HOW TO VISIT THE MOSCOW KREMLIN: TICKETS AND TIPS

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Next to the Red Square, the Kremlin It is the most emblematic and most visited place of Moscow. Although if you have searched for a little information you will already know that to enter you must buy a ticket, and that it is not always as easy as arriving, paying and accessing. In this post we tell you how to visit the Moscow Kremlin and we will try to solve all the doubts that arise before going, and we will give you a few tips tools.

The word "Kremlin" refers to the part of a Russian city where the most relevant government and religious buildings were concentrated. It was something like the citadel and was usually surrounded by walls to protect them.

The Moscow Kremlin initially dates back to the 12th century, when the city was born. It was expanded and improved for several centuries, with the construction of the famous cathedrals, or palaces and civil buildings such as the Armory. This area was surrounded by a strong wall of more than 2 km in length, in which 19 towers were placed. This was the most important place in ancient Russia, but in the 18th century the capital of Moscow passed to St. Petersburg.

The Moscow Kremlin then did not decline, in fact it was the temporary residence of the tsars. It underwent several remodeling and improvements to combat the passage of time. Until again, after the Bolshevik Revolution, Moscow was once again the capital of Russia in 1917, and the Kremlin a year later became the official residence of the Soviet government.

In 1991, the Moscow Kremlin became a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the set of museums and exhibitions was created within its walls. In addition, it is still the official residence of the president of the Russian Federation, in this case Putin, although it seems that here he has little hair.

As we have anticipated, the Kremlin is surrounded by great red brick walls (formerly white), which will prevent you from free access to its interior. Within them, the architectural complex consists of several buildings, many of them for administrative use, which cannot be visited. But among those who are going to be able to enjoy, two stand out:

The Cathedral Square (700R)

It is undoubtedly the most beautiful place in the Kremlin, and its soul. This is where the coronation of the czars was performed at the time of the throne. This square is where the 3 famous cathedrals are located, which you can visit inside to freak out with their decoration:

The Assumption Cathedral: the most important of all, the coronation of the czars took place there, as well as other celebrations of great relevance, such as royal marriages, royal baptisms, etc. Just above the main entrance we were impressed by the fresco of the Last Judgment, with Adam and Eve, and the snake wrapped in metal rings, symbolizing the sins of man.

The Cathedral of the Annunciation: It was the chapel used by the tsars in a more private environment, for their family celebrations. And as you can see, they spared no resources (the ark for the reliquaries of the interior, and the entrance porch of blue and gold carvings are a pass!).

The Archangel Michael's Cathedral: Here rest the bodies of the Muscovite princes and the first Russian czars (among them Ivan the Terrible, along with his sons Ivan and FIodor).

Within all these cathedrals we can see 16th century altarpieces, profusely decorated columns and domes, reliquaries of gold and silver and full of precious stones, tombstones of key characters in the history of Russia and endless details.

In addition, around the square there are other interesting places and artifacts:

The imposing white building with the Ivan the Great Bell Tower, which was the tallest tower in Moscow at the time with 81 meters. You can not climb to the top of the bell tower, if not to an intermediate floor 25 meters from the ground, from where there can be beautiful views. Also on its ground floor there is an exhibition. The ticket has an extra cost of 350R that you will have to buy at the ticket office.

The Tsar Canyon and the Tsar's Bell, which, they say, are the largest in the world of their kind (or at least the bell, although we have seen this in other places like Myanmar ... I don't know Rick ...). The first you will find before entering the square itself, and the second around the bell tower of Ivan the Great (it is resting on the ground).

The Church of the Deposition of the Mantle of the Virgin and the Church of the Twelve Apostles (in the Palace of the Patriarch), two small chapels that complete the whole set, with collections of objects not too interesting (if we compare them obviously with those exhibited in the Armory).

