Insight Guides: City Guide Moscow

How To Use This E-Book

Getting around the e-book

This Insight CityGuide e-book is designed to give you inspiration for your visit to Moscow, as well as comprehensive planning advice to make sure you have the best travel experience. The guide begins with our selection of Top Attractions, as well as our Editors Choice categories of activities and experiences. Detailed features on history, people and culture paint a vivid portrait of contemporary life in Moscow. The extensive Places chapters give a complete guide to all the sights and areas worth visiting. The Travel Tips provide full information on getting around, activities from culture to shopping to sport, plus a wealth of practical information to help you plan your trip.

In the Table of Contents and throughout this e-book you will see hyperlinked references. Just tap a hyperlink once to skip to the section you would like to read. Practical information and listings are also hyperlinked, so as long as you have an external connection to the internet, you can tap a link to go directly to the website for more information.

Maps

All key attractions and sights in Moscow are numbered and cross-referenced to high-quality maps. Wherever you see the reference [map] just tap this to go straight to the related map. You can also double-tap any map for a zoom view.

Images

Youll find hundreds of beautiful high-resolution images that capture the essence of Moscow. Simply double-tap on an image to see it full-screen.

About Insight Guides

Insight Guides have more than 40 years experience of publishing high-quality, visual travel guides. We produce 400 full-colour titles, in both print and digital form, covering more than 200 destinations across the globe, in a variety of formats to meet your different needs.

Insight Guides are written by local authors, whose expertise is evident in the extensive historical and cultural background features. Each destination is carefully researched by regional experts to ensure our guides provide the very latest information. All the reviews in Insight Guides are independent; we strive to maintain an impartial view. Our reviews are carefully selected to guide you to the best places to eat, go out and shop, so you can be confident that when we say a place is special, we really mean it.

2016 Apa Digital (CH) AG and Apa Publications (UK) Ltd

Moscows Top 10 Attractions

At a glance, everything you wont want to miss, from iconic cathedrals to palatial architecture and impressive art galleries to the citys best bathhouse.

Top Attraction 1

Red Square . Even before you stand on this vast piazza you might have an image of it in your head, perhaps with tanks rolling past Stalins perch atop the Lenin Mausoleum. For more information, .

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Top Attraction 2

The Kremlin . Epicentre of Russian state power, this fortress once contained the original city. Patriarchs, tsars and Communist presidents ruled from here, as does Putins regime today. For more information, .

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Top Attraction 3

Cathedral of Christ the Saviour . Built to commemorate the defeat of Napoleon in 1812, this is Russias largest cathedral. Destroyed by Stalins dynamite, it was rebuilt in time for the new millennium. For more information, .

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Top Attraction 4

St Basils Cathedral . Its the building in Russia everyone outside the country recognises, and no one will believe youve been to Moscow if you dont post a selfie with this church in the background. For more information, .

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Top Attraction 5

Tretyakov Gallery . The home of Russian art on the south side of the river, the highlight of the Tretyakov is the unrivalled collection of icons, including rare works by Rublyov. For more information, .

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Top Attraction 6

Bolshoi Theatre . Back from the dead after the building nearly collapsed, Russias most illustrious stage once again reverberates to Slavic ballet and headline-making scandal. For more information, .

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Top Attraction 7

Sandunovsky Baths . Let yourself be pummelled, whipped and steamed at Moscows most famous traditional bathhouse. Bathing is segregated and tea, beer and relaxed conversation are part of the cleansing process. For more information, .

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Top Attraction 8

Novodevichy Convent . One of the best preserved and most tranquil of Moscows original convents was built in 1524 to celebrate a great military victory over the Poles and Lithuanians. For more information, .

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Top Attraction 9

Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts . One of Russias best art museums boasts a collection of over half a million works, including everything from Egyptian papyrus to Picassos. For more information, .

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Top Attraction 10

Arbat . Moscows most celebrated street once drew artists and writers and now lures tourists and street performers to its pedestrianised length. For more information, .

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Editors Choice

Setting priorities, saving money, unique attractions here, at a glance, are our recommendations, plus some tips and pieces of etiquette to keep the scolding babushki at bay.