Kolomenskoye Park: relax like a Muscovite among churches and palaces

Less than 15 km south of central Moscow lies Kolomenskoye, the former summer residence of the tsars in the 16th and 17th centuries, today turned into a huge open-air park-museum. Entry to the park is free, and you only pay if you want to go inside the monuments. Its two jewels are the Church of the Ascension (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) and the Wooden Palace of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, a fairytale building with green domes and 26 towers. It’s one of my favourite spots in Moscow for escaping the bustle, especially in spring and summer.

Kolomenskoye at a glance

What Kolomenskoye is (and why it’s worth it)

For centuries Kolomenskoye was the favourite country estate and summer residence of the Russian grand dukes and tsars. The first mentions of the village go back to 1336, in the will of Ivan Kalita, and from the 14th century it became the property of the rulers of Moscow. Its golden age came with Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, who turned it into his grand country residence.

In this watercolour by J. Quarenghi you can see what Kolomenskoye looked like in 1797:

When Peter I moved the capital to St. Petersburg (which held that status from 1712 to 1918), Kolomenskoye stopped being a royal residence and its buildings gradually fell into disrepair. Some as famous as the Wooden Palace ended up disappearing entirely.

The revival came in the early Soviet years, when the architect and restorer Pyotr D. Baranovsky championed moving old wooden buildings from different regions of the USSR to Kolomenskoye to create an open-air museum. That’s why today you’ll find here a large architectural and ethnographic ensemble, all restored, spread across hills with splendid views of the Moskva River.

Since 2005 this large cultural and natural space has been managed by the Moscow United Museum-Reserve (MGOMZ), which also runs the Izmailovo estate in another part of the city. Most of the restoration work was carried out in the first decade of this century.

I recommend it above all for its authenticity and for how beautiful it is: it’s a very popular spot among Muscovites, who fill it on weekends and in good weather. A real haven of calm within the big city, and with very good metro connections, as I’ll explain now.

How to get to Kolomenskoye

From central Moscow you’ll get there in about 40 minutes. Kolomenskoye has several entrances, but the two you want are stations on Line 2 (green) of the Moscow metro:

• Kolomenskaya: the north gate. From here you reach the Museum of Wooden Architecture and the Church of the Ascension, one of the two jewels.
• Kashirskaya: the entrance closest to the Wooden Palace of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, the other jewel. As you come out you’ll even see a sign reading «К дворцу» (to the palace), and the roofs of the terems peek out from the metro.

My recommendation is to get off at Kolomenskaya and walk through the park from north to south (about 3–4 km), visiting the main attractions, and exit at Kashirskaya. To get around the metro, the Troika card will come in handy.

Besides walking (if you like to walk, this is your place), inside the park you can rent bikes or hop on the little electric train that crosses it, ride a horse or a carriage, or take a boat trip on the Moskva River from the pier.

Here’s my map with the 3-hour route I suggest:

And this is a more detailed map of Kolomenskoye that you can save or print:

Opening hours and tickets

Opening hours

The park area is open every day and access is free: in practice you can walk around from early morning (around 5:30 am) until late at night, midnight in summer and until roughly 10 pm in winter.

The museums and exhibitions are open Tuesday to Sunday, 10 am to 6 pm (the ticket office closes at 5 pm). Some exhibitions extend their hours on Fridays and Saturdays until 8 pm. On Mondays the museums close, although the park stays open.

Ticket prices

Entry to the grounds is free; you only pay for the monuments you want to visit, and each one is bought separately. These are rough prices:

These are rough prices: check fares, exhibitions and availability on the official website, as they change and some exhibitions rotate. Reckon that seeing the palace plus a couple of exhibitions can cost you around 1,000–1,200 ₽ per person.

How to buy tickets (and how to pay as a foreigner)

There are ticket offices and automatic machines scattered throughout the complex. Tickets are also sold online (on the museum website, on RUSSPASS or on tickets.mos.ru), but all of these platforms are in Russian only and, if you buy online, you then have to redeem the ticket at the box office.

Important if you’re a foreigner: Visa and Mastercard cards issued outside Russia haven’t worked in the country since 2022. At the ticket offices you can pay without any problem in cash, in roubles. If you’d rather pay by card (or book online), you’ll need a Russian MIR card for foreigners, which is the solution for paying inside Russia.

You don’t need any tour to get into the park: you can walk around on your own at your leisure. The museum offers its own guided tours (in Russian) that you book on its website, but they’re not essential.

What to see in Kolomenskoye: a 3-hour walking route

I suggest a roughly 3-hour route from north to south, in which I’ll talk you through the main monuments and gardens. One thing though: bring comfortable shoes.

To start, get off at Kolomenskaya metro station and walk about 5 minutes along Novinki Street to Entrance no. 1 of the grounds.

1. The Museum of Wooden Architecture (25 min)

As soon as you cross Entrance 1, turn left and in five minutes you reach the Museum of Wooden Architecture, opened in 1923 by the visionary restorer P. D. Baranovsky. It’s an open-air museum with very picturesque wooden structures brought here from different regions of Russia. The most notable are:

• The Tower of the Monastery of St. Nicholas of Korela (Korelsky), from the 17th century and the White Sea coast. An exceptional piece of carpentry, a symbol of spiritual strength with no military function.
• The Tower of Bratsk Fort, from 1659, from the Baikal region — this one did have a defensive purpose.
• The Mokhovaya Tower of Sumskoy Fortress, from the same period and also military in nature.
• The Wooden Church of St. George the Victorious, from 1685, built in northern Russia and moved here in 2008. It has two floors and keeps almost its original appearance.

