The Seven Sisters of Moscow: a 2026 Guide to Stalin’s Skyscrapers

Moscow’s Seven Sisters of Stalin are the seven skyscrapers Stalin had built between 1947 and 1957 so the Soviet capital could compete with New York on the skyline. Today they house a university, two hotels, two ministries and two residential buildings. You’ll spot them scattered around the centre and the west of the city: huge, almost always crowned with a gilded Soviet star, and practically impossible to miss if you visit Moscow.

In this article I’ll explain what they are, where to find them and, most importantly, how to visit them as a tourist in 2026: which ones you can walk into freely, where to go up to an observation deck, what you can see for free and which ones can only be entered on a guided tour.

What the Seven Sisters of Stalin are

Stalin had no sisters (or brothers), but one of the legacies he left in Moscow is his “Seven Sisters”: seven skyscrapers built to mark the city’s 800th anniversary, celebrated in 1947. The line attributed to him sums up the idea well: “We won the war, but when foreigners come to Moscow and stroll around the city they won’t see a single skyscraper. If you compare Moscow with capitalist cities, that’s a moral blow to us.”

The original plan called for eight towers, but the eighth was never finished. The seven that did get built went up between 1947 and 1957, range from 136 to 240 metres in height, and all share a unique style known as “sampir” or Stalinist Gothic: a mix of Russian Baroque, neoclassicism and Gothic elements, with a clear nod to New York’s 1930s skyscrapers. The stepped, tiered shape they all share is what earned them their affectionate Muscovite nickname: “Stalin’s wedding cakes”.

All seven share an architectural “signature”:

• A central tower topped with a pointed spire
• A golden star at the very top (except on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
• Four stepped wings around the main tower
• Façades loaded with sculptures, clocks, Soviet coats of arms, hammers and sickles
• An anti-aircraft bunker beneath each building, or so the story goes

The style was later exported to other capitals in the Soviet bloc, but none of the “clones” ever matched the grandeur of the Muscovite originals.

Map of the Seven Sisters

The seven towers are arranged in a sort of ring around the historic centre. Here’s the map with all of them:

And this is the original 1930 plan from the USSR Architects’ Association, showing the nine skyscrapers that were initially projected (later reduced to eight and, finally, to seven):

1. Moscow State University (MSU): the tallest and most spectacular

If you’re only going to see one of the Seven Sisters, make it this one. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU to its friends) reaches 240 metres including the spire and has 36 floors. It was the tallest building in Europe from 1953 to 1990, and it’s still the tallest of the Seven Sisters and one of the tallest buildings on the continent.

It was built between 1949 and 1953 on a 187-hectare site at the foot of Sparrow Hills (formerly Lenin Hills), one of the best natural viewpoints in Moscow. To give you a sense of the scale: at peak construction, up to 16,000 people worked on the site at the same time, and the cost is estimated at around 2.6 billion Soviet rubles of the era — enough to build a small city.

A few numbers that’ll make your head spin:

• More than 33 km of interior corridors
• Around 5,000 rooms in total: classrooms, labs, offices and student residences
• The star at the very top weighs 12 tonnes
• The façades are decorated with giant clocks, barometers, thermometers, sculptures and Soviet symbols
• The university counts 11 Nobel laureates among its graduates and faculty, and has around 40,000 students

Fun fact: the logo of the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games was directly inspired by the stepped silhouette of this building.

Can you visit Moscow State University?

The main building is not open to the public as a free walk-in attraction (it’s a working university campus), but there are two ways to get inside:

• The Museum of Earth Sciences, between the 24th and 31st floors, with a spectacular panoramic terrace over Moscow. Visits are by appointment only, usually for organised groups from schools and universities.
• Observation deck visits organised by MSU itself. You need to book in advance through the official website smotrismgu.ru. Spots are limited and visits are done in groups.

To get the postcard shot from outside, the perfect spot is the Sparrow Hills viewpoint, right across from the building. It’s one of my favourite places in Moscow for photographing the tower, especially at sunset.

