8 May 2016. Our Great Russian Motherland: Izmailovsky Kremlin (Izmailovo Raion. Eastern Administrative Okrug. Federal City of Moscow. Central Federal District)

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This isn’t ancient at all; it’s actually a quite-recent (built in the 1990s) cultural and entertainment complex. It’s in a pseudo-Byzantine style, based loosely on what Russian palaces looked like in pre-Petrine times, but more inspired by Russian fairy tales. Many use the complex for civil weddings as it has a wedding palace, a restaurant, and bars. However, it’s also an amusement park/open-air museum for children on the theme of “Old Russia”. There’s a replica pre-Revolutionary rural wooden Russian church, but people don’t use it for weddings. To wrap it up, it has a large shopping area that sells the usual sort of tchotchkes. All in all, a fun place to take the family on a weekend or to have one’s wedding (even if one has a church wedding, like most of Europe, one has to have a civil ceremony, too, or the marriage isn’t legit in the eyes of the state).

BMD