Moscow offers for tourists many interesting places, sights and activities.

The Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts Was built in 1898-1912 from the design of architect RI. Klein. Opened in 1912 under the auspices of Moscow University it was intended to be a public art education museum where everyone could get acquainted with the most famous works of ancient, medieval and Renaissance art. The founder of the museum was Ivan Tsvetaev (1847-1913), Professor of Moscow-University, an outstanding expert in ancient philology who devoted his life to the task of setting up a muse-um of fine arts in Moscow.

The building of the museum of fine arts was designed so that it could house sculptures dating from different periods. The build-ing is adorned with an Ionic colonnade.

Initially the museum's collec-tion was composed mainly of plaster casts of sculptures dating from the 4th millennium BC through the Renaissance period. The museum's collection, including its picture gallery, is constantly growing. Today it has about 5,000 paintings, 350,000 drawings and engravings, and 100,000 coins and medals. Its display gives a clear idea of the development of world art from ancient times to our days. The museum is annually visited by more than 1,500,000 people, constantly holds exhibitions of paintings from the world's finest collections.

The museum's permanent display includes three main sections. The first one features original monuments of the ancient world - Ancient Egypt, the ancient civilization of Anterior Asia and Eastern Mediterranean, Ancient Rome and Northern Black Sea Coast. The second section includes halls exhibiting plaster replicas of famous works of sculpture of the classical period, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The third section is a picture gallery with works of West European Painting and sculpture from the Middle Ages to the present days.

The State Tratyakov Gallery is a museum of world sig-nificance with collections running into many thousands of works of art from Old Russia icons to contempo-rary paintings. The gallery is the pride both Moscow and all Russia.

The founder of the gallery is Pavel Tretyakov (1832-1898).'He began collecting the finest works by Russian painters in 1856 and continued his activity for forty years until the end of his life. After Pavel Tretyakov's death the collec-tor's brother, Sergei Tretyakov also a lover of paintings, collected works not only of Russian, but also of French and Dutch masters.

The collection of the Tretyakov brothers was opened to the public as a private museum in 1874 and it immediately became widely popular.

In the first half on the 20th cen-tury the gallery was nationalized. Thus, formerly a municipal museum, the Tretyakov Gallery was trans-formed into a national museum.

In the early 20th century, a department of Old Russian paint-ing was instituted at the Tretyakov Gallery. It includes such great mas-terpieces as the famous Old Testament Trinity, the only original icon by Andrei Rublev. a number of other icons attributed to Andrei Rublev and Theophanes the Greek, and a collection of out-standing works of 16th century Russian iconpainting.

The collection of 18th century Russian art includes works by such talented portraitists as Alexei Antropov, Fyodor Rokotov, Dmitry Levitsky and Vladimir Borovikovsky and superb sculptural portraits by Fedor Shubin and Mikhail Kozlovsky.

The halls featuring the first half of the 19th century contain the remarkable canvas Christ's Appearance to the People by Alexander Ivanov, who devoted twenty years of his life to creating it. On display here arc also poetic yet true-to-life portraits by Orest Kiprensky, including his portrait of Alexander Pushkin, works by Karl Bryullov such as Bathsheba, a Lady on Horseback and a large number of other paintings by great artists.

The Tchaikovsky Concert Hall (1940, architects DN. Chechulin and K.K. Orlov) is one of the centres of Moscow's musical and cultural life. Its auditorium arranged in an immense three-tier amphitheatre, has excellent acoustics and a very convenient lay-oui so that a spectator occupying any seat has a full view of the stage.

The Tchaikovsky Moscow Conservatorie is a lale 18th century manor house built to the design of Vasily Bazhenov for Princess 'fekaierina Dashkova. In 1894 The building was almost entirely torn down. In 1901 archi-tect VE Zagorsky rebuilt the build-ing so that it could house the con-servatoire using elements of Dashkova manor.

The new buildings of The Russian State Library were erect-ed next to its former building, the Pashkov House. They were built in 1927-1941 from the design of architects V.SHCHUKO and V.Gelftelkh.

