Moscow

Ivan the Great Bell Tower

General information 

Everbrite's personal suggestions for 5 days in Moscow would be as follows:

• day 1 - Kremlin including the Armory Museum and the Diamond Fund - this is open on Monday and closed on Thursday. Note that these places are all open on Monday and since lots of other things are closed on Monday, this is important to keep in mind. See below for more things to do on Mondays. In addition, since the summer of 2003 sometimes it has been impossible to visit the Kremlin unless one enters with a guide. Check the current situation.
• day 2 - KGB Museum in the morning (this requires reservations - only place I know that offers these tours is Patriarshy Dom) and then walk in Kitai Gorod and Red Square in the afternoon. Note that access to Red Square sometimes is limited as well. Lenin's Tomb is open for viewing from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. (except Monday, Friday and Sunday and those periods when the body is sent back for refreshment of the preservatives). Entrance to Red Square is further restricted when the Mausoleum is open; visitors are not allowed to carry cameras. The line generally forms over between the History Museum and the Kremlin wall, not far from the Corner Arsenal Tower. Walk along Tverskaya Street, Moscow's Main Street.
• day 3 - Novodevichy Convent and Cemetery - I know it sounds weird visiting a cemetery, but it is very interesting. Lots of famous people are buried here and the sculptured headstones and monuments are worth seeing. Then head out to the main MGU (Moscow State University) campus and the Sparrow Hills overlook.
• day 4 - Church of Christ the Savior, the Pushkin Art Museum and the Prechistenka/Ostozhenka area, plus walk up Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street.
• day 5 - the Tretyakov Gallery and Zamoskvorechye area including the Park of the Fallen Heroes and New Tretyakov Gallery.

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Kuskovo
Ideas for Additional Days 

• If you have additional days, consider visiting one of these estates: Kolomenskoye, Ostankino, Kuskovo. They are all old estates with lovely buildings in beautiful parks.
• If the weather is nice and you want to picnic, take a day trip to Sergiev Posad and Abramtsevo, Arkhangelskoye or the New Jerusalem Monastery with its nearby wooden architecture museum. All can be reached by public transportation.
• If you are in Moscow on Friday, Saturday or Sunday, take the metro to Izmailovo Park and walk to the crafts' fairgrounds at Vernisazh. If not, several places to look for Russian crafts are the gift shops at the Armory Museum and the State History Museum, the shops along Old Arbat, the vendors at the Sparrow Hills overlook and the shops in the Central House of Artists located on Krymsky Val, the Garden Ring section across from Gorky Park.
• Do a tour of the metro stations, in particular see the ring line stations and their transfer stations and the three stations that intersect near Red Square (Okhotny Ryad, Ploshchad Revolutsii and Teatralnaya). There is even a metro museum not far from Novodevichy Convent, near the Sportivnaya Metro Station. Check out this privately maintained metro webpage: Metro Map 2005. The map at the bottom of the page is in transliterated English.
  
• Check out the walks offered by Patriarshy Dom. If they are offering a tour of the Grand Kremlin Palace during your visit, I recommend that you consider taking it. The Grand Kremlin Palace is the official location of the Russian President and a very interesting building. The only way inside is to be a Russian school child or pensioner on tour or to go with a group through Patriarshy Dom.
• Take the boat ride between Kievskaya Metro/Vokzal and NovoSpassky Monastery during the week (price is double on the weekend). There are easy metro connections at both ends. And the monastery is worth a visit as well.

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Mondays in Moscow  plan to visit any of the following:
Kremlin Churches and Armory Museum
State History Museum (but not the first Monday of the month)
Cathedral of the Intercession of the Mother of God on the Moat (St. Basil's Cathedral)
Museum of the Romanov Boyars in Zaryade (across from the Hotel Rossiya)
Novodevichy Convent and Cemetery

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Moscow After Dark 
Be sure to visit Red Square for a view of St. Basil's and the Kremlin. Note that during the summer of 2003, Red Square was closed except for entrance to St. Basil's and Lenin's Tomb, both of which required that you stand on lines and go through security check points. This situation seems to change regularly depending upon the situation with Chechen terrorists.