How to get there: metro Universitet (line 1, red) or Lomonosovsky Prospekt (line 14, light green); both are a 15–20 minute walk from the main building.

2. Hotel Ukraine (now Radisson Collection): the most glamorous

The former Hotel Ukraine is the second tallest of the Seven Sisters, at 206 metres with the spire (the spire alone is 73 metres) and 34 floors. It sits on the bank of the Moskva River, on Kutuzovsky Prospekt, and was completed in 1957 — making it the tallest hotel in the world until 1976.

It reopened in 2010 after a three-year top-to-bottom refurbishment and, since January 2019, has officially been called the Radisson Collection Hotel, Moscow (although most Muscovites still call it “Гостиница Украина”, its historic name). It has 505 rooms, 38 apartments, 19 restaurants, a 49.5-metre indoor pool and its own fleet of 10 yachts that run cruises along the Moskva.

It’s the easiest of the seven skyscrapers to visit because, being a five-star hotel, anyone can walk into the lobby, wander through the public areas and eat at one of its restaurants. And there are three things worth seeing inside, even if you’re not a guest:

The Moscow diorama (free)

This is the quirkiest piece in the hotel and, hands down, my favourite. It’s a panoramic 1977 model of central Moscow, at a scale of 1:75, covering nearly 100 square metres of painted surface. It was a sensation in its time: when it was shown in New York, up to 40,000 people visited it every day.

The Radisson acquired it in 2007, restored it and put it on display in the lobby. It has lighting effects that simulate day turning to night: the windows of the buildings light up and the spotlights shift. Entry is completely free and open to anyone who walks into the hotel. If you can’t find it, just ask at reception and they’ll point you in the right direction.

The 33rd-floor observation deck

The observation deck at the former Hotel Ukraine is on the 33rd floor, around 120 metres up, and offers a 360-degree panorama over central Moscow: the golden domes of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, the skyscrapers of Moscow City, the Moskva River, the White House (seat of the Russian government) and Sparrow Hills.

Important notice: at the time of updating this article (2026), the observation deck is temporarily closed for technical reasons, according to the Radisson Collection’s own official website. Before planning your visit, check the current status on the hotel’s official site.

In the meantime, the panoramic bar on the 31st floor is still open: you can have a drink with great views, and there’s also a restaurant on the same floor if you’re hungry. If you only want the high-up photo and the deck is still closed, I’ve covered other options in the article on the best viewpoints in Moscow.

Staying at the Radisson Collection

It’s one of the most impressive hotels in Moscow and, within the five-star bracket, not even one of the most expensive. A standard double room usually starts at around 200 euros a night, although prices fluctuate quite a bit with the season. One catch, though: since 2022, Booking, Airbnb and most Western platforms no longer process reservations in Russia, so the practical way to book this hotel (or any hotel in Russia) is through Ostrovok, the main Russian alternative, which does accept foreign cards. I explain how it all works in my guide on how to book hotels and apartments in Russia with a foreign card.

How to get there: metro Kievskaya (lines 3, 4 and 5), about a 10–12 minute walk away.

3. Kudrinskaya Square Building: the “spy” skyscraper

Known in the 1950s as “the aviators’ house” because most of its residents were pilots, cosmonauts and aeronautical engineers, this 156-metre, 22-storey skyscraper is given over entirely to housing (together with the Kotelnicheskaya building, these are the only two of the sisters that are purely residential).

The building was completed in 1954 and has 452 apartments, plus a huge underground anti-aircraft bunker capable of sheltering every resident. On the ground floor was the famous “Gastronom No. 15”, one of the largest and most beautiful supermarkets in Moscow, along with a two-screen cinema called Plamya (“Flame”), a hairdresser’s, a post office and an underground car park. The apartments came with electric fridges (a luxury at the time), ventilation systems, lifts and rubbish chutes.

The juiciest legend about the building is that, after the United States embassy opened on one of the neighbouring plots, the top two floors of the skyscraper were reserved for the KGB and its listening equipment. Hence the “spy skyscraper” nickname. The curious thing is that the embassy is still right next door: walk past today and you’ll see the two buildings practically staring at each other.

