Agricultural Exhibition, but it later became a pre-war exhibition space for soviet artists. The development will become one of the most important non-profit international contemporary art sites in Moscow, with international standard gallery facilities and areas dedicated to education and learning.
