Arbat side-lanes to Prechistenka: a walk in Moscow

Old Arbat only as the spine: the walk turns off into the lanes for Scriabin's house, Melnikov's cylinder house, Pushkin's flat and Herzen's wooden house on Sivtsev Vrazhek, then ends on Prechistenka at the Tolstoy museum.

Best time: Afternoon from Wednesday to Sunday, when the Pushkin and Herzen house museums are both open.

The route, stop by stop

1
Arbatskaya metro station
Start in the 220-metre hall of the 1953 station. 5 min
Opened in 1953 with the longest underground hall of the Moscow metro, 220 m, a long run of elliptical arches with Baroque-style stucco and chandeliers.
2
Old Arbat
Pedestrian Arbat; walk west and turn left into the lanes. 15 min
A pedestrian street of about one kilometre from Arbatskiye Vorota to Smolenskaya Square, one of the oldest surviving streets of Moscow, recorded since at least the 15th century.
3
Scriabin Memorial Museum
The composer's last home on Bolshoy Nikolopeskovsky lane. 30 min
The two-storey house on a quiet lane between the Old and New Arbat where the composer spent his last years, with Russia's first colour-music light device. Muscovites come for the…
4
Melnikov House
The 1927-1929 house of two interlocking cylinders on Krivoarbatsky lane; museum closed for restoration, see it from the lane. 10 min
Konstantin Melnikov's own house-studio of 1927-1929: two interlocking cylinders with rows of hexagonal windows, one of the best-known works of the Soviet avant-garde.
5
Pushkin Memorial Apartment on Arbat
Pushkin's 1831 flat at Arbat 53; closed Mondays and Tuesdays. 30 min
The flat at Arbat 53 where Alexander Pushkin lived for a few months with Natalya Goncharova after their wedding in 1831; a branch of the State Pushkin Museum, opened after…
6
Herzen House-Museum
Timber house of 1843-1847 on Sivtsev Vrazhek; closed Mondays. 30 min
A one-storey timber house with a mezzanine in the Arbat lanes, one of the few wooden houses left in Moscow, where Alexander Herzen lived from 1843 to 1847 before leaving Russia…
7
Leo Tolstoy State Museum (Prechistenka)
Empire-style mansion with the main Tolstoy literary museum; closed Mondays. 40 min
The main Tolstoy literary museum, founded in 1911 and housed since 1920 in an Empire-style mansion of 1817-1822 on Prechistenka. It is far less visited than the writer's…
8
Cathedral of Christ the Saviour
End at the cathedral by Kropotkinskaya metro. 10 min
Russia's largest Orthodox church, 103 m high, on the Moskva embankment near the Kremlin: a 1990s rebuilding of the cathedral blown up on this site in 1931.

Walking directions

Arbat side-lanes to Prechistenka

The route, stop by stop

More walks in Moscow