See if there is anything of interest playing at the Bolshoi Theater. Tickets can be ordered online.

If you are there in the summer and enjoy classical music, check out what is being performed at Kuskovo or Ostankino, both are interesting venues for performances and were Sheremetevo estates before the 1917 Revolution. Both were reasonably well maintained during Soviet times.

Moscow has dozens of bars and performance venues. Some are more expensive than others. Check out LifeStyle and Metropolis, the insert in Fridays' Moscow Times. Look at the The Exile and Expat websites. Here are some favorites of TT contributors:

• Voodoo Lounge / Papa Johns / Karma Bar etc. All are decent clubs with limited prostitutes (virtually all Moscow clubs have pros mingled with the regular crowds) and decent DJs.
• "Kitaisky Lyotchik (which means Chinese Pilot) is a bar/club down by Kitai Gorod metro. Place is wicked, if you like things to be a bit sleazy and your music to be fairly underground."
• "Propaganda, just off Maroseika, up the hill from the Kitai Gorod metro, is a bit trendy, but has good food, good beer and good people." Face control here is tight.
• Doug & Marty's - at Kurskaya metro. (bar/nightclub)
• Genatsvale - at Kropotinskaya metro. (great Georgian restaurant)
• Bunker - on Tverskaya. (bar/club). I dropped off three older teens here one evening and they had a blast.
• Vremya Yest - Belorusskaya metro (bar)
• Sledushii Dengi - (restaurant/club) the name translates best as Last Penny. Live music almost every night. Exit the Mayakovskaya station onto Tverskaya Street. Walk towards the Pekin Hotel and then along the side of the hotel at right angles to the main street, on a street called Brestskaya Ulitsa. At the end of the hotel building turn left; you should see a sign and kopeks on the ground. Head upstairs for the food and music.

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Here's more information about the club scene in Moscow, which is described as perhaps the wildest in the world. In all honesty, you'll meet better people, less pretentious and generally very nice, in the clubs that are listed as "normal."

Super Budget places: there are heaps of student bars that masquerade as nightclubs. They have DJs but you often need to take a clothes peg for your nose in the toilets! But beer is under $1 US and spirits equivalently priced. Many have student bands. Eg OGI clubs (see Exile, Moscow Times "Metropolis" etc.)

Budget: reasonably priced places include places like Vermel, 4 rooms (next door to Vermel). High chance of scoring if that is what you want. Moron Russian blokes abound who jealously "protect" their ugly GFs from blokes who are in no way interested in their ugly GFs...

Normal: Chinese Pilot, Propaganda, Karma Bar, Voodoo Lounge, Papa Johns, Territoria, B2, Kult, Art Garbage, Sixteen Tons (live music, cost depends on who plays), Woodstock are all decent places with less flathead morons protecting their ugly GFs because... you guessed it, most girls in these clubs tend to be pretty nice! Crowds tend to be relaxed, esp. at gigs. Budget is about the same as in most western clubs. (well, maybe less than London.) Most bars have a band, then the DJ kicks in.

Expensive: Justo, Marika, Zeppelin, Shambala DJ bar. I've only been to Marika but the place was full of supermodels who wouldn't fart in your general direction unless you waved $1000 in their general direction... Nothing but Armani and Gucci in these places. Outside there will be $5 million bucks worth of Mercedes S-Class v-12s parked in rows...

Off the Chart: First. You'd literally need $500 to have even a basic night out - but supposedly more babes than Marika.

Remember that this is not how the typical Russian spends his/her evening. They tend to be at home, visiting friends or at the theater (either movies or plays.)

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Moscow Inexpensive Food Options 
Restaurants:
The following places are all in downtown Moscow or easily accessible by metro, some have English language menus, but often they are only partially helpful. I'd guess prices are generally about $10-15 USD per person, but that doesn't include alcohol. A Russian phrase book will be essential if you have no Russian language skills. These are not the best places to eat, but they are all decent and sort of typical Russian, low to mid priced places.

BTW many places have a business lunch which is a fixed price menu that is quite good value. These vary in price from about $4 - 10 USD and usually include at least two and sometimes three courses plus coffee or tea. Often there is a sign outside indicating the price.

