Moscow museums open on Thursday

plain list

Not every museum in the city, but those that can open new worlds, point to genuine masterpieces, sharpen the mind and move the soul. Every entry carries our own rating of the collection, what matters most here, a minimum route to the essentials, when to come to avoid the crowds and what it costs. Every entry is dated with its last check.

How much timeanytime for a look time for our route time for the whole museum

Openany day Mon Tue WedThuFri Sat Sun

SectionallArt History Military history House museums Literature Transport Unusual Science and nature

For whomeveryonewith children wheelchair

Ratingany world-class and above outstanding and abovesignificant and above

By name

Showing 21 museums · clear the filters

Art · since 1981

All-Russian Museum of Decorative Art

significant

Lacquer miniature of four schools and propaganda porcelain — the objects by which Russia is recognisable in world decorative art. The material is first-rate; the display is not up to it.

Lacquer miniature — Palekh, Fedoskino, Mstyora, Kholuy; Soviet propaganda porcelain; toys of the peoples of the world; embroidery and samovars.

Delegatskaya 3, bldg 1 · today 12:00–20:00 · from 350 ₽ 1.5 hours6+ Toys of the peoples of the world and lacquer miniature give children something to look at. From 6.wheelchair — partly The museum — partly. There are a ramp and a lift, but not into every hall of the estate.
Getting there — partly. Tsvetnoy Bulvar has no lift. Moscow metro stations almost never have lifts to the platform, except on the Big Circle line and the MCC. A wheelchair user is better served by the surface buses, which are low-floor across the centre.

checked 15 Aug 2026 · открытые источники · No. 32

Military history · since 1962

Borodino Panorama Museum

significant

Roubaud’s panorama is one of the few survivors of a genre that was the summit of 19th-century visual culture and has almost entirely vanished. The value lies in the machinery of the spectacle, not in the subject: this is how people looked before cinema.

Franz Roubaud’s Borodino panorama of 1912: 115 metres of canvas in the round, 15 metres high. Next door, the Kutuzov hut where on 1 September 1812 the council of war decided to abandon Moscow.

Kutuzovsky Prospekt 38, bldg 1 · today 10:00–18:00 · from 500 ₽ 1.5 hours8+ The panorama impresses children too, but it needs a story. From 8.wheelchair — partly The museum — partly. A ramp at the entrance and a lift up to the panorama; the Kutuzov hut in the yard is over uneven ground.
Getting there — step-free. Kutuzovskaya has no lift. There is parking along Kutuzovsky Prospekt. Moscow metro stations almost never have lifts to the platform, except on the Big Circle line and the MCC. A wheelchair user is better served by the surface buses, which are low-floor across the centre.

checked 15 Aug 2026 · открытые источники · No. 9

Literature · since 1934

Dahl State Museum of the History of Russian Literature

significant

The only museum built not around a single name but around literature as a process. Hence its strength — comparisons impossible in a house museum, and a fund of 700,000 items that makes such comparisons possible.

The permanent display Zubovsky 15: a house of science, literature and art, and the exhibitions on 20th-century Russian letters.

Zubovsky Boulevard 15, bldg 1 · today 11:00–18:00 · from 200 ₽ 1.5 hours10+ The literary exhibitions are aimed at a reading teenager.wheelchair — partly The museum — partly. Restored in 2019: there is a lift, but the entrance has steps with a ramp.
Getting there — partly. Park Kultury has no lift. Moscow metro stations almost never have lifts to the platform, except on the Big Circle line and the MCC. A wheelchair user is better served by the surface buses, which are low-floor across the centre.

checked 15 Aug 2026 · сайт музея · No. 8

History · since 1896

Museum of Moscow

significant

A city museum — an ordinary genre in Europe — but the material is unique in scale: a million objects about one city. The value is also the Provision Warehouses by Stasov, a model Empire building rarely accessible from inside.

The permanent display History of Moscow: the archaeology of Moscow soil, town life, plans and views of the city by century. And the Provision Warehouses themselves, an Empire monument after Vasily Stasov.