If you get hungry or thirsty, you can go to little garden What's next where you'll find a stand with drinks (150R) and something to eat (puppies for 150R) and rest for a while on a bench right there. It is quite nice and the views of the cathedrals and the tower are the best.

In total the visit is delayed as 2 hours (depends on the tails). If it rains take an umbrella or raincoat because there are not many areas to protect you, beyond the cathedrals themselves.

The Armory Museum (1,000R)

In which the largest collection of objects of the czars of all Moscow is exhibited. In its rooms you will find both armor and ancient weapons, as silverware games gifts from other royal houses (with a glass of these we would have solved life), jewelry, court suits, carriages that seem taken from the Snow White tale, 10 of the rare Fabergé eggs, and the famous caps with which the czars were crowned, especially the Monomaco Cap.

When you buy the ticket, you will have to indicate at what time you want to visit this museum (10:00, 12:00, 14:30 or 16:30, sometimes they also enable 13:00), although they said it is not too strict and you can arrive around the time you have selected. A free audio guide is included with the ticket in any language (you will have to leave a passport at the entrance and pick it up at the exit). We recommend bringing the headphones to connect them to the device.

The Diamond Fund It is an exhibition of jewels and precious stones that must be paid separately. The ticket costs 500R and you can buy it at the general ticket offices or at the Armory itself. They did not recommend it to us and therefore we did not go.

You have three ways to do it:

Hiring any of the offers of entrance + guided tour or initial talk. You save the ticket at the ticket office (not the entrance ticket) and you have the instructions of an expert. These are the recommended ones:

On-line, on its official website. But be careful, because even if you buy these tickets online you will have to redeem the voucher at the ticket office (you will not get rid of the queues). You also have to buy them well in advance if you want to have availability.

In the lockers the same day of the visit (you cannot buy tickets for other days). The lockers are in a large cube-shaped building in the Alexander Gardens (we point it out on the map). These lockers open at 9 in the morning, although in high season there will already be a queue from a good time before.

These lockers are a mess, so let's try to explain a little how they work ... Inside the building you will see windows listed, each for a different function:

Windows 4 and 5: tickets to the Diamond Fund.
Windows 6, 7 and 8: to collect tickets those who have purchased the ticket online.
Windows 9 and 10: tickets for the Armory. In theory it is only for the Armory, but you can also buy tickets for the Plaza de las Catedrales.
Windows 11, 12 and 13: tickets to the Plaza de las Catedrales. Unlike the previous ones, in these you can NOT buy tickets for the Armory (checked in both cases).

In addition, you have available 3 electronic machines (in Russian and English), also inside the building, but you can only buy tickets for the Plaza de las Catedrales.

We believe that, since there is an hourly access control in the Armory museum, the tickets to enter it can only be sold at the windows for this purpose (9 and 10). And as for the Plaza de las Catedrales the access is free, they can be bought in several windows / machines.

When you get to the ticket office bucket, you will see how they form two tails: if you look straight ahead, each one corresponds to this:

The tail on the left is the one that leaves from the windows 6, 7 and 8, that is, the collection of tickets purchased online.
The tail on the right is the queue for windows 9 and 10 (Armory + Plaza de las Catedrales).
For the rest of the windows and machines, it is a potpourri that is formed inside the building that is understandable.

In case of doubt, before queuing, we recommend you enter the building and take a quick look, and then choose where you should put yourself. But it is very likely that you will end up in the tail on the right (box office 9 and 10), whenever you want to visit both the Armory and the Plaza de las Catedrales.

If you want to save the ticket at the box office and expand the visit with explanations of what you are visiting, hire one of the guided tours in Spanish that we have proposed above.

Otherwise, if you know the day (and time in the case of the Armory) of your visit, buy the ticket online and go to pick it up at the windows enabled for this. It is best to go early in the morning, when we saw that the line for these windows was not very long and seemed to run faster.

If you have more flexibility, prefer to wait to see how the weather is, or there is no availability on the web, buy tickets at the box office.

