Novospassky, Krutitsy and a bar on the 34th floor

⏱ 3 h 30 min🚶 2.5 km🍽 1📍 4 stops

🐢 A little — under 3 km

Two quiet monasteries by the river and, at sunset, a panoramic bar above the Moskva River.

🌙 Evening🏛 History and architecture

🗺 Open in Yandex Maps

1
🏛 Novospassky Monastery
🚪 entrance from Krestyanskaya Square
A monastery on a hill above the Moskva River with mighty walls, towers and a tall bell tower.
The burial vault of the Romanov boyars
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© Святослав · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Ivan III founded the monastery in 1490, moving here the brethren of the Kremlin's Saviour-on-the-Pine Monastery (Spas na Boru).
- It was the Romanov family necropolis, and until the 18th century the monastery served as a burial place for the royal family.
- From 1646 to 1649 the monastery's archimandrite was the future Patriarch Nikon.
- Construction of the stone wall, about 650 m long and up to 7.5 m high, began in 1640.
- In 1918 the monastery was closed and turned into a concentration camp, and in 1927–1930 its cemetery was destroyed.
- In 1995 the remains of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, killed by Ivan Kalyayev in 1905, were brought here.
🚶 on foot
2
🏛 Krutitskoye Compound (Krutitskoye Podvorye)
A former residence of the metropolitans with passageways, chambers and a tile-clad Terem (Teremok).
A tiled little tower — one of the most photogenic places in Moscow
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© Ludvig14 · CC BY-SA 3.0
© Ted.ns · CC BY-SA 4.0
- The name comes from "krutitsy", the steep left banks of the Moskva River below the mouth of the Yauza.
- A monastery was founded here in 1262; later Krutitsy became the compound of the bishops of Sarai, whose see was in the Golden Horde.
- In July 1612 the militia of Minin and Pozharsky swore an oath in the local Assumption Cathedral to liberate Moscow.
- The tiled Krutitsy Teremok above the gate was built in the 1680s–1690s to a design by Osip Startsev.
- In 1666 Archpriest Avvakum was held prisoner here.
- Twenty-two-year-old Alexander Herzen spent seven months in the guardhouse of the Krutitsy barracks before his exile to Vyatka.
🚶 on foot
3
🏛 Moscow International House of Music
Космодамианская наб., 52, стр. 8
A modern concert complex by the Moskva River with a Great Hall and an organ.
Check the programme — you can combine it with a concert
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© Perituss · CC0
© Mike1979 Russia · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Construction began on 7 September 2000 on the initiative of Yuri Luzhkov and Vladimir Spivakov.
- The treble clef on the dome by Zurab Tsereteli, 9.5 m tall and weighing over 6 tonnes, rotates like a weather vane; it was lifted into place by helicopter.
- The 1,699-seat Svetlanov Hall is named after the conductor Yevgeny Svetlanov.
- The Svetlanov Hall organ was built by the German firms Klais and Glatter-Götz; by number of stops it is the largest in Moscow.
- In 2003 the building received the top award of the Zodchestvo festival, the Crystal Daedalus.
- Along the Stairway of Stars stand open music scores with autographs by Domingo, Carreras, Hvorostovsky and others.
🚶 on foot
4
🍸 City Space Bar
Космодамианская наб., 52, стр. 6, 34 этаж
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A cocktail with a view of the Kremlin and the City
🍴 A panoramic cocktail bar on the 34th floor of the Swissôtel Krasnye Kholmy with a 360° view of the center and Moscow City. What to order: one of the signature cocktails, with more than 250 on the menu.