Stalinist skyscrapers
Seven skyscrapers built in Moscow between 1947 and 1957. Their stepped towers with spires and stars became the architectural symbol of the postwar USSR and still define the city skyline. Today they house a university, ministries and hotels, Muscovites live in several of them, and foreigners know them as the Seven Sisters.
- Skyscrapers
- 7
- The tallest
- 240 m
- Year founded
- 1947
Moscow State University Main Building
Partly open
2
Hotel Ukraina
Open to visitors
3
Kotelnicheskaya Embankment Building
Partly open
4
Ministry of Foreign Affairs Building
Outside only
5
Kudrinskaya Square Building
Partly open
6
Red Gates Building
Partly open
7
Hotel Leningradskaya
Open to visitors
Which is tallest?
Height including the spire. Tap a building to learn more about it.
Map
Five of the skyscrapers stand in the centre, near the Garden Ring and the Moskva River. The Moscow State University Main Building and Hotel Ukraina are further west, on the Sparrow Hills and Kutuzovsky Prospekt.
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History in five dates
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© Главархив Москвы, CC BY 4.01947
On 13 January the government decides to build eight high-rise buildings in Moscow.
The skyscrapers were meant to become new symbols of a capital that had won the war and was celebrating its 800th anniversary.
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© Главархив Москвы, CC BY 4.07.09.1947
On Moscow’s 800th anniversary all the skyscrapers are founded at the same moment, at one in the afternoon.
Ceremonies were held at every site across the city at once.
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© Naum Granovsky, CC BY 4.01952
The Kotelnicheskaya Embankment building is the first to get residents.
The apartments went to scientists, artists, military officers and party officials.
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© Главархив Москвы, CC BY 4.01953
On 1 September the Moscow State University Main Building opens.
For the next 37 years it was the tallest building in Europe.
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© А. Устинов, CC BY 4.01955–1957
Khrushchev begins his fight against “architectural excess”, and the era of the skyscrapers comes to an end.
Construction of the eighth skyscraper in Zaryadye has already been stopped, and Hotel Ukraina opens last, in May 1957.
Never built
There were meant to be more skyscrapers. The eighth, the closest to the Kremlin, was stopped at the foundation after Stalin’s death. Even earlier, in the 1930s, construction began on the 415 metre Palace of Soviets. It was to be the country’s main building, but it never left the drawing board.
More “sisters”
After the war the Moscow skyscrapers became a model for the whole Soviet bloc. Similar buildings with tiers, spires and stars appeared in the capitals of countries within the Soviet sphere of influence. The best known of them, the Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw, was presented to Poland by the Soviet Union as a gift.
Today these buildings lead very different lives. The Warsaw palace houses theatres, museums and a cinema. The Academy of Sciences building in Riga has an observation deck. And in Prague and Kyiv the skyscrapers still welcome guests as hotels.
One-day route
You can see all seven skyscrapers in one day. We have put together a metro route in a convenient order, with travel times and the best photo spots.
See the routeFAQ
Can you go inside the Stalinist skyscrapers?
Yes, but not all of them. Anyone can walk into Hotel Ukraina and Hotel Leningradskaya, where the lobbies, restaurants and bars are open. The Moscow State University Main Building can only be visited on a tour or on an open day. The Kotelnicheskaya Embankment building has the Illuzion cinema and shops, and tours of the building itself are available. Visitors are not allowed into the Foreign Ministry building.
Do the skyscrapers have an observation deck?
Yes. Hotel Ukraina has a paid observation deck on the 33rd floor. At the Moscow State University Main Building you can only go up with an organised tour. It is best to check prices and opening hours before you visit.
Where can you see all seven skyscrapers at once?
From the viewpoint on the Sparrow Hills next to the Moscow State University Main Building. Another good view opens from the observation deck of Hotel Ukraina.
Can you stay in a Stalinist skyscraper?
Yes. Two of the skyscrapers are hotels. These are the Radisson Collection in the Hotel Ukraina building and the Hilton in Hotel Leningradskaya. Apartments in the residential skyscrapers are sometimes rented out by the night.
Who built the Stalinist skyscrapers?
They were designed by leading Soviet architects such as Lev Rudnev, Dmitry Chechulin and Arkady Mordvinov. Gulag prisoners and German prisoners of war worked on the sites alongside hired workers. Some of the prisoners who built Moscow State University lived right inside the unfinished tower.
Why are the skyscrapers called the Seven Sisters?
That is what foreign guidebooks call them. The buildings resemble each other with their stepped towers, spires and stars. They were built at the same time and founded on the same day.
How long does it take to see all seven?
A bus tour of the skyscrapers lasts about three hours. On your own by metro the whole route takes a full day.
When is the best time to see the skyscrapers?
In the evening, when the lights come on, and at sunset. The finest panoramas are from the Sparrow Hills and from the Moskva River embankments.