Another bit of trivia: the building appears in the legendary Soviet film “Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears” (winner of the 1981 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film).

Nearby you’ll also find the Moscow Zoo and the Planetarium, two great visits if you’re travelling with kids.

Can you visit? The building is residential and doesn’t accept tourist visits. You can only admire it from outside and, if you’re lucky, peek into the lobby. Some guided tours of the Seven Sisters do include access to the common areas.

How to get there: metro Krasnopresnenskaya (line 5, brown) or Barrikadnaya (line 7, purple).

4. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia: the only one without a star

The skyscraper that houses the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is 172 metres tall, has 27 floors, and sits at the end of Arbat Street, one of Moscow’s most touristy pedestrian streets. If you stroll down the Arbat, you’ll see it loom into view as soon as you face west.

It’s the only one of the Seven Sisters that is not crowned by a Soviet star. The reason, according to one of the building’s best-known legends, is that the spire wasn’t in the original plans. When Stalin examined the project with the building nearly finished, he decided the flat roof didn’t look right and ordered a spire installed. The problem was that the skyscraper’s structure hadn’t been calculated to bear any extra weight up top: the spire was made from light metal, and adding a multi-tonne star like the ones on the rest of the sisters was simply impossible. So it stayed bare.

At the top of the main façade you’ll also see an enormous Soviet coat of arms covering 144 square metres (one of the largest ever made).

Another interesting bit of architectural lore: this building was constructed “top down”. Engineers started pouring concrete from the upper floors and worked their way down, so as not to clog the street with construction work. The cranes were installed directly on the roof.

The original spire, made of light metal, rusted over the years and was dismantled and replaced with a new one in 2017.

Can you visit? No. It’s a government building with restricted access. You can only admire it from outside.

How to get there: metro Smolenskaya (lines 3 and 4), right next door.

5. Hotel Leningradskaya (now Hilton Moscow Leningradskaya): the smallest

At 136 metres and 26 floors, this is the shortest of the Seven Sisters, but also one of the most beautifully kept. It stands on Komsomolskaya Square, the “square of the three stations”, flanked by Leningradsky, Kazansky and Yaroslavsky stations, which makes it very easy to combine with a train trip.

The building was finished in 1953. In 2008, after a multi-million-dollar investment, it reopened as the Hilton Moscow Leningradskaya, a five-star hotel that’s still operating in 2026.

A technical curiosity: two small underground rivers run beneath the building, so it was built on iron piles to avoid structural problems.

The most spectacular thing about the hotel is its lobby: a 15.5-metre bronze chandelier hanging from the ceiling, once recorded in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest in the world. It lights up several floors at once and, together with the hand-carved wooden ceiling, the huge candelabras, the bronze statues and the pseudo-Russian mosaics, turns the lobby into something close to a museum in its own right.

Entry to the lobby is free: anyone can walk in and have a look. Below the skyscraper, where the anti-aircraft bunker used to be, there’s now an indoor swimming pool for guests.

Can you stay here? Yes. The rates are reasonable for a five-star hotel. As with all Russian hotels, the most practical way to book from abroad with a non-Russian card is through Ostrovok, since Booking stopped operating in Russia in 2022.

How to get there: metro Komsomolskaya (lines 1 and 5), a 5-minute walk away.

6. Red Gates Square Building: with a metro station underneath

Completed in 1953, this skyscraper is 138 metres tall and has 24 floors. It was built to house the Ministry of Heavy Industry and today contains administrative offices (the Ministry of Transport, the Stock Exchange and other public institutions), plus two flanking residential buildings of 11 and 15 floors.

The building takes its name from the fact that it was built on the spot where, until 1927, the Red Gate stood — a triumphal arch erected in honour of the Russian army’s victory at the Battle of Poltava. The entrance door of the current skyscraper is also red, in a nod to the demolished arch.

