Moscow Guide
The Kremlin
The Armoury Palace
Address: Between the Great Kremlin Palace and the Borovitskiy Gate
Opening time: Admission is limited to four times a day (10am, noon, 2.30pm & 4.30pm), and you can only remain inside for a single session of an hour and a half's duration. It's best to buy a ticket before you enter the Kremlin and start queuing outside the Armoury entrance at least 15 minutes before the time specified on your ticket,
The Armoury Palace (Oruzheynaya palata) conceals a staggering array of treasures behind its Russo-Byzantine facade. Here are displayed the tsars' coronation robes, carriages, jewellery, dinner services and armour – made by the finest craftsmen with an utter disregard for cost or restraint – whose splendour and curiosity value outweigh the trouble and expense involved in seeing them. As an institution, the Kremlin Armoury probably dates back to the fourteenth century, if not earlier, though the first recorded mention was in 1508. Initially, its purpose was utilitarian – one foreigner described it as being "so big and so richly stocked that twenty thousand cavalry men could be armed with its weapons" – but it soon became a storehouse for state treasures and, in 1806, a semi-public museum. The existing building was completed in 1851 in the same style as the Great Kremlin Palace, by Nicholas I's favourite architect, Ton.
Beyond the cloakroom is an information desk, followed by stalls selling books and souvenirs, where you can rent an audioguide (R200), buy an illustrated guidebook to the Armoury (R250) or a CD-ROM tour of the Kremlin. Stairs at the far end lead to a small foyer from which you ascend to a larger one with two staircases, the left-hand one leading to the lower floor of the Armoury, the other to the upper floor.