A little more expensive, but a bit nicer is TRAM. This is in the basement of the Lenkom Theater on Malaya Dmitrovka Street near the intersection of Nastasinsky Pereulok (Lane). It is quite near Pushkin Square and is open 24 hours. During the summer, there is an outdoor cafe that is quite nice.

Another option is a place that used to be called Gvozdi. This restaurant is located in a courtyard off Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street. The building is green and white and on the right if you come from the Boulevard Ring. I think the number is either 19 or 21. I found this place when searching for the courtyard, which is of architectural interest. During the summer the courtyard here is a pleasant change of pace for outdoor dining away from street noise. In evening there is often live music.

Over by the University, a nice option is a place called Pivnaya or Pub 01. The theme is fire stations as 01 is the number to call to report a fire. There is draft beer dispensed from a fire extinguisher on the tables and several other varieties available in draft. Address is Prospekt Vernadskovo, dom 6, stp. 3 and it's open from about noon to midnight or later.

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Traktir or self sevice chain restaurants:  These are restaurants serving traditional Russian foods such as The variety is great with different kinds of fish, meat, soup, salads, and sweets.

Cafe Mu Mu - This is a serve-yourself buffet with Russian standards at reasonable prices. There are 6 locations around town including on Arbat Street near the Smolenskaya metro, Myasnitskaya near the Lubyanka metro, Leningradskiy Prospekt near the Aeroport metro, Prospekt Mira near the Alekseevskaya metro. As one might expect, the symbol of this place is a black and white cow.

Drova - This is a self serve restaurant popular with young people serving an all-you-can-eat buffet 24 hours. They offer a deal that is 55 dishes for 420 rubles a person and their "biznes lanch" is 190 rubles. There are 6 locations around Moscow including one near Red Square at Nikol'skaya 5 and one near the Chistiy Prudi metro at Pokrovka 17, one on Mayasnitskaya 24 towards the other end of Chistiy Prudi and another on Arbat at number 16. The decor of real and fake wood reflects its name, which means "logs" in Russian. Reportedly they have a wireless LAN.

Shury Mury - there is one on Petrovka Street near the intersection with Petrovka Linei - you can't miss the bright blue and red sign

Yadryona - Matryona - The easiest one I know to find is on Klimentovsky Lane - come up from the Tretyakovsky Metro station, see the McDonalds and walk to your right.

Yolki Palki - there are quite a number of these, one is on the corner of Kuznetsky Most and Neglinnaya Street. Seems to me their logo is green and yellow.

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Fast Food: 
There are several options. Two pushcart chains are decent - one is called Teremok and can be identified by the green roof. They sell wonderful blinis. Another is called something like Kartoshok. They sell potatoes with various toppings and stuffings. Both chains are franchised so sometimes they occur in the same places. The same company developed both concepts.

Another fast food chain in Moscow is Russki Bistro. Their signs are easy to identify, and they are located everywhere. The sign is the head of a 19th century Russian soldier in black, yellow and red. These are sort of the Russian equivalent of McDonalds and were started under the auspices of Mayor Luzhkov, whose wife owns the company that makes the paper and plastic products that they use. They sell various pierogi plus other snacks and salads and are a good place for a quick bite. They vary some in quality and except for one or two, don't have bathrooms (a notable exception is the one near the Kitai Gorod metro on Varvarka Street, which does have a bathroom.)

There are lots of coffee shops now, but be sure to stop into the Coffee Bean at 10 Tverskaya Street - check out the ceiling and order the vanilla ice cream with strawberry sauce (not syrup), which comes in an almond cookie cup or the cherry strudel with/or without ice cream.

There is a food court in the basement of the Okhotny Ryad underground mall. The ice cream place there is excellent. In general, Russian ice cream is quite good.

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Self-Catering: 
There are several supermarket chains in Moscow now and two have downtown locations worth noting. They may even be open 24 hours or at least they don't close until quite late. Both are branches of the Sedmoi (or Seventh) Continent chain. The smaller of the two is located on Okhotny Ryad in the Hotel Moskva and the other is at 12 Bolshaya Lubyanka Street near the intersection with Kuznetsky Most.

