Moscow Guide
The Zemlyanoy Gorod
Museum of Applied, Decorative and Folk Art
Address: Delegatskaya ulitsa
Opening time: Mon– Thurs, Sat & Sun 10am–6pm; closed the last Thurs of each month
Price: R300
The Museum of Applied, Decorative and Folk Art (muzey dekoraktivno-prikladnovo i narodnovo iskusstva) features a diverse collection in the main wing of the eighteenth-century Osterman mansion, and an annexe off to the right of the courtyard – wherever you begin, keep your ticket for the other bit. The star attraction (in the annexe, upstairs) is Soviet porcelain of the 1920s and 1930s, decorated with Futurist designs or metro-building motifs; among the figurines, notice the Uzbek family rejoicing over the Stalin Constitution. Downstairs are scores of Palekh boxes, painted with fairytale scenes, along with nineteenth-century folk costumes and contemporary tapestries.