8 Best Sights in Moscow, Russia

Tolstoy bought this house in 1882, at the age of 54, and spent nine winters here with his family. In summer he preferred his country estate in Yasnaya Polyana. The years here were not particularly happy ones. By this time Tolstoy had already experienced a religious conversion that prompted him to disown his earlier great novels, including War and Peace and Anna Karenina. His conversion sparked a feud among his own family members, which manifested itself even at the dining table: Tolstoy's wife, Sofia Andreevna, would sit at one end with their sons, while the writer would sit with their daughters at the opposite end.

The ground floor has several of the children's bedrooms and the nursery where Tolstoy's seven-year-old son died of scarlet fever in 1895, a tragedy that haunted the writer for the rest of his life. Also here are the dining rooms and kitchen, as well as the Tolstoys' bedroom, in which you can see the small desk used by his wife to meticulously copy all of her husband's manuscripts by hand.

Upstairs you'll find the Tolstoys' receiving room, where they held small parties and entertained guests, who included most of the leading figures of their day. The grand piano in the corner was played by such greats as Rachmaninoff and Rimsky-Korsakov. When in this room, you should ask the attendant to play the enchanting recording of Tolstoy greeting a group of schoolchildren, followed by a piano composition written and played by him. Also on this floor is an Asian-style den and Tolstoy's study, where he wrote his last novel, Resurrection.

Although electric lighting and running water were available at the time to even the lesser nobility, Count Tolstoy chose to forgo both, believing it better to live simply. The museum honors his desire and shows the house as it was when he lived there. Inside the museum, each room has signs in English explaining its significance and contents.

This striking assemblage was begun at the end of the 18th century for Prince Golitsyn by the French architect Chevalier de Huerne. In 1810 the family fell upon hard times and sold the estate to a rich landlord, Yusupov, the onetime director of the imperial theaters and St. Petersburg's Hermitage Museum, and ambassador to several European lands.

The estate became home to Prince Yusupov's extraordinary art collection. The collection includes paintings by Boucher, Vigée-Lebrun, Hubert Robert, Roslin, Tiepolo, Van Dyck, and many others, as well as antique statues, furniture, mirrors, chandeliers, glassware, and china. Much of the priceless furniture once belonged to Marie Antoinette and Madame de Pompadour. There are also samples of fabrics, china, and glassware that were produced on the estate itself.

Allées and strolling lanes wind through the French Park, which is populated with statues and monuments commemorating royal visits. There's also a monument to Pushkin, for whom Arkhangelskoye was a favorite retreat. In the western part of the park is an interesting small pavilion, known as the Temple to the Memory of Catherine the Great, that depicts the empress as Themis, goddess of justice. Supposedly Yusupov turned the head of Russia's empress, and he allegedly built the temple to complement a painting she had previously commissioned—one in which she was depicted as Venus, with Yusupov as Apollo.

Back outside the estate grounds on the right-hand side of the main road stands the Estate (Serf) Theater, built in 1817 by the serf architect Ivanov. Currently a museum, the theater originally seated 400 and was the home of the biggest and best-known company of serf actors in Russia, who first appeared in Russia in the mid-18th century and disappeared after 1861, when Tsar Alexander II freed the serfs. In his summer serf theater, Prince Nikolai Yusupov favored weekly opera performances as well as dance shows with rich stage decorations. The well-preserved stage decorations are by the Venetian artist Pietrodi Gonzaga.

The main palace has been under restoration for many years and only some rooms are open. To go by public transit, take Bus 541 or 549 from the Moscow metro station Tushinskaya to the Arkhangelskoye stop, or minibus 151 to the Sanatory stop. To get there by car, go west on shosse Novorizhskoye and look for the signs for the estate.

It's believed that Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) used this large mansion, the administrative offices of the Writers' Union, as a model for the Rostov home in War and Peace. A statue of Tolstoy stands in the courtyard. Mikhail Bulgakov (1891–1940) set part of his satire of Soviet life, The Master and Margarita, here. The beautiful wood-paneled dining room is open to the public.

One of Moscow's most interesting buildings—it looks like a Moorish castle—was built in the late 19th century by the architect V.A. Mazyrin for the wealthy (and eccentric) industrialist Savva Morozov (Tolstoy mentions this home in his novel Resurrection). Today its rooms are used by the federal government for meetings and conferences and are not open to the public.

This cylindrical concrete building was designed by the famous Constructivist architect Konstantin Melnikov in the late 1920s. The house is currently in a state of major disrepair but remains remarkable for its wall-length windows and spiral staircases inside that link the three floors. Plans to open the house as a museum have been in motion for years but look nowhere near completion, as arcane issues regarding the house's ownership are still being settled. The architect's granddaughter lives in the house.

Designed by Vasily Bazhenov, one of Russia's greatest architects, this mansion was erected between 1784 and 1786 for the wealthy Pashkov family. The central building is topped by a round belvedere and flanked by two service wings. In the 19th century it housed the Rumyantsev collection of art and rare manuscripts. Following the 1917 revolution, the museum was closed and the art collection was transferred to the Hermitage in St. Petersburg and the Pushkin Museum of Fine Art. The manuscripts were donated to the Russian State Library, which now owns this building. Now, after 20 years of restoration, Pashkov House is open, but only to those with a State Library card.

One of the finest examples of Moscow art nouveau was built in 1905–07 by the architects Schnaubert and Zhukov. The facade of the steep-roofed and angled building, which is closed to the public, is covered in colorful mosaics. Before the revolution, Peter Pertsov and his wife lived in an apartment in the building and rented out studios for artists.

The yellow neoclassical mansion behind the iron gate is the residence of the American ambassador. It was built in the early 20th century for a wealthy merchant. The building's front looks on a small square between Arbat and Novy Arbat that features an undersized statue of Pushkin in the center and is a pleasant place to take a break.