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Weather for Moscow 
Temperatures

Average Amounts of Precipitation

Source for the information on amounts of precipitation: International Station Meteorological Climate Summary, Version 4.0

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News, cultural information 
The Moscow Times an English language newspaper available online or free at various places around town with good travel information, news and ideas of things to do.
The Exile a more irreverent online English language newspaper with restaurant reviews
"Official" Site of the Moscow Government
If you read Russian, then pick up a copy of Afisha for the theater and museum guide.
The Expat Web Site
Use the Moscow Yellow Pages to find the location of various shops, stores, services.

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Transportation 
Metro 
Moscow metro - this is not the official metro site but it does have metro maps and lots of information in Russian about the Moscow metro.
It is worth familiarizing yourself with the metro map before arriving in Moscow. Signs in the metro are primarily in Russian, but the map in the stations and on the trains is in both Cyrillic and Latin letters.
The Moscow Metro is all one zone. Metro tickets are 17 rubles per ride or passes can be purchased for 10 or 20 trips which cost less per ride (January 2007). )
The Moscow metro operates from 05:30 to 01:00 although some station transfer points may close a bit earlier and last trains usually leave about 00:50.

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Trains 
See Travel in Russia for more information about train travel.

Your Train - CIS Railway Schedule Train schedules for trains in Russia including all FSU countries. Tickets can be ordered for delivery in Moscow. This site has English as well as Russian. If you don't know the spelling of the city, just type in the first letter or two and you will get a pull down menu from which you can choose.

Two more sites for train searches:
Avantix, which is not in English but has a list of cities and towns from which you can choose what you need if you can read Cyrillic or recognize the names.

RZD, which is not in English. This site is worth knowing about because in addition to telling you the schedules, it also indicates seat availability and prices for the next 45 days. It does require that you be able to type the first several letters in Cyrillic and then recognize the city's name. But it is possible to navigate without your computer having cyrillic as a little keyboard pops up it you click the blue box. The top line is your departure city and the bottom your arrival city. Also it is possible to order tickets for pickup from this website for the price of the ticket plus a small fee of about 120 rubles. You will need to register and use a credit card. I believe that you can only order tickets within 45 days of travel.

Getting from Sheremetevo Airport to the Downtown: 
Assuming that you arrive in Sheremetevo, as most but not all international flights do, you can order a taxi to meet you at the airport from many of the hostels (see above) or hotels or WaytoRussia. Usually the price is about $25-40USD depending some on when and where you are traveling. Note that the drive is about 45 minutes to an hour depending upon the traffic.

OR Taking public transportation is not too complicated, provided that you don't have much luggage, you read some cyrillic and you know where you are going. If you decide to be adventurous, note that the Moscow metro is not luggage friendly, and there are tons of stairs so luggage on wheels is not necessarily helpful.

Public transportation from Sheremetevo (either SVO 1 or 2) is a two-step process. Just go outside the airport and look for small white buses, which have numbers like "200" on them. It's usually 20-25 rubles to the nearest metro station. This station, Rechnoy Vokzal, is the northern terminus of the green line. There are also buses to Planernaya, the northern terminus of the purple line. From either of these points, you can get almost anywhere on the metro. Don't forget to change some money into rubles before leaving the airport. There is an ATM machine after you pass out of customs.

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Getting from Domodedovo to Downtown: 
British Air and Swiss Air both arrive at Domodedovo which is at the completely opposite site of town. It is considerably easier to get from this airport to downtown. There is an express train from the airport to Paveltskaya Train and Metro Station. Your boarding pass from your flight should enable you to travel on the express train for free. This metro stop is where the green line intersects the ring line on the south side of the city. For details on all the public transportation options, check out the airport website in English: Domodedovo International Airport. Don't forget to change some money into rubles before leaving the airport.

Getting from Sheremetevo to/from Domodedovo Airport
According to the above link for the Domodedovo Airport website there is a bus which travels between these two airports. Travel time is reportedly 1.5 - 2 hours. Unfortunately the website does not have information about prices or drop off/pick up points.

