The Moscow Metro

The Moscow Metro is arguably the best in the world. Not only because the trains come in practically every minute (I don't recall having to wait for more than a minute, which I think is incredible) but also because each station is built like an art gallery.

The impressive Kievskaya station

I first realized that the Moscow Metro is a must-see attraction after I saw a few Moscow itineraries from different travel agents that included a trip here. I went to tripadvisor to read a bit more about it and I saw that it was rated #7 among attractions in Moscow. After seeing a few photos online, I knew I had to include this in our itinerary.

Beautiful wall art at the Komsomolsakaya station

The question though was which stations were the best ones to visit. I checked out the tripadvisor travel forum to see what people had to say and I also noted down the suggested stations in my book. In the end, we managed to visit and take photos of all the stations in my list. (Note however that as I am reading up again about the Moscow Metro now, I realize there are a couple other stations I would have loved to see.)

Kievskaya (Киевская)
There are a couple of different halls at the Kievskaya station. One of them, on the Koltsevaya Line or Circle route, is decorated with mosaics...

Kievskaya hall on the Koltsevaya Line

...while the other, on the Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya Line, has paintings. These wall mosaics and paintings display events in Ukrainian history and friendly relations between Russia and Ukraine.

Kievskaya hall on the Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya Line

Komsomolskaya (Комсомо́льская)
Russian military heroes such as Peter the Great are depicted on the ceilings of this station.

Komsomolskaya

Mayakovskaya (Маяковская)
Winner of the 1938 Grand Prix in New York, this station is very sleek and stunning.

Mayakovskaya

The brightly lit sky-themed ceiling mosaics add an extra dimension to the brilliance of this must-see station.

Sky-themed ceiling mosaic at Mayakovskaya

Ploshchad Revolutsii (Пло́щадь Револю́ции)
Here you can find life-sized bronze statues of different occupations of Russian men and women.

Pl. Revolutsii

Park Kultury ( Парк культу́ры)
Appropriately, you can find circular bas-reliefs that illustrate different cultural, sporting, and other leisure activities.

Park Kultury

Novoslobodskaya (Новослободская)
This station was quite unique among the ones we saw since it is decorated with exquisite stained-glass panels.

Stained glass panel at Novoslobodskaya

Krasnopresnenskaya (Краснопресненская)
This station is decorated with bas-reliefs that commemorate the 1905 revolution when a strikers' march to petition the tsar in the Winter Palace was fired upon by troops.

Krasnopresnenskaya

Pushkinskaya (Пушкинская)
Alexander Pushkin is considered to be the Russian Shakespeare. We took a quick stop at the station just to see (and take photos) of the artwork that commemorate one of Russia's most important authors and poets.

Pushkinskaya

Partizanskaya (Партизанская)
Floral bas-reliefs strangely adorned with AK-47 machine guns are featured at the top of the pillars in this station. At the top of the escalator is a bronze military-themed sculpture.

Partizanskaya

Teatralnaya (Театральная)
The station you get out of when visiting Bolshoi Theatre, a beautiful chandelier and a wall design that seems to commemorate World War II greet you at the top of the elevator.

Teatralnaya

Smolenskaya (Смоленская)
This metro served as the starting point of our Moscow trips since it was the closest one to our hotel. I took photos of this station for sentimental purposes but while it has a relatively simple design, it does have a massive military-themed sculpture at the far end.

Smolenskaya

Vdnkh (ВДНХ)
We got off this station when we visited the Cosmonautic Memorial Museum on the 2nd of May and it seems that most of Moscow decided to head to that area as well (this is also the stop for the All-Russia Exhibition Centre, which is where I think most of these people went to). It took a while to get out of this station due to the number of people!

The jam-packed Vdnkh station

My favorite stations among the ones I saw are Mayakovskaya, Kievskaya, Komsomolskaya and Novoslobodskaya. Pretty much every station along the Koltsevaya Line (brown line or circle route) is beautiful as this line, which connects the different cross-city routes, was built during the height of Stalinist Architecture to manage the growing number of metro passengers in Moscow.

beautiful wall mosaic at Novoslobodskaya station

A one-way trip on the metro costs 30 rubles only and it's a fixed rate for any destination, no matter how many stations away it is. As such, some say that this is the most inexpensive art gallery in Moscow. I tend to agree. Next post: a day trip to Sergiev Posad.