Are you in this last group and you don't know what is the best time to visit the Kremlin? It is best to arrive early (about half an hour before the ticket office opens) and take advantage of the first hours of the morning. We saw how the queues in the cathedrals were quite short at 10: 30-11: 00, but after 11:30 they tripled. Also, keep in mind that it is possible that the time you want to visit the Armory is complete, so get up early!

From 10 we believe that it is no longer worth approaching, it is the most congested time and the burden will be brutal. Then we passed over 2 pm and, although the ticket lines were still long, the access to the Kremlin by the Cathedral Square was quite empty. So, you either arrive from the first ones, or leave a visit for the afternoon.

These are the prices of the different tickets in the Kremlin:

Cathedral Square: 700R
Armory Museum: 1,000R
Diamond Fund: 500R
Ivan the Great Bell Tower: 350R

You can pay in cash and by card both at the windows and at the machines.

First of all you have to know that there are two different entries:

The entrance to the Plaza de las Catedrales: it is done through the Kutafya Tower, which is accessed by side stairs that overlook the Alexander Gardens. Access to this tower from Mokhovaya St is only for workers or for people with reduced mobility.
The entrance to the Armory: it is done by the Borovitskaya Tower, at the southern end of the Gardens. But it is important to know that once you cross the tower, you are not in the museum but inside the Kremlin, a few meters away you will find the door that gives access to the Armory.

Are queues formed in these entries? Yes, and very wild! So you will have to queue to buy tickets and queue to enter. If your idea is to visit both places, you can walk inside the Kremlin in a way that communicates them. You can also visit one, go out and visit the other from the other entrance.

We did the following:

We arrived at 08:45 at the tail on the right (box office 9 and 10). After approximately 1 hour of waiting, we got the tickets to the Armory (from 1:00 p.m., the one at 12:00 had finished, and better) and to the Plaza de las Catedrales.
We enter through the access to the Plaza de las Catedrales, where we arrive around 10:30.
We visit all the Cathedrals (we do not enter the bell tower), and we pull a puppy in the garden, about 12:30.
We walk inside towards the Armory, where we enter about 12:50.
We visited the Armory Museum, until about 2:15 p.m., at which time we left by the south exit.

This was the tour:

In addition to all the information on how to visit, here are some more tips to visit the Moscow Kremlin:

- The schedule the enclosure is from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and the one at the ticket office from 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Be careful because it closes on Thursdays!

- In principle on Saturdays and Sundays are the days with greater influx. We wanted to avoid them and we went on a Monday, but it still seemed to us that there were too many people. Maybe we all thought that it was best not to go on the weekend, and it turned out that we all got together on Monday ... Tuesday? Best!

- Do not throw the ticket once you pass the control to the Plaza de las Catedrales, because they will ask you in each cathedral. We fell down the road and a charitable soul picked them up and returned them ... thankfully!

- Both inside the Cathedrals and in the Museums, you can't take pictures, under penalty of death (death of a scare that can be hit by one of the guards to bother you).

- Be careful with him waiting time in the queues, especially to more or less meet the schedule of visit to the Armory. Imagine that you have a visit from 12:00 to the Armory, and you arrive at the Plaza de las Catedrales at 11, then you will not have time to visit all the cathedrals, so you will have to see a part first, go to the Armeria and then return to continue seeing the rest of the square.

- On the road that separates the two enclosures there is no ticket control, so maybe if you just want to see the cathedrals from outside you can buy the ticket from the Armory, visit it, and then go to the Plaza de las Catedrales. They will not let you inside any of them, but you may be satisfied with their outer part.

- On the tourist card Moscow City Pass The entrance to the Kremlin (Cathedral Square) is included, but not to the Armory. More information and purchase of this card here.

So far our guide to know how to visit the Moscow Kremlin, with all the information you need and tips to prepare your visit. We hope it can help you and you know, if you have any questions, leave us a comment!