The building is decorated with sculptural pieces: above the pylons of the facade overlooking Mokhovaya Street [here are 14 allegorical statues and in the niches there are bronze portraits of great writeis and scientists. The main portico is topped with a multi-figure frieze in relief.

The Allrussia Exhibition Center (former USSR Economic Achievements Exhibi-tion) was set up in 1959 on the basis of three previously existing exhibition. It was open at first in 1939 as an All-Union Agricultural Exhibition.

The Exhibition Centre is above all a unique monument of Soviet architecture abounding in symbols of the period of the 1930 through 1950 - struc-tures, fountains and minor forms that transfer the visitor as it were into the Stalinlst period. It is a vast park covering an area of more than 200 hectares. It is also a whole township consist-ing of 80 pavilions and 200 other facilities for recreation and amusement.

One of the main squares of the Exhibition Center wonder township is Friendship of the Peoples Square. Its adornment - and the adornment of the whole Exhibition - is a big fountain of the same name. The extravagan-za of water jets spurting from an enormous golden sheaf of wheat is surrounded by fifteen bronze figures of girls.

There are fourteen fountains lining the alley which leads from the arch of the Main Entrance to the Central Pavilion.

Today the All-Russia Exhibition Centre is a place of amusement - It has an attrac-tion park, shopping pavilions and a large number of cafes in the open which serve bear, drinks, ice-cream and shashlik. The entrance is free.

The Memorial of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 stretch-es over an area of 20 hectares on the highest elevation of the Poklonnaya Hill in the Viбtory Park. This architectural ensemble built in 1983-1995 includes a museum, several sculptural monuments, an open-air display and a church. The building of the museum is topped with a massive dome. One can get here from Kutuzovsky Prospect by way of a wide central alley named "War Years" which ends before its facade in round Victors Square in the center of which rises a 140 meters high obelisk (architects V. Budayev and L. Vavakin) crowned with a flying fig-ure of Nike the winged goddess of victory (sculptor Z. Trestle). The museum faces Victors Square with a semicircular pylonnade behind which is the building housing the main halls of the museum. To the left of the center alley stands the Church of St. George the Victorious the patron saint of Moscow (1993-1995).

In front of the square are low foun-tains which remind one of fountains of blood Russian sol-diers shed in battle-fields fighting against Germans during the Great Patriotic War.

In 1962 to mark the 150th anniversary of the battle of Borodino (1812) a building was erected to the design of architects A.P. Korabelnikov, AA. Kuzmin and S.I. Kuchanov and engineer Yu.Ye. Avrutin specially for displaying the Battle of Borodino Panorama created by the artist Franz Roubaud in 1912.

In 1973 a monument to Mikhail Kutuzov by sculptor N.V. Tomsky and architect L.G. Golubovsky was put up in front of the museum. The equestrian stat-ue of the field marshal stands on a high granite pedestal surrounded by bronze images of Russian war heroes in high relief.

The Neskuchny (Ueisure) Garden with its undulating groves and glades in picturesque hillsides is the oldest part of the Gorky Central Amusing Park stretching on the bank of the Moskva River over an area of 100 hectares (set up in 1928 on the site of the former All-Russia Agricultural Exhibition and the handicraft and Industry Exhibition of 1923, the Neskuchny Garden and the Vorobyovy Hills). Grown with maples, limes, poplars and willows the park is noted for its ponds, flowerbeds, fountains and picturesque alleys decorated with sculptures. Its eastern part has been made into an amusement area. Beyond the Neskuchny Garden near Pushkinskaya Embankment stands the immense amphitheater of the Zeiyony (Green) Theatre, one of the biggest open-air the-atres in Moscow.

Superbly designed embank-ment of the Moskva River (archi-tect A.V. Vlasov) with beautiful descents leading to the water and a rotunda summerhouse are an integral part of the park.

The Moscow Zoo, the oldest one in Russia was opened in 1864. It was founded by Count Bobrinsky and noted Russian biologists K.F. Roulier, S.A.Usov and others. Initially it had 300 animals, now it has about 3.000.

Between 1990 and 1996 the Moscow Zoo underwent overall reconstruction during which new enclosures and structures imitating natural features were built for its habitants. Praciculary interesting is the new entrance with two fanciful turrets on the side of Krasnaya Presnya Street .

