Moscow Guide
The Kitay-gorod
The Archeological Museum of Moscow
Address: Near the former Moskva Hotel site
Opening time: Tues, Thurs, Sat & Sun 10am–6pm, Wed & Fri 11am–7pm; closed Mon & the last Fri of each month
Price: R60, students R25
A wrought-iron and marble pavilion covers the entrance to the subterranean, wheelchair-accessible Archeological Museum of Moscow (muzey arkheologii Moskvy). Opened in 1997, the museum's highlight is a substantial section of the limestone arches of the Voskresenskiy bridge over the Neglina River, which led from the Beliy gorod quarter to the Resurrection Gate of Red Square. The bridge was uncovered during the construction of the mall beneath Manezhnaya ploshchad, which also exposed the foundations of houses on the far bank of the Neglina. The oldest artefacts are earrings and necklaces from the twelfth century, when Moscow was founded – though most date from the fifteenth century onwards and include a hoard of Spanish doubloons found in the Kitay-gorod. Birch-bark shoes and vessels, leather purses and a spiked helmet are among the humbler objects displayed alongside scale models of the Kremlin and Kitay-gorod, the Voskresenskiy bridge and Okhotniy ryad in olden days.