Muzeon Park

Muzeon is an open-air sculpture museum in Moscow, on Krymsky Val, as part of Gorky Park, next to the New Tretyakov Gallery and the former Central House of Artists. Hundreds of sculptures stand here in the open air: Soviet-era monuments moved here after 1991, and works by contemporary artists. According to various estimates, the park draws several million visitors a year.

History

The park occupies the site of the former Bolshevik industrial complex. In the 1970s the old buildings were demolished to make way for the new Tretyakov Gallery building and the House of Artists, and construction debris remained for years until artists helped clear it and trees were gradually planted.

In August 1991, after the failed coup, monuments to Soviet leaders began to be removed from Moscow's streets and squares. Instead of destroying them, the Novaya Zemlya museum proposed gathering the sculptures in one place. In 1992 Mayor Yuri Luzhkov signed an order to create a sculpture park, headed by Mikhail Pukemo. Landscaping work began in 1993, and the park opened to visitors in 1995, when it covered 10 hectares and displayed more than 700 exhibits.

In 2011 Muzeon received the status of a Moscow cultural heritage site, a large-scale reconstruction followed in 2013, and since 2015 the park has officially been part of Gorky Park.

Collection

The collection combines Soviet monuments with works by avant-garde artists who could not exhibit publicly in Soviet times. Among the relocated monuments is the bronze Felix Dzerzhinsky by Yevgeny Vuchetich (it stood on Lubyanka Square from 1958, was dismantled in 1991 and later restored), a monument to Maxim Gorky based on a model by Ivan Shadr and cast in Vera Mukhina's workshop (it used to stand near Belorussky railway station), and monuments to Yakov Sverdlov and Mikhail Kalinin, moved from their original sites in October 1991.

A separate place belongs to "Victims of the Totalitarian Regime" by sculptor Yevgeny Chubarov — 283 stone heads behind a rebar grille, donated to the park in 1998. Later works include "Little Shoes" by Dmitry Tugarinov (1995) and the children's composition "Grandfather Mazai and the Hares" by Alexander Taratynov (2010). The park also has a replica of the Statue of Liberty and a wooden figure of Buratino, the Russian Pinocchio.

Getting there

The closest metro station is Oktyabrskaya, about a ten-minute walk down Krymsky Val toward the river, followed by Park Kultury (across the Krymsky Bridge), Polyanka and Kropotkinskaya. Trolleybuses 4, 6, 10, 33, 39 and 62 and buses 111, 122, 144 and 196 run to the "TsPKiO im. Gorkogo" stop. Paid parking for cars is available on Krymsky Val, 10, and near the main entrance to Gorky Park, with the first 15 minutes free.

Good to know

Admission to the park is free, the grounds are open for walking around the clock, and the exhibition pavilions and summer cinema operate from 9 a.m. (8 a.m. in summer) to 11 p.m. Guided tours cost from 400-500 rubles, and bicycle rental is 250 rubles per hour with a 2,000-ruble deposit.