2.4. Transportation

Airports There are 4 major airports in Moscow which arc located .30-45 kilometers from the city.

The Metro (THE UNDERGROUND) is the fastest and most comfortable means of public transportation within the city. The length of Moscow underground is approximately 240 kilometers. There are more then 140 metro stations. During rush hours the metro trains run at speed of 41,4 kilometers per hour (including waiting time). Trains move of 80-second intervals, at rush hours the interval is 40-50 seconds. The Moscow metro transports every day approximately 9 million pas-sengers. The fare for all metro lines is the same - a ticket one can buy at Metro stations, it is valid till one exits the Metro.

The first line of Moscow's Metro from Sokolniky to Park Kultury was opened in May 1935. Building of Metro was not inter-rupted even in war time. By means of the Metro one can have an exciting axcursion. The stations built in the Stalin era are remarkable for their pompous ornamen-tation. Thanks to unique architec-ture and artistic performance many of stations look more like temples and palaces. Station NOVOSLOBODSKAYA is noted for its huge stained-glass orna-ments, KOMSOMOLSKAYA - for its bronze and crystal chandeliers, KIEVSKAYA - for its beautiful mosaics, KRASNYE VOROTA - for its unique sorts of multicolored marble, PLOSHCHAD REVOLUTSII - for its bronze sculptures.

MAYAKOVSKAYA and KROPOTKINSKAYA were marked by UNESCO as unique architectural monuments, modern stations are built of concrete and are more modest. Of the lately built stations CHEKHOVSKAYA and NAGATINSKAYA are worth seeing due to their exquisite artistic design.

Some central stations were renamed not so long ago. They were given back their former his-torical names. Transfer stations sometimes have two and more names corre-sponding to the different lines.

Bus, Tram, Trolley These modes of transporta-tion operate on the ticket system. Tickets should be purchased prior to boarding. One can buy tickets at Metro stations, kiosks or directly from the driver once you are on board. Punch your ticket and keep it until your trip is over. In Moscow there are more than 430 bus lines and nearly 40 tram lines.

2.5. The type of accomodation

The Russians have always regarded Moscow as the centre from which power and might of the Russian state developed. Moscow is often described as beautiful. This is precisely how people call it: Moscow the Beautiful. Moscow is one of the rare cities preserving its beauty in perpetuity, whatever happens. To those who get to know Moscow closely and with respect, it is quite evident that today Moscow with its history, its architectural masterpieces and its innumerable art treasures has found itself at a boundary between two different eras, in a whirlpool of global currents determining world development.

Moscow has entered the 21st century as a city radically different from what it was at the turn of the century. You may change the names of streets and squares to what they once were and restore a couple of dozen buildings that were foolishly demolished, but you cannot turn back the clock.

People from all over the world flocked to witness the splendors in the capital of the largest empire on earth. There is an external enchantment about Moscow that makes the city unforgettable.

The best Moscow hotels are:

1) Baltschug Kempinski *****

The true measure of any hotel is the comfort of its lodgings, and the Hotel Baltschug Kempinski Moscow offers luxury on a grand scale. Starting from US$280

2) Golden Ring Hotel *****

In the historical center of Moscow close to the famous „Old Arbat“ street next to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Starting from US$175

3) Hotel National *****

The hotel has 224 comfortable rooms including 37 suites. Most of them are individually designed and decorated. Starting from US$ 205

4) Marriott Grand hotel *****

Whether you're traveling for business or pleasure, the Marriott Grand Hotel focuses on what it takes to make your trip successful.

Starting from US$185

5) Marriot Royal hotel*****

The Marriott Royal Hotel is conveniently located in the heart of Moscow. This five star hotel is the perfect place to stay.
Starting from US$255

6) Mezhdunarodnya hotel*****

The "Mezhdunarodnaya" hotel has all the services to meet the best international standards. Starting from US$195

7) Marriot Tverskaya hotel****

This internationally managed hotel features 162 spacious rooms and suites, including 36 two room business suites. Starting from US$155

8) Novotel Hotel Moscow****

The hotel is situated near the airport "Sheremetjevo II". All the rooms are comfortable and fully sound isolated. Starting from US$150

2.6 The sights

In Russia the same object might have several names. Thus, The Red Square was officially given its modern name in 19th century, though the name was mentioned in the documents of 17th century. Different centuries left their traces:15th century gave the Kremlin's Wall with Spasskaya, Senatskaya and Nikolskaya towers; 16th - Place of execution. (Lobnoe mesto), and the Cathedral of Vasily the Blessed; 19th century - the monument to Minin and Pozharsky, the building of Historical museum and Upper Trade Rows (GUM), 20th century - Lenin's Mausoleum.