The construction of this skyscraper was one of the most complicated engineering feats in the whole series. The ground under the building was “plavun”, a muddy, unstable layer that could sink under the weight. To hold the building up during construction, engineers froze the soil by pumping in a liquid at −20°C, which caused the ground surface to rise slightly. They then calculated a deliberate 16-centimetre tilt, knowing that once the soil thawed and settled, the building would end up perfectly vertical. And that’s exactly what happened. It still stands, dead straight, today.

Another peculiarity: directly underneath the building sits Krasnye Vorota metro station, which you can access straight from the ground floor. It’s the only sister with its own integrated metro station.

The interior is more sober than that of other sisters, without big mosaics or stained glass, but the apartments on the upper floors had five rooms with an extra room for servants and a climate-control system that was ahead of its time.

How to get there: metro Krasnye Vorota (line 1, red). Impossible to miss: you come out directly underneath the building.

7. Kotelnicheskaya Embankment Building: the most central

At 176 metres and 32 floors, this building, completed in 1952, was the first residential skyscraper in the world at that height and the first of the Seven Sisters to be finished. It sits on the Kotelnicheskaya embankment, at the confluence of the Moskva and Yauza rivers, only a 15–20 minute walk from Red Square. Of all seven, it’s the most central.

The apartments — around 700 in total — were designed as luxury homes for the Soviet elite. Iconic figures lived here: actresses Faina Ranevskaya and Nonna Mordyukova, writers Andrei Voznesensky and Konstantin Paustovsky, and ballerina Galina Ulanova, considered one of the great dancers of the 20th century.

The building was put up by a very particular workforce: prisoners from the GULAG camps, relocated to a camp barely 900 metres from the Kremlin to speed up the works.

When you look up at the façade, watch for the commemorative plaques honouring the cultural figures who lived here, and you’ll also spot balconies at various heights. Oddly enough, those balconies are closed off and purely decorative — due to the proximity of the Kremlin and other strategic state targets.

Can you visit this skyscraper?

Access to the building is reserved for residents and staff, but there are three spaces open to the public that you can visit:

• The Illusion cinema (Иллюзион), a classic cinema showing films in their original language, on the ground floor of the building.
• The supermarket and the post office on the ground floor.
• The Galina Ulanova house-museum: one of the building’s apartments, preserved exactly as the ballerina left it, with her furniture, photos, costumes and paintings (including works by Marc Chagall). It’s the only legal way to see the inside of one of the tower’s apartments.

If you want access to the building’s common areas (lobby, marble staircases with chandeliers and so on), you’ll need to sign up for one of the guided tours of the Seven Sisters run by local Russian agencies.

How to get there: metro Taganskaya (lines 5 and 7) or Kitay-Gorod (lines 6 and 7), about a 15-minute walk away.

The two sisters that were never born

Stalin’s original project included two more skyscrapers that were never finished. If they had been completed, we’d be talking about nine Sisters of Stalin, not seven. Their story is worth knowing because both sites are now occupied by two unmissable Moscow attractions.

The Palace of the Soviets

It was going to be the tallest building in the world: 415 metres, crowned with a 100-metre statue of Lenin weighing about 6,000 tonnes. Inside, it would have housed an auditorium for 21,000 people. To make way for it, in 1931 the historic Cathedral of Christ the Saviour was demolished — on what is now the spiritual heart of Moscow.

The German invasion of 1941 halted construction just as the foundations were being laid. After the war, the project was abandoned and, in its place, from 1960 until the 1990s, the legendary Moskva Pool operated: a circular open-air swimming pool, 129.5 metres in diameter, with hot water year-round — the largest of its kind in the world. Talk to older Muscovites and almost all of them have fond memories of swimming there in the depths of winter, heads wrapped in steam.

Eventually, in 1994, the decision was taken to rebuild the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour on its original site. Today it’s one of the tallest Orthodox churches in the world, and is regarded as one of the symbols of post-Soviet Moscow.