Getting to/from Vnukovo 
Vnukovo now has international as well as domestic flights. The airport has its own website which gives information on public transportation: Vnukovo Airport Directions. In addition, this airport offers the option to prearrange a fixed priced taxi to or from the airport: Vnukovo Trans-free cab.

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Inexpensive accommodations 
NOTE: Both Moscow and St. Petersburg have a severe shortage of inexpensive housing, but here are some suggestions. Do NOT arrive in either city without prearranged housing.
Hostels 
hostels.com
hosteleurope.com
hosteling-russia.ru
Hotelling International or HI
Hostel World
Hostels Web - has some guest houses, B&Bs as well as hostels and apartments.
Hostels Central - has hostels, B&Bs and guest houses which can be booked online.

Concerning the locations of the hostels in Moscow, according to my handy city street atlas and listed alphabetically:

• the AD&T Guesthouse is closed, and has been for a while. Their old web site, http://www.moscowguesthouse.com, no longer works, and they are not open to the public anymore.


• Art Hostel is college dorms and they are only open when classes are not in session. No dormitory bunk rooms - just single rooms and double rooms. Good neighborhood though, actually inside the ring metro line, 10 minute walk to the ring line and an almost straight shot to the Kremlin. Unfortunately it was closed for renovations in 2004, and there is no indication when they might open again.


• Asia or G & R is located in a rundown old soviet-style hotel much further from center city, in the south west part of town, near the next to last stop on the purple line - 5 stops from the ring line. This is reportedly an okay place to stay and easy to get to and from. These hostel has been around a while and offers travel services on premises. This hostel is a hostelling international member.


• Breeze Hostel is located at 24/2, Khavskaya Ul. which on the south side rather far from the center of town. It is 700 meters to the Shabolovskaya (orange line) metro station or 800 meters to the Tulskaya (grey line) metro station. This hostel is a hostelling international member. They don't have an English langugage website as yet nor can they be booked online but you can contact them via email at breeze@hostel-breeze.ru

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• Godzillas Hostel - a new addition in Moscow as of 2005, located at Bolshoi Karetnyy 6, Apt 5 (First Floor) between the Garden Ring and the Boulevard Ring not far from Tsvetnoi Bulvar metro station. This hostel is a hostelling international member.


• Happy Home Hostel is located at Belorechenskaya St. 7 Apartment 52. This is near the Lublino metro station which is 7 stops from the Kurskaya ring line station on the light green line.


• Heritage, located at Kosmonavtov Ul. 2 is supposedly a member of the International Youth Hostel Association but I couldn't find a web page. Telephone number might be +7 (095) 286 05 36 or perhaps try +7 (095) 975 15 77 and Email address is reportedly evgen@az-tour.msk.ru.


• Home from Home Hostel is located two minutes walk from Krasnoselskaya metro station at 22/24 Krasnoprudnaya Street, corpus 1, Apartment no. 71. It is a five minute walk or one stop on the metro to the 'Three Stations', Leningradsky, Kazansky, and Yaroslavsky stations (where the Trans-Siberian trains depart). They also rent a 5 bedroom apartment which is located just off the Garden Ring, steps from the Krasniye Vorota metro station. They used to recommend the waytorussia.net site for visa support, and it is unclear if they offer registration. This hostel is a hosteling international member.


• HM Hostel is located at Maly Afansyevskiy 1/33, Apartment 14 on the 4th floor. It is in the area of Arbat Street, about 5 minute walk from the Arbatskaya metro station (light blue ) and not far from the Borovitskaya Station (grey line) and the Biblioteka imeni Lenina Station (red line). It is only a few minutes further from the Kropotinskaya Station (red line). It is just steps from the Boulevard Ring. This building was recently renovated and the hostel opened in 2007. This hostel is a hostelling international member.

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• Lenin Hostel doesn't seem to have its own website. It is located at Bolshaya Sukharevskaya Square 16/18, Apt. 5 which is near the Sukharevsky metro on the Orange line one stop inside the ring line on the Garden Ring.


• Moscow Home Hostel is 2 Neopalimovsky pereulok 1 ap. 1/12. This is a short walk from the Garden Ring between the Park Kultury (red line) and the Smolenskaya (dark blue line) metro stations. This hostel has twin and double rooms with bathroom insuite and opened in September 2006. This hostel is a hostelling international member.