Nearby is the Dutch House of Peter I, a gift from the Netherlands to Russia in 2013, transported on two Navy vessels. It’s an exact replica of the house in Zaandam (Holland) where Peter I stayed, the oldest wooden house in that country (dating from 1632). Inside, portraits of the tsar and of his wife Catherine I are on display, along with objects from his life.

Then follow the path along the bank of the Moskva River; in about 10 minutes you’ll reach the first jewel: the Church of the Ascension. Along the way you’ll find restaurants and food and drink stalls.

2. The Church of the Ascension, a UNESCO World Heritage Site (70 min)

You’ll see its dome from afar. It was raised in 1532 in stone and brick to celebrate the long-awaited birth of the heir of Basil III, the future and hugely famous Ivan the Terrible. It’s a masterpiece: the white-stone façades end in a slender pyramidal shape. It was the first tent-roof (shatrovy) church built in stone in all of Russia, a true milestone in architecture.

You don’t appreciate its height until you get close: it reaches 62 metres, although its interior space barely exceeds 100 m². It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1994, together with the Kremlin and Red Square. It’s used for worship, but in the basement (podklet) there’s an exhibition on its history and restorations (from 100 ₽).

Next to the church is the Water Tower (Vodovzvodnaya), from the mid-17th century, which used to distribute water to the royal residence.

Beside it you’ll see the Church of St. George the Victorious (on Ascension Square), not to be confused with the wooden church of the same name; its refectory and bell tower stand out. Nearby is also the Palace Pavilion, from 1825, the only surviving part of the palace commissioned by Alexander I (who died that same year without getting to enjoy it) and which today hosts exhibitions and concerts.

Opposite the Church of the Ascension is the Front Gate, built between 1671 and 1673 as the main access to the residence and the way in for foreign ambassadors. The adjoining complex today houses exhibitions on the history of Kolomenskoye and the daily life of tsars and workers, and even an old winery.

Crossing that gate you quickly reach the Church of Our Lady of Kazan, from the mid-17th century, which was the royal family’s church during the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich (1629–1676). It stands out for its blue domes and for safeguarding the venerated Russian icon Our Lady of the Reigning One (Derzhavnaya). It’s an active church.

Past the Church of Kazan you’ll find the Savior Gate (or Back Gate), also built in the 1670s, which served as the entrance to the domestic part of the estate. It takes its name from the icon of Christ the Savior that you’ll see in one of its arches.

To the south is the House of Tsar Peter I, from 1702 and originally from Arkhangelsk, in northern Russia. It served to protect Peter I from the Swedes and was moved to Kolomenskoye in 1934. It’s the only museum space dedicated to Peter I in Moscow (and it’s not the same as the Dutch House we saw earlier).

You’ll also see the Ascension Garden, with apple and other fruit trees. Heads up: picking the apples, pears and other fruit is forbidden, as they may be contaminated with heavy metals.

3. The Church of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist, in Dyakovo (25 min)

From the Ascension Garden you can head over to this church, set on a mound in a wooded area that you reach by climbing a flight of steps.

It was built around 1547–1554, in the era of Ivan the Terrible, in the old village of Dyakovo. It’s a fascinating church: because of its composition of several pillars, historians consider it the direct forerunner of St. Basil’s Cathedral on Red Square, and some attribute both to the same architects, Barma and Postnik. In fact, it’s the only multi-pillared church from the 16th century preserved besides St. Basil’s. It was raised on the spot where, according to tradition, Basil III learned of the conception of his heir.

From here there’s a pleasant 20-minute walk through the nature reserve that takes you to the great star of Kolomenskoye: the Wooden Palace.

4. The Wooden Palace of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich (60 min)

Its history is the stuff of films. Built between 1667 and 1672 by Tsar Alexei (Alexis I), it was dismantled on the orders of Catherine the Great around 1768 and ended up demolished in 1872, after detailed measurements and plans had been made. In 2010 it was completely recreated using timber from all over Russia, though not exactly on its original site.

In its day, this palace was so dazzling that its illustrious guests called it the “eighth wonder of the world”. It had 250 rooms with highly ornate interiors and no fewer than 26 towers. Its green domes will leave you open-mouthed the moment you catch sight of them from the surroundings.

It covers more than 7,000 m² and it’s well worth buying a ticket to see it from the inside. The interiors host exhibitions on the life of the tsars, with rooms and objects of great value, such as the tsar’s and tsarina’s chambers, and even an old Russian banya.

Remember that entry to the tsar’s chambers costs around 600 ₽ (300 ₽ reduced; free for children under 6) and that the palace, like the other museums, is open Tuesday to Sunday.

Right next to the palace is Exit no. 5, which drops you straight at Kashirskaya metro station, where this route ends.

When to go and practical tips

The best time to visit Kolomenskoye is spring and summer, when everything is green and plenty of activities take place: fairs, traditional festivals, historical re-enactments, falconry or scenes from peasant life. Kolomenskoye also hosts the most important honey fairs in Russia, where you can watch the beekeepers at work and try medovukha, a drink of Slavic origin made from water, honey and yeast.

In recent years they’ve completely renovated the riverside promenade, which now looks beautiful, and in winter two ice rinks are set up, so it’s a great plan in the snow too.

Around the grounds there are cafés and stalls with sandwiches, drinks and ice cream, plus a point to rent sports equipment.

A couple of practical warnings: inside the park alcohol, lighting fires and walking on the grass are not allowed, and cycling or skating is only on the designated paths. And since there’s always restoration work going on, a particular monument may be temporarily closed; if you’re especially keen on one, it’s worth checking beforehand on the official website.

If you fancy eating or shopping when you finish, next to Kashirskaya metro you have the Moskvorechye shopping centre. And if you feel like stringing visits together, you can combine Kolomenskoye with the nearby Tsaritsyno park: I include it in the Moscow itinerary.

Frequently asked questions about Kolomenskoye