The Zaryadye administrative building and Zaryadye Park

The second unbuilt skyscraper was going to stand right next to Red Square, St. Basil’s Cathedral and the Kremlin, on what was then the historic Zaryadye district. To make room for it, that entire neighbourhood was demolished. In all likelihood, the building would have eclipsed the most iconic urban ensemble in the country. Luckily (especially for photographers), it never went up.

In the 1960s, on the same plot, the Hotel Rossiya was built — at the time, the largest hotel in the world. It was demolished in 2004. And in 2017, on the same site, Zaryadye Park opened — today rated by Time magazine as one of the best public spaces in the world.

The park covers 78,000 m², has a concert hall that’s won architecture awards, an ice cave, digital pavilions and a spectacular “V”-shaped floating bridge over the Moskva River. It’s a must-see in Moscow and, if you’re going into the Kremlin, it’s just a short walk away.

How to visit the Seven Sisters in 2026: a practical summary

If you’re short on time in Moscow and want to cut to the chase, here’s my realistic recommendation:

• The ones you can see from inside up close: Radisson Collection (lobby + free diorama), Hilton Moscow Leningradskaya (lobby), Kotelnicheskaya (Illusion cinema + supermarket + Ulanova house-museum).
• The ones you can only see from outside: MSU (unless you book a guided visit on smotrismgu.ru), Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kudrinskaya Building, Red Gates Square Building.
• The panoramic viewpoint: the Radisson Collection’s (33rd floor) is currently closed for technical reasons in 2026. In the meantime, head up to the 89th-floor observation deck of the Federation Tower in Moscow City, which is much higher.
• The two unborn sisters: visit the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour and Zaryadye Park.

If you’re into the history and the small details, the best move is to sign up for a themed guided tour of the Seven Sisters with a local guide. Some tours include access to common areas of the residential buildings that you wouldn’t otherwise be able to see. Western platforms like GetYourGuide or Civitatis no longer operate in Russia since 2022, so the best way to book tours is through local agencies: I explain how in the article on how to book guided tours in Moscow with a foreign card.

Other Stalinist skyscrapers abroad

As a gesture of “goodwill”, Stalin approved the construction of similar skyscrapers in other capitals of the Soviet bloc. If you’ve travelled through Eastern Europe, you may well have seen one without realising it. These are the best known:

• Warsaw (Poland): Palace of Culture and Science, built between 1952 and 1955. At 237 metres, it was for a long time the tallest building in Poland. It was originally called the “Joseph Stalin Palace of Culture and Science”, although the name was dropped fairly quickly. Some consider it the unofficial “eighth sister”.
• Prague (Czech Republic): Hotel International, from 1957. Just 88 metres tall, but with the unmistakable stepped silhouette.
• Bucharest (Romania): House of the Free Press, completed in 1957. Originally the headquarters of the Romanian Communist Party’s official newspaper.
• Kiev (Ukraine): Hotel Ukraine (initially called Hotel Moskva), completed in 1961. It’s the only “clone” without a spire — it kept its flat roof.
• Riga (Latvia): Latvian Academy of Sciences, inaugurated in 1961. At 108 metres, it was officially a “gift” from the workers and peasants of the USSR to Latvia.

The end of Stalinist architecture

The Seven Sisters kicked off the architectural style known as “sampir” or Stalinist Gothic, a unique blend of classicism, Gothic and Art Deco with a distinctly Soviet, grandiloquent twist. They weren’t built to make money or to maximise space: they were propaganda buildings, designed so Moscow could compete with Manhattan, not so people could live in them comfortably. In fact, in some of them (Kudrinskaya, for one), the non-residential space ended up exceeding the residential, to the point where tenants would drag tables out into the corridors for family celebrations.

After Stalin’s death in 1953, Khrushchev approved a decree condemning “architectural excesses”, and the party was over: the last two sisters (Hotel Ukraine and MSU) were already being built as the style was on its way out. After that came Soviet functionalism and the era of mass-produced housing blocks. Several decades would pass before Moscow once again bet on skyscrapers, this time in a fully modern key, with the Moscow City project, conceived in 1992.

Frequently asked questions about Stalin’s skyscrapers