Zubovsky Boulevard 2, bldg 7 · today 10:00–20:00 · from 1,000 ₽ 2 hours7+ The archaeology of Moscow and city life make sense to children: potsherds, bones, models. From 7, with children’s programmes.wheelchair — step-free The museum — step-free. The Provision Warehouses were converted: ramps, lifts, a level courtyard.
Getting there — step-free. Park Kultury has no lift. Surface transport along Zubovsky Boulevard; the approach is level. Moscow metro stations almost never have lifts to the platform, except on the Big Circle line and the MCC. A wheelchair user is better served by the surface buses, which are low-floor across the centre.

checked 15 Aug 2026 · открытые источники · No. 56

Science and nature · since 1907

State Darwin Museum

significant

The oldest museum of evolution in Russia, built around an idea rather than around a case of stuffed animals: Kots collected proofs of variability, and the display serves the proof. It cannot match Vienna or Berlin for material, but its way of arguing stands on its own.

Early 20th-century taxidermy by Filipp Fedulov, among the finest anywhere; the collection of albinos and melanists gathered by Kots as visible proof of variability; the Living Planet hall.

Vavilova 57 · today 10:00–18:00 · from 550 ₽ 2 hours4+ The best museum in Moscow for pre-schoolers: mounted animals, models, hands-on halls. From 4 to the early teens.wheelchair — step-free The museum — step-free. Ramps, lifts between floors, accessible toilets, wheelchairs at the door.
Getting there — step-free. Akademicheskaya has no lift and is 700 m away. There is parking and low-floor buses along Vavilova. Moscow metro stations almost never have lifts to the platform, except on the Big Circle line and the MCC. A wheelchair user is better served by the surface buses, which are low-floor across the centre.

checked 15 Aug 2026 · открытые источники · No. 57

Literature · since 2005

The Gogol House

significant

The only memorial museum of Gogol in the world, in the authentic walls of his last four years. The value is topographic: the room, the fireplace and the staircase give what no edition can.

Six memorial rooms; the fireplace in which, on the night of 12 February 1852, Gogol burned the manuscript of the second volume of Dead Souls.

Nikitsky Boulevard 7a · today 12:00–19:00 · from 150 ₽ 1 hour9+ The memorial rooms need a reader of Dead Souls. No point before nine.wheelchair — no The museum — no. A 17th-century house entered by steps, with no platform lift.
Getting there — partly. Arbatskaya has no lift. Moscow metro stations almost never have lifts to the platform, except on the Big Circle line and the MCC. A wheelchair user is better served by the surface buses, which are low-floor across the centre.

checked 15 Aug 2026 · открытые источники · No. 4

House museums · since 1911

The Leo Tolstoy State Museum. Literary display

significant

The largest manuscript fund of any single writer in the world. The value is scholarly: you see how the text was made — Tolstoy rewrote a sentence ten times, and you can watch it happen. For the house he lived in, go to Khamovniki.

Manuscripts in Tolstoy’s hand, first editions, portraits and photographs of the writer and his family. The display follows the books, from Childhood to Resurrection.

Prechistenka 11/8 · today 11:00–18:00 · from 200 ₽ 1.5 hours10+ Manuscripts and editions are for those who have read Tolstoy. From 10, and even then with reservations.wheelchair — no The museum — no. A mansion with steps at the entrance and no platform lift.
Getting there — partly. Kropotkinskaya has no lift. Moscow metro stations almost never have lifts to the platform, except on the Big Circle line and the MCC. A wheelchair user is better served by the surface buses, which are low-floor across the centre.

checked 15 Aug 2026 · открытые источники · No. 7

Art · since 1817

The Manege Central Exhibition Hall

significant

There is no collection; the value is entirely engineering — a column-free span of nearly 45 metres calculated by Betancourt, a monument of engineering thought with few equals in Europe. Everything else here is temporary.

