Izmaylovo Kremlin is a unique entertainment and cultural complex designed as a stylized pseudo-Russian fortress with walls, towers and fortifications.
Despite the apparent historicity of the name, the Izmaylovo Kremlin has no relation with the historic fortresses and palaces of Moscow. It was built in 1998-2007 and is a popular architectural fantasy and Old Russian style with bright pseudo-Russian elements.
In fact, its design is unusual in everything related to ancient fortresses, which makes it curious and unique in the city.
Inside the complex there is an entertainment center with a traditional Russian touch. It houses a significant number of small museums and exhibition halls, craft shops and workshops, an Orthodox church, as well as cafes and a tavern where you can sit with family or friends (if you wish, you can even request a banquet hall).
Also within the territory is the Wedding Palace (registry office) and a wedding agency operating all year round, and outside, surrounding the false fortress, there are shopping arcades.
But most of the time people visit the complex just to look and take pictures in the landscape in the old Russian way.
The architectural ensemble of the Izmaylovo Kremlin
Compositionally, the Izmaylovo Kremlin is a stylized imitation of a Russian fortress located on a hill with walls, towers and fortifications, to which a long entrance bridge leads.
However, when it was created, the task was not to recreate a real Russian fortress in the form in which it really existed in the past. So the complex can only be considered as a free architectural fantasy, made up of various pseudo-Russian cliches: sometimes redundant, false and not always well combined.
Variegated roofs, keeled kokoshniks, tiles, semi-columns, double-headed eagles and griffins, the contrast of stone and wood architecture and many more elements. All of this combined quite unexpectedly in the Izmaylovo Kremlin, making it look more like a fairy tale castle straight out of the pages of a Russian fairy tale.
Inside the makeshift fortress there is a “Russian Complex”, in the central square of which stands the Church of St. Nicholas, the current church attached to the Moscow Stauropegial Male Danilov Monastery of the Russian Orthodox Church. The temple was built of wood in imitation of Russian wooden architecture; With a height of 46 meters, it is the tallest wooden temple in Moscow.
Next to the temple is the Palace of Russian Food, built “on the basis” of the lost wooden palaces on the Kolomenskaya and Izmaylovo estates. For especially sophisticated lovers of antiquity, in its basement are stylized cellars and torture rooms imitating the distant past.
Along the edges of the “Russian Complex” there are rows of stone and wooden buildings decorated in pseudo-Russian style, forming a closed square, which housed several small museums, exhibition halls, art workshops and cafes.
Museums in the Izmaylovo Kremlin
The rooms and facilities of the Izmaylovo Kremlin managed to accommodate a large number of small interactive museums and exhibition halls, including:
- Gallery “Art-Kremlin”
- Museums
- History of vodka
- Bread museum
- History of the Russian fleet
- Spoiled children
- Live of Popular Arts
- Miniatures “Universal History in Plasticine”
- Pastila museum
- Chocolate
- Moscow Animation
- Gallery “Puppet Lane”
- Abandoned dollhouse and forgotten toys
- House from fairy tales “Once upon a time”
Some museums have production and art workshops (forge yard, pottery and weaving workshops, etc.), where visitors can participate in thematic workshops and try out various crafts.
It should be noted that many of these museums and shops are changed depending on the success of each initiative.
The Izmaylovo Market Ensemble
Izmaylovo vernissage is a large market for paintings, souvenirs, handicrafts and a flea market, the rows of which surround the Kremlin and are connected to it by passages and stairs.
It is curious that the Vernissage arose long before the Kremlin; in fact, the Izmaylovo Kremlin was originally built on this foundation.
The Vernissage pavilions are also made in pseudo-Russian style, but, somewhat less neat. For the convenience of visitors, it is divided into several parts or sections; thus, there is a “Street of Handicrafts”, “Alley of Artists”, Flea and Antique Markets, as well as “Blacksmiths” and other commercial galleries.
Also, on the territory of the Vernissage there is a life-size model of a mill and a reduced model of the first Russian battleship “Goto Predestination”, built according to the drawings of Peter I, and on the east side it is limited by a colorful palisade with towers. .
Trading at the Vernissage takes place on weekends, but on weekdays only a small part of the rows with typical “Russian souvenirs” are open: hats with ear flaps, matryoshka dolls of all designs, magnets with iconic monuments of the city of Moscow and many curiosities of Russian handicrafts and those of the Soviet republics.
History of the Izmaylovo Kremlin
The Izmaylovo Kremlin arose on a wasteland, next to which the famous Vernissage in Izmaylovo existed since the 1980s. A flea and craft market, where old second-hand items, books, and later folk crafts were placed for sale Russian.
The construction of the cultural and entertainment complex “Izmaylovo Kremlin” began in 1998 and was opened in 2003.
In 2000, the first church was opened on the territory of the complex, consecrated in the name of St. Nicholas of Myra.
In 2005, a strong fire broke out on the territory, which affected both the Kremlin and the Vernissage. The complex was rebuilt and reconstruction work completed in 2007; when it appeared in its modern form, with white stone walls and towers.
The appearance of the Izmaylovo Kremlin was perceived ambiguously, and some rejection by many Muscovites. But over time it took root and became one of the popular attractions of the city.
Today, the Izmaylovo Kremlin is in demand among Muscovites who come to the compound to walk with children. It also attracts great interest from foreign tourists seeking contact with Russian culture there.
Weddings and celebrations are held in the complex, parties and folk festivals are organized; one way or another, despite the criticism, the picturesque place has become one of the attractions of the entire city.
However, it should be remembered that this is not a museum of Russian culture, but a cultural and entertainment complex, and you should not expect too much from the place.
Learn about Russian culture
If what you are really looking for when traveling to Russia is to have direct contact with the history of the country and its culture, we do not recommend just visiting the Izmaylovo Kremlin, but discovering the best of Russia with our guides on Tours in Russia.
With our tours in Moscow we will ensure that your trip to Russia is unforgettable, contact us.
