Things to Do in Moscow, Russia: Walking Guide

The best things to do in Moscow range from historic Kremlin landmarks and Orthodox churches to experimental theatres, architectural monuments, and carefully planned neighbourhoods. The city’s layers of royal, religious, Soviet, and contemporary history make it rewarding to explore beyond its best-known sights. Neywo offers a free Moscow audio guide with 712 narrated places.

What to See in Moscow

Red Square and Zaryadye Park

Red Square is Moscow’s historic centre and one of Russia’s most recognisable public spaces. Its name comes from the Old Russian word for “beautiful”, and the square’s architectural ensemble is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The red Kremlin walls border it to the west, while Kitay-gorod lies to the east.

The square is surrounded by major landmarks, including Saint Basil’s Cathedral, the State Historical Museum, Kazan Cathedral, Lenin’s Mausoleum, and the Kremlin Wall Necropolis. Its history includes royal proclamations, executions at Lobnoye Mesto, political demonstrations, and state processions.

Beside Red Square, Zaryadye Park occupies thirteen hectares near the Moskva River. It opened in September 2017 on the former site of the Rossiya Hotel and combines recreations of Russia’s natural ecosystems with cultural venues. The park includes a 1,500-seat concert hall, restored Orthodox churches, and the Old English Court, a sixteenth-century building once used as the residence of Russia’s first English merchants.

Zaryadye Concert Hall opened in 2018. Nearby, the Church of Saint George on Pskov Hill provides a strong contrast: its present seventeenth-century building has five domes, ornate brick façades, and a Neo-Gothic bell tower added in 1818.

Chudov Monastery in the Kremlin

Chudov Monastery once stood in the eastern part of the Moscow Kremlin. Metropolitan Alexius founded it, and its name refers to chudo, the Russian word for “miracle”. The monastery was closely associated with Russia’s rulers: the sons and daughter of Ivan the Terrible were baptized there, as were the future tsars Alexei Mikhailovich, Peter I, and Alexander II.

The grounds also contained aristocratic burials and were used to imprison opponents of the church and the state. Its buildings changed over the centuries, including the Alexeyevskaya Church, built in 1483, and a Church of the Archangel Michael constructed between 1501 and 1503.

The monastery is one of the stops on Neywo’s Inside the Kremlin: crown jewels and vanished monasteries walk, which explores the Kremlin’s squares, museums, and lost religious complexes.

Izmaylovo Estate

Izmaylovo Estate stands on an artificial island surrounded by the Serebryano-Vinogradny pond. It became an important royal retreat during the seventeenth century under Tsar Alexis the First of the Romanov dynasty and his daughter Sophia. The estate included model farms, workshops, and extensive hunting grounds.

The original wooden palace has disappeared, but several notable buildings from the 1670s and 1680s remain. They include two sets of royal palace gates, a historic cathedral, and a barbican bridge tower. The estate later declined before receiving a new purpose in the nineteenth century.

Kolomenskoye and the Church of the Theotokos of Kazan

The Church of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God is a seventeenth-century Orthodox church in the former village of Kolomenskoye, now part of Moscow. It belongs to the Kolomenskoye historical and architectural museum-reserve and remains an active parish church.

Inside are side chapels dedicated to Avraamy of Hierapolis and Demetrius of Thessaloniki. The church’s principal sacred icon is the Derzhavnaya Icon of the Mother of God, an important image in Russian Orthodox devotion.

The Church of the Transfiguration at Novodevichy Convent

The Church of the Transfiguration of the Savior is located within Moscow’s Novodevichy Convent. It is a historic religious building and a worthwhile stop for visitors exploring the convent complex.

Churches in Konkovo

The Holy Trinity Church in Konkovo is a parish church in Moscow’s Konkovo district and a federal monument of city planning and architecture. Its style is known as Naryshkin. The main altar is dedicated to the Holy Trinity, while side chapels honour Sergius of Radonezh and commemorate the placing of the Robe of the Mother of God in Blachernae.

Moscow’s Theatres

Praktika Theatre was founded in 2005 by director Eduard Boytov as an experimental centre for new drama. Its purpose was to give contemporary playwrights and new theatrical ideas a space for experimentation.

The Theatre of the Young Spectator, also known as the Moscow TYUZ, was founded in 1920 as the First State Theatre for Children. In 1941, it merged with another Moscow youth theatre. Its awards include the Order of the Labour Red Banner, the Lenin Komsomol Prize, and Golden Mask awards.

Central House of Architects

The Central House of Architects is the headquarters of the Union of Moscow Architects and a venue for cultural and educational events. Its complex brings together buildings from several periods: one section dates from 1876, another from 1896, and a third was added in 1975. The main building has belonged to the Union of Architects since 1937.

Bauman Moscow State Technical University

The main building of Bauman Moscow State Technical University combines an older palace section with a tall modern block. The palace section dates from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and took its present form in 1826, when Domenico Gilardi redesigned it for the craft workshops of the Foundling Home.

The newer circular or high-rise section has twelve floors. It was built between 1949 and 1960 and faces the Lefortovo Embankment on the Yauza.

Sokol Settlement

Sokol Settlement, also known as the “artists’ settlement”, was founded in 1923 as Moscow’s first cooperative residential community. Its layout reflects the garden-city idea, which sought to combine the advantages of town and country.

The settlement was planned as a low-rise neighbourhood with shared facilities such as libraries, clubs, playgrounds, and kindergartens. It became a protected landmark of early Soviet urban development in 1979.

Shukhov Tower

The Shukhov Tower, also called the Shabolovka Tower, is a 160-metre steel structure built for radio and television broadcasting. Engineer Vladimir Shukhov designed it, and construction took place between 1920 and 1922 during the Russian Civil War.

Its distinctive hyperboloid lattice is made from straight steel members crossing to form a free-standing diagrid. The tower is recognised as a monument of Soviet rationalism. After facing a threat of dismantling in 2013, it was placed on the protected-buildings list in 2014.

Vorobyovy Gory Railway Station

The main building of Vorobyovy Gory railway station is a historic building in Moscow. It is also known in Russian as «Кому и кобыла невеста».

Explore Moscow with Neywo

A Moscow self-guided walking tour lets you explore the city without joining a group or following a fixed schedule. Neywo has five walking tours, one bus route, and one bike route in Moscow, covering a total of 712 narrated places across the app. Narration is available in 11 languages.

The walks include:

• Red Square and the Wall: from Manezhnaya to Saint Basil’s — 2.7 km, 107 minutes, 11 stops.
• Inside the Kremlin: crown jewels and vanished monasteries — 1.2 km, 85 minutes, 12 stops.
• Volkhonka: a cathedral, a swimming pool and Russia’s art — 1.78 km, 95 minutes, 12 stops.
• Across the river: Zamoskvorechye, merchants and Stalin’s elite — 4.02 km, 120 minutes, 11 stops.
• The Grand Tour: Alexander Garden, Kremlin Squares and Red Square — 2.83 km, 103 minutes, 11 stops.

There is also a bus route from Povarskaya to Rubtsovo through the heart of Moscow, covering 8.6 km in 37 minutes with 12 stops, and a bike route through VDNKh covering 3.6 km in 18 minutes with 8 stops.

Download Neywo and explore Moscow at your own pace. The app tells the story of each place as you reach it, with no group and no schedule. Moscow is part of Russia, and you can continue discovering the country with nearby destinations such as St Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Sochi, Kaliningrad, and Vladivostok.