The building itself: a column-free hall spanned by timber trusses of almost 45 metres, calculated by the engineer Agustín de Betancourt — a rare monument of engineering.

Manezhnaya Square 1 · today 12:00–22:00 1–2 hoursadults Depends on the exhibition: there is no permanent display.wheelchair — partly The museum — step-free. The hall is level throughout and there is a ramp at the entrance.
Getting there — partly. Neither Okhotny Ryad nor Biblioteka imeni Lenina has a lift. Moscow metro stations almost never have lifts to the platform, except on the Big Circle line and the MCC. A wheelchair user is better served by the surface buses, which are low-floor across the centre.

checked 15 Aug 2026 · открытые источники · No. 19

History · since 1994

The Old English Court

significant

The oldest surviving secular building in Moscow. The value is in the vaults themselves: almost no 16th-century interiors are left in the city, and these were recovered by Baranovsky, the restorer who saved half of it.

The Treasury Chamber with its 16th–17th-century interior and the original vaults; the display on Russian–English trade and finds from the Zaryadye digs.

Varvarka 4a (Zaryadye Park) · today 12:00–20:00 · from 350 ₽ 45 minutes8+ 16th-century chambers and the story of the English merchants — from 8.wheelchair — no The museum — no. 16th-century chambers: steep steps and vaulted cellars, no platform lift.
Getting there — partly. Kitay-Gorod has no lift; the paths in Zaryadye park are level. Moscow metro stations almost never have lifts to the platform, except on the Big Circle line and the MCC. A wheelchair user is better served by the surface buses, which are low-floor across the centre.

checked 15 Aug 2026 · открытые источники · No. 18

Literature · since 1957

The Pushkin State Museum

significant

There is no memorial Pushkin house in Moscow — he did not live here. The value is not authentic walls but a complete age: objects, books and portraits from which the Pushkin era can be reconstructed whole. For relics go to the Moika in Petersburg; for the era, here.

The permanent displays Pushkin and His Age (fifteen rooms of the manor house) and Pushkin’s Fairy Tales; first editions, portraits of his circle, everyday objects of the early 19th century.

Prechistenka 12/2 · today 10:00–18:00 1.5–2 hours6+ For “Pushkin’s Fairy Tales” — from 6; younger children will not manage the main display.wheelchair — partly The museum — partly. An early 19th-century mansion: a platform lift at the entrance, level between the enfilade rooms but not everywhere.
Getting there — partly. Kropotkinskaya has no lift. The approach along Prechistenka is level. Moscow metro stations almost never have lifts to the platform, except on the Big Circle line and the MCC. A wheelchair user is better served by the surface buses, which are low-floor across the centre.

checked 15 Aug 2026 · открытые источники · No. 2

Pages: 123

Our rating scale

We give the rating ourselves and answer for it: it is about the value of the collection, not the size of the building, the visitor numbers or the fame of the name.

world-class: In the same rank as the world's leading museums.
outstanding: A strong collection: worth setting aside a day for.
significant: There are things here worth seeing.
for enthusiasts: Of interest to those already drawn to the subject.
niche: Valuable to a narrow circle, without wider recognition.

A distinction apart

underratedThe collection is stronger than its reputation: fewer people know it than it deserves: The collection is stronger than its reputation: fewer people know it than it deserves

How we keep this list

Checked on 15 August 2026 — against museum websites and open sources. Every entry carries its own date of checking and what it was checked against. A price we could not confirm we say so, rather than leaving the old one.

Time needed is for the essentials, along our minimum route, without the café, the shop or the cloakroom queue. Going through the whole museum almost always takes longer.

The photographs come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences; the author and the licence are given under each one.

18 May is International Museum Day (since 1977), and the night of 17–18 May is Museum Night. On those days museums keep different hours and are often free.

Found a mistake?

We answer for every figure and date on these pages. If a museum has changed its hours or its prices, if a link has died, or if you think a museum is missing from the list — write to us. We will correct it and set a new date of checking.

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