Architecture in Russia

Discover 27 places to experience unusual architecture in Russia.

Dacha Stalina

Dacha Stalina

One of the notorious Soviet leader Joseph Stalin's many summer retreats.

Cathedral of St. Demetrius.

Vladimir, Russia

Cathedral of Saint Demetrius

Thousands of biblical and pagan images are carved into this small 12th-century church.

Golden Brains

The 'Golden Brains'

Some Moscow residents once claimed the bizarre, contorted mass of metal on top of the building was used to manipulate minds.

Komsomolskaya station.

Moscow Metro Stations

The gorgeous entrances into the city's underbelly look more like grand halls than subway stops.

House with Animals.

House With Animals

Its front wall is striped with a menagerie of fantastic beasts and magnificent monsters.

View of the studio.

Melnikov House

The avant-garde design was able to bypass strict Soviet regulations on architecture.

The Assumption Cathedral and Monastery.

Sviyazhsk, Russia

Assumption Cathedral and Monastery

A former military outpost of Ivan the Terrible, the 16th-century church contains some of the rarest examples of Eastern Orthodox mural paintings.

Views of the Sokol Settlement in Moscow.

Sokol

An early-20th-century "dacha" village of quaint cottages curiously located in a modern part of Moscow.

It contains museums, a market, and a number of exhibits celebrating Russian art.

Izmailovo Kremlin

Moscow's other, lesser known kremlin is a fairytale-like cultural complex modeled after Old Russia.

A traditional wooden building at the museum.

Suzdal', Russia

Museum of Wooden Architecture and Peasant Life

300-year-old villagers houses and traditional churches preserve a nearly lost piece of Russian history.

"Let's give the working class something nice, shall we?"

Veliky Novgorod, Russia

Fyodor Dostoevsky Theater of Dramatic Art

This late-brutalist masterpiece everyone forgot about was originally created to get the proletariat jazzed about the arts.

Temple of All Religions

Temple of All Religions

This Russian religious complex is a Frankenstein's chapel that includes influence from almost all the major faiths.

Suyumbike Tower

Suyumbike Tower

Russia's own leaning tower was built on a tragic historical fable.

The pogost.

Medvezhyegorsky District, Russia

Kizhi Island

Stunning examples of Russia's 18th-century wooden architecture.

Monument to the Conquerors of Space.

Monument to the Conquerors of Space

Moscow's imposing monument to the Space Age.

Pushkin, Russia

The Amber Room

An 18th century wonder of the world, lost in WWII, re-created at the Catherine Palace.