museum of moscow's history

many times i was coming by this building on the Old Square on the opposite side of the Polytechnic Museum (near Lubyanka - KGB-FSB nest)

it is a former church of Ioann Bogoslov under elm.

not much interesting is waiting for you inside.

as a matter of fact, i have learnt three facts:

the museum was founded in 1896. the plate reports about that.

their vaults were used as a cemetery for church servants.
cloakroom attendants were very happy to tell me about this.

first settlements were in this region in 6000-8000 b.c. and it were finno-ugrian and then some baltic tribes. they lived in Diakovo Gorodishe in Kolomenskoye - my favourite place of Moscow.

here is a virtual tour of this museum, not so big but enough to get a general idea. honestly speaking, the most interesting stuff is the plan of moscow of XVII century which was made by some foreign traveller - i am sure he was the real adventurer! there we can see the Neglinka river which flowed along the kremlin. nowadays it is still flowing under the ground and the Troitskiy Bridge linking Kutafya tower and Troitskaya tower is a proof of that.

unfortunately the other bridge - Voskresenskiy - remains at pictures only.

... and maybe the Vasnetsov's pictures of moscow kremlin from the beginning in 1147 to XX century.