St. Basil's Cathedral

In 16th century a stone church of the Trinity with a small cemetery was situated on this place. The Blessed Vasily, who has dyed in August 2, 1555, considered to be foolish, was buried near this stone church. In October 2, 1552, Russian troops took Kazan - the capital of the Kazan khanate. In commemoration of this event tsar Ivan the Terrible ordered to construct 7 wooden temples on the Red Square, where in 1555-1561 a stone temple, named after the Feast of the Protective veil, was erected (the assault on Kazan began the day of the holiday of the Protective veil, after two months siege). The church, situated in the central tower, was devoted to this holiday. Four towers-churches are located on different sides of the world. The northern - in the name of St. Kiprian and Ustina; that was the day of the complete capture of Kazan. In 1786 under petition of rich investor Natalia Hruscheva the church was consecrated in the name of St. Adrian and Natalia. The southern church is consecrated in the name of Nicola Velikoretsky, that is also connected with the Kazan campaign. The western church is consecrated in the name of the Input to Jerusalem, it is connected with solemn returning of the army to Moscow. Eastern church is consecrated in the name of Trinity, that is, the church, which was before situated at the cathedral place, was transferred into it.
    The towers, located along the diagonals, are devoted to various events of the Kazan campaign: north - west church of the Grigory Armyansky (day of capture of the Arskaya tower). South - east church of Alexander Svirsky (rout of 30-thousand group tatar cavalry under the command of the tatar prince Japanchi); north -east church of the Three patriarchs of Alexandria - the memory day of these saints is marked the same day as the memory day of Alexander Svirsky. South - west church of Varlaam Hutynsky is the only church, which is not connected with the events of the campaign.

The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour

The temple was constructed on a vow given by sovereign Alexander I in gratitude for saving fatherland "from the Gauls invasion". The temple was supposed to be built on Vorobyovy mountains under the project of architect Vitberg. Subsequently "on intrigues against the builder" the project of a temple and a place of construction were changed. The new place was chosen not so close to the Kremlin, so that the temple was dissonant to its ensemble, but at the same time so that connection of the temple with ancient constructions of the Kremlin and the Red Square was felt.

Novodevichy Convent

Panorama "Borodino Battle"

The museum building was constructed at the historic place. Here had once been the village of Fili (suburb of Moscow) where on September 13, 1812, in a wooden log hut belonging to a peasant (Frolov by name), the council of war was held, and the fate not only of Moscow but also of entire Russia was at stake.

Since then this house which was named "Kutuzov's hut" by people became the historical relic. In front of it one can see a bronze bust of M.I.Kutuzov. Nearby there is a building of the former museum-chapel of Kutuzov that was built in commemoration of the Centennial of the Patriotic War, as well as an obelisk marking the common grave of 300 Russian warriors. Not far from our museum, on the Kutuzov Avenue, there is the Arc of Triumph erected in 1834. It was restored next to the Poklonnaya Gora (Hill of Respectful Salutation) where Napoleon had vainly expected to be met by a deputation of the city elders, bearing the municipal keys.

2.7 Restaurants

Moscow takes the important place in tourism of the country not only as the capital of Russia, but also as the historical and cultural centre of Russia. Completely it is not simply without the guide and special excursions learn Moscow. Even muscovites not always know all beauty of the city.

Moscow occupies the big area together with its suburbs both has very favourable geographical position and adopts culture of the west, mixing it with primordially Russian traditions and customs.

The travel & tourism industry are developing rapidly in Moscow. There are a lot of small and big and rish hotels in the capital of Russia. The service & catering industry offers for the people many various facilities.

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