As you know, Russia is a vast country boasting many wonderful museums. Pretty much everyone has heard about the most popular ones, such as the Hermitage Museum, Winter Palace, Armoury Chamber, and Faberge Museum.

But what do you know about sights a bit further from the public eye? The country houses numerous museums and galleries that are less widely known but just as deserving your attention. Let’s have a look at some of the most interesting options to spice up your travel plans.

explore Russian museums

Tags: museum

The Galsky Estate is a picturesque noble estate built in the provincial classicism style on the bank of the Sheksna River in the early 19th century. This monument of history and culture of federal significance is located in the city of Cherepovets, Vologda Oblast.

In addition to the main sky-blue house, all the household buildings have also been preserved here. The museum offers interactive excursions, classes on painting, clay modeling, and making folk dolls. The equestrian section is open to children and adults. The Galsky Estate on Google Maps. Photos by: Alexandr Lipilin.

magnificent noble estate

Tags: Cherepovets city · museum · Vologda oblast

The Moscow Kremlin is a fortress located in the center of Moscow. The oldest part of the city, it is the main socio-political and historical-artistic complex of the capital of Russia.

The fortress has a triangle shape with an area of 27.5 hectares. The southern wall faces the Moscow River, the northwestern – Alexander Gardens, the eastern – Red Square. In 1990, the Moscow Kremlin was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. Photos by: Alexander Lipilin.

walk around the Moscow Kremlin

Tags: churches · Moscow city · museum

The wooden house in Astashovo has an amazing story that dates back to 1897. There was everything here: prosperity, decline, abandonment, and incredible rebirth. It is located in the abandoned village of Astashovo (also known as Ostashevo) in the Chukhloma District of Kostroma Oblast.

It is the main house of the Astashovo Estate once owned by a peasant Martyan Sazonov. After the abolition of serfdom, Martyan moved to work in St. Petersburg, where he specialized as a cabinetmaker. By 1897, he became rich and decided to return to his home village, then the construction of the house began. Astashovo Wooden Palace on Google Maps. Photos by: Roman Smirnov.

beautiful wooden house

Tags: Kostroma oblast · museum

“Malye Korely” is an open-air museum of wooden architecture and folk art of the northern regions of Russia located in the Arkhangelsk Region, about 25 km south-east of the center of Arkhangelsk.

This is one of the few places where you can feel the unforgettable atmosphere of the old Russian North. The museum exhibits about 100 civil, public, and church buildings, the earliest of which date from the 16th century (peasant and merchant houses, barns, wells, hedges, windmills, etc.). “Malye Korely” on Google Maps. Photos by: Vladimir Lipetskih.

snow covered wooden architecture

Tags: Arkhangelsk oblast · museum

“Vitoslavlitsy” is an open-air museum of folk wooden architecture located on the shore of Lake Myachino a few kilometers south of Veliky Novgorod, near the St. George’s (Yuriev) Monastery. The name “Vitoslavlitsy” comes from the village of Vitoslavlitsy, which existed here from the beginning of the 12th to the 18th centuries.

The museum was opened on May 16, 1967. The exhibition includes the oldest Russian wooden architectural monuments of the 16th century, as well as residential and outbuildings of the 18th-19th centuries. Vitoslavlitsy Museum on Google Maps. Photos by: Stanislav Konstantinov.

picturesque old churches and houses

Tags: museum · Novgorod city

St. Andronicus Monastery is a complex of buildings of the former monastery of the Russian Orthodox Church located on the left bank of the Yauza River, near one of the Poklonny Mountains of Moscow.

The monastery, founded in 1357, was named after its first hegumen, Andronicus, a disciple of Sergius of Radonezh. St. Andronicus Monastery on Google Maps. Photos by: Vladimir Dar.

beautiful churches and a unique museum

Tags: churches · Moscow city · museum

The Moscow Transport Museum has a unique collection of retro models of all types of Soviet urban transport. Here you can see a lot of different cars and trucks, taxis, trams, buses, trolleybuses that carried passengers along the streets of Moscow, as well as cars of various city services: police, firefighters, ambulance.

Let’s look only at a part of the presented vehicles. The museum is open daily from 10:00 to 21:00. Address: Moscow, Rogozhskiy Val Ulitsa, 9/2. The Moscow Transport Museum on Google Maps. Photos by: Stanislav Konstantinov.

great technical museum

Tags: Moscow city · museum · Soviet past

“Grand Maket Rossiya”, a private museum located in St. Petersburg (Tsvetochnaya Street, 16), is a 1:87 scale model layout with a total area of 800 square meters, where typical scenes from life of different regions of the Russian Federation are combined.

This is the largest model layout in Russia and the second largest in the world (after Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg, Germany). It is very detailed, let’s look only at some of the presented mini-plots. Grand Maket Rossiya on Google Maps. Photos by: Stanislav Konstantinov.

amazing mini Russia

Tags: museum · Saint Petersburg city

The Russian Railway Museum, located in St. Petersburg at Bibliotechny Lane, 4/2, near Baltiyskiy Railway Station, a 7-minute walk from Baltiyskaya metro station, is the main railway museum of Russia and one of the largest railroad museums in the world.

The opening of the museum, timed to the 180th anniversary of the railways of Russia, was held on October 30, 2017. The Russian Railway Museum on Google Maps. Photos by: Alexander Popov.

amazing railway museum

Tags: museum · Saint Petersburg city