• Napoleon Hostel is located at Maly Zlatoustinskiy Street, Dom 2, on the 4th Floor. This is just outside the Kitai Gorod area, not far from the Kitai Gorod and Lubyanka metro stations.


• Nova House does not seem to have a website. It is located at 4 Devyatkin pereulok which is a short walk from the Maroseyka exit of the Kitai Gorod metro station. This is a new hostel in a good location. The bathroom has a two person sauna.


• Red Square Hostel does not seem to have a website yet, but it has a great location. It is located at number 4 Tverskaya Ul. entrance 11 on the 7th floor. This is the main street leaving Red Square and heading to Pushkin Square.


• Sherstone Hostel is between two metro stations (about 10+ minute walk from each) also 4-5 stops from the ring. This is an older hostel. This hostel is a hostelling international member.


• Snail Hostel now has its own website. It is located a 7-10 minute walk from the Botanichesky Sad metro station in the picturesque, green and ecologically clean, non-polluting district of Moscow, only in 100 meters from the river "Yauza", and very close to the All-Russia Exhibition Center and the Botanical Garden.

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• Sweet Hostel seems to have changed locations, but apparently has settled in at on Stary Arbat Street at 51 Apartment 31. This is reasonably well located in an historic part of town near several metro stations. This hostel is a hostelling international member.


• Tramp is also far out - 4 metro stops past TGH and a 10-15 minute walk. They do not accept any walk-ins off the street.


• Trans-Siberian Hostel is located at Barashevskiy Pereulok 12 in a historic 1833 gorodskaya usadba (city townhome). It is between the Garden Ring and the Boulevard Ring roads not far from Chistiy Prudi, close to the Kurkskaya (dark blue and ring lines) metro station.


• Travelers Guest House or TGH is about a 10-15 minute walk from a metro station that is on the ring line. This is an older hostel in a not nice building in a not nice area.


• Yellow Blue Bus Hostel is a converted three bedroom apartment that opened as a hostel in summer 2006. It is located 4th Tverskaya-Yamskaya Ul. 5, Apartment 8 which is a short walk from the Mayakovskaya (green line) metro station.

Another, more home grown dormitory possibility is Galina's Flat (galinas.flat@mtu-net.ru). Galina is a kind and very welcoming Russian woman who speaks a little bit of English, and offers beds in a 5 bed dormitory for $8 a night. Doubles can be arranged for $10 each. She is located a 5 minute walk from Chistye Prudie or Turgenevskaya metro stations. Tel.: +7 (095) 921 60 38. A MAJOR concern in staying at Galina's is that she is unable to provide visa support and more importantly unable to provide migration card registration. This means that you must use a visa service that can provide registration in Moscow and more importantly any savings by staying there might be eaten up by paying for registration. Also she smokes and has cats.

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• Hotel Universitetskaya on the impressive Moscow State University campus. Doubles start at 30 USD per room, and the place also has triple rooms starting at USD 55. This is actually not much more than the hostels. Check out Universitetskaya
• the Izmailovo complex hotels - including the Alpha, Beta, Vega, Gamma-Delta which vary some but range from about 60-120$ USD per night depending upon the hotel and the season.
• Hotel Rossiya which is right near Red Square closed at the end of 2005 and a new hotel with parking garage and other facilities is to be built on this site.
• Moscow Apartments
• WayToRussia
• The Tsentralnaya - another inexpensive hotel, right downtown at number 10 Tverskaya. Note that this hotel is scheduled to close to be torn down and replaced, although to date it is still 'business as usual' and no specifics have been announced. The usual guests here seem to be German student and budget tour groups.
• The Hotel Moskva, which faces the Okhotny Ryad Shopping Center and is near the entrance to Red Square, is now closed for renovation and reconstruction. For a poorly written history about this hotel, check out this page: Hotel Moskva
• For homestays try:
  Marco@studyrussian.com or
  Homestays - HOFA or a mirror site Hofa in Russia
• For one person's opinion or reviews of most of the places in Moscow that are worth considering, check out this site. The information was collected in winter 2004 by a fellow TT user, IdeaManEd. Moscow Hotel Reviews

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• Moscow Bed & Breakfast
  Daily & weekly rentals near Belorussky Vokzal
  Tel: 147 00 21, U.S. 603 585 3347
  Fax 585 65 34
  jkates@top.monad.net
• B & B Agency
  Tel: 095 252 44 51
  Fax: 095 205 76 83. No credit cards.
  
• B & B on the Arbat
  Tel: 203 94 46. No credit cards.
• Boo.com
  This website lists four possible locations.

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This group of three buildings is generally called the Ivan the Great Bell Tower, but it also includes the Assumption Belfry and Filaret Annex. The strange configuration is the result of having been built in several phases. Ivan III ordered the erection of a two-tiered bell tower with a church in 1505. When completed by the builder Bon Fryazin (also known as Marco Bon) in 1508, the 60-meter bell tower consisted of two octagonal pillars, one on top of the other, tapering toward the top and crowned by a dome with a circular drum. Bon Fryazin is known only to have built one structure in Moscow, but it was built to last. The lower level of the tower rests on 5 meter wide solid brick walls which taper to 2.5 meters at the second tier. Iron reinforcing rods were set in the first tier masonry. The tower survived numerous fires and other disasters, which frequently swept the Kremlin.

At the beginning of the 17th century Boris Godunov ordered the tower extended 21 meters, with additional tiers, as it appears today. The upper octagon was decorated with a double row of kokoshniki. Above this was added a cylindrical drum with false narrow windows painted black. Under the gold dome are three rows of inscription in gilt letters on copper leaf against a blue background. The old Slavonic script states "by the grace of the Holy Trinity and the Tsar and Grand Prince Boris and his son Fyodor said church was built and adorned with gold in 1600."

Some say that it was at this point that the tower got its name of "Great" because of its height of 81 meters. And that Ivan was included in the name because on this site previously had stood a church to St. Ivan Clamacus. Others claim that the name can be attributed to Ivan the Great who ordered the first tower built on this site.

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Count Pyotr Borisovich Sheremetev built this 18th century estate at Kuskovo to be larger and grander than that of the other nobility and to compare well with that of the tsar's residences. Although called the "summer country house" of Count Sheremetev, no one ever lived here. With its formal gardens, sculptures and green houses, it came to be known as the Moscow Versailles. A summer place, designed for entertaining family, friends, distant relations, foreign visitors and other hangers-on, Kuskovo was the site of various recreational activities. The buildings and the grounds were specially designed for the amusement of friends. Included among the entertainments offered here were various kinds of folk performances, church rituals, balls, concerts, plays, operas, fireworks, sailing on the local ponds and sea parades. Even mock sea battles were staged on the man-made lake. The largest events accommodated up to 30,000 guests. Receptions were held here along with outdoor theater performances. The development of Kuskovo dates to the period 1740-1770 when Tsarina Elizaveta Petrovna eased the lives of the nobility and permitted them to return to Moscow. During this period the nobility outside the capital developed their entertaining and recreation activities on a grand scale. Using local talent, the arts in Russia experienced a significant growth and advancement.

Use of this estate waned in the 1790's when the Sheremetev family built another summer entertainment palace further north of the Kremlin at Ostankino. Used by the family infrequently during the 19th century, few changes were made, but the estate has survived in relatively good condition. During the 1890s artist Isak Levitan and his students rented space here for their studio. In 1919 Lenin nationalized all private estates, and the caretakers of this estate immediately sought the protection of the local Council in Moscow, thus preventing its being looted. Having been designed and built by serfs, the entire ensemble was maintained and reasonably well preserved during Soviet times. Since 1932 the State Museum of Ceramics has been located in the Orangery or Conservatory on the estate. Today it is the only formal French park with over fifty Russian and Italian sculptures to survive in Moscow. There is an English style park as well as a man-made lake and a series of ponds and canals. All the buildings on the estate have been maintained in reasonably good condition and many can be visited. BTW if you are a US passport holder, for many years the embassy held their annual Fourth of July picnic here and all were invited to attend.

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