On the territory of VDNKh in Moscow, you can find an intriguing object - a huge interactive layout of the city center. City guests arriving here for the first time, by looking at the layout, can get acquainted with the iconic buildings of Moscow. Experienced tourists and local residents will probably be interested in seeing their favorite buildings in the city center.
How to Get There
The "Moscow Layout" pavilion is located on Sirenevy Avenue at VDNKh. The closest metro stations are "VDNKh" and "Botanichesky Sad." It takes a 15-minute walk from the main entrance to the layout.
The layout is open from 10 am to 8 pm every day except Monday. Admission is free.
A Bit of History
The Moscow Layout was created starting from 2012. Its current area is 429 square meters. There are plans to expand the exhibition space by more than twice. Currently, there are more than 23,000 buildings in scale 1:400.
Until 2017, the "Moscow Layout" exhibition was located in another pavilion at VDNKh, and today a separate building has been erected for the exhibition space.
The Moscow exhibition is conceptually similar to the "Grand Maket Russia" and the "Petrovskaya Akvatoria" in St. Petersburg. However, there are several significant differences between them. For example, the layout at VDNKh closely replicates the layout of the city center, and I even found the hotel building where I stayed during my trip to Moscow. St. Petersburg exhibition spaces do not strive for such accuracy, but at the same time, they abound in interesting details and intricacies. For example, while exploring the "Grand Maket Russia," guests can press a button, and the tiny world immediately comes to life: a tiny wind generator turns on or the chickens start pecking feed.
The Moscow Layout is not static; the lighting of the miniature world constantly changes, and here there is periodically a transition from day to night. Every hour on weekdays and every 30 minutes on weekends, visitors can see a light and music show. These sessions have different names: "Megapolis Moscow," "Universe Moscow," "Best City on Earth," "Architectural Styles of Moscow," "I Walk Through Moscow," "Moscow of Bulgakov," "Seasons of the Year," "History of Moscow."
If a visitor to the exhibition space wants to get to know the Russian capital better, they can come here for a guided tour. Guided walks are also diverse: one, for example, tells about the layout itself, another - about Moscow churches, and a third is dedicated to the image of Moscow in cinema. A huge plus is that tours of the exhibition are also free.
Have a nice trip!
