Seven Sisters Skyscrapers

Eight towers were planned for Moscow from 1947 and seven were built by 1957, in a tiered wedding-cake manner with spires, sculpture and rusticated bases that became the export style of the period - matching towers went up in Warsaw, Riga, Bucharest and Kyiv. The seven are the Moscow State University main building on Sparrow Hills, at 240 metres the tallest and for decades the tallest building in Europe; the Hotel Ukraina, now a hotel with a public lobby and a large diorama of 1977 Moscow; the Kotelnicheskaya embankment apartments; the Kudrinskaya Square apartments; the Leningradskaya hotel; the foreign ministry; and the Krasnye Vorota building. The eighth site, in Zaryadye, was never completed and became the Rossiya hotel, itself demolished in 2006 and replaced by Zaryadye park. The university is the one most visitors photograph, from the viewing platform on Sparrow Hills.

What you actually see

• The seven towers - tiered spired buildings put up across Moscow from 1947 to 1957.
• Moscow State University - 240 metres, Europe's tallest building for decades.
• The Ukraina - now a hotel, with a public lobby and a large 1977 Moscow diorama.
• The eighth site - never finished, later the Rossiya hotel and now Zaryadye park.

When to go

Year-round. A day to visit several, using the metro between them. Sparrow Hills for the university view.

Honest expectations

Most are working buildings - ministries and apartments - and cannot be entered. The university interior is not open to casual visitors. Only the hotels have accessible public areas. They are spread across the city, so seeing several is a day of travelling.

Nearby

Sparrow Hills gives the university view; Zaryadye park occupies the unbuilt eighth site.