When a building is under renovation it’s quite easy to enter it. So the author of the photos got onto the roof of “Moskva” hotel to take these pictures.

Today not so many people wish to see the mummy…

It used to be different in the 1930s

Pokrov Cathedral built in the times of Ivan the Terrible

Voskresensk gates with Chapel and Vestry of Iberian Icon of Mother of God. The gates were removed in 1931 because they prevented tanks from entering for parades. In 1994-96 they reappeared here.

Here is how they used to look

Spire of the Voskresensk gates

Roofs of the upper trading houses built in the pseudo-Russian style in 1889-93. In 1953 it was turned into GUM.

Cathedral square

Fragment of the Moscow municipal duma building decor. In Soviet time it was a museum of Lenin.

Here it is on the old photo

Christ the Saviour Cathedral was demolished in the 1930s like many other constructions connected with religion. It was replaced by the largest in Europe swimming pool.

Exploded Cathedral

Nikolskaya tower.

4 out of 7 high-rise buildings of Stalin are seen from the roof.

Foreign office, the only high-rise building without a star on top.

Hotel “Ukraine” in the middle

State historical museum

Its spire

Its roof

The museum in the period 1900-1914. The attic windows have disappeared.

Zaikonospassky monastery

Before its reconstruction of the 1960s

Some night Kremlin views

Flag on the Senate roof, it’s where the working place of the Russian president is situated.

GUM dome

Hotel “Ritz Carlton Moscow” roof. The hotel was built on the place of 22-storey “Intourist” that was taken down in 2002.

The way “Intourist” looked like.

Ads making the facades look ugly…

Fountain “Clock of the World”, it turns a full circle for 24 hours. It may tell time of the largest cities of the world with accuracy of 5 minutes.

Manege square

Hotel “Nazionale” mosaic

Location: Moscow

via saoirse