Museum of Moscow Archaeology

The Museum of Moscow Archaeology occupies an underground pavilion on Manezhnaya Square and is devoted to finds from excavations in the historic center of the capital. The exhibition is located at a depth of about seven meters, on the very site of the excavations; the museum is part of the "Museum of Moscow" association. It brings together objects ranging from the Paleolithic to modern times, found during surveys of the city's territory. It is one of the few museums in Russia where the city's cultural layer has been preserved at its original depth.

The museum's creation was preceded by excavations on Manezhnaya Square carried out in 1993–1997 by the Moscow Archaeological Research Center under the direction of Alexander Veksler. Archaeologists uncovered a cultural layer more than seven meters deep containing finds from various eras. In January 1996, it was decided to build an underground museum on this site: the design was developed by Workshop No. 11 of "Mosproekt-2" under Dmitry Lukayev, construction was carried out by the "Moskapstroy" company, and restoration by "Target." The museum opened in 1997, to mark the 850th anniversary of Moscow's founding.

The exhibition's centerpiece is the piers of the 17th-century Resurrection Bridge, rebuilt in 1740 by the architect Pyotr Geiden: its brick foundation had been faced with white stone. The preservation and conservation of these finds was carried out at Workshop No. 13 of "Mosproekt-2" by Viktor Korshunov and Inessa Kazakevich. The excavations also uncovered the foundations of 18th–19th-century buildings, street pavements, the remains of structures and wells, and 16th–17th-century drainage pipes — from which the layout of Zanaglimenye, the old district on the bank of the Neglinnaya, was reconstructed.

After the Moscow fire of 1812, the Neglinnaya River was routed into an underground culvert, and the Resurrection Bridge was partially dismantled and covered with earth. About a quarter of its structure was uncovered only in the 1980s–90s, thanks to research carried out in 1988 by the Institute of Archaeology of the USSR Academy of Sciences under scholar Sergei Chernov. Other finds include a hoard from Ipatyevsky Lane containing 3,397 foreign-minted silver coins, and items from the Old Gostiny Dvor: tiles, glassware, jewelry and toys from the 18th–19th centuries.

In 2011 the building was closed for reconstruction: utility networks and ventilation were replaced, and the access control system was updated. The museum reopened to visitors in 2015, with the halls equipped with technology recreating the atmosphere of different eras. Today the collection numbers more than two thousand items, including Neolithic flint figures from the Voymezhnoye site and finds of the Dyakovo culture from the early Iron Age. The museum holds themed exhibitions on the history of Moscow archaeology and the everyday life of city residents in past centuries.

The Museum of Moscow Archaeology remains a notable point on the city's map: beneath present-day Manezhnaya Square a cross-section of several centuries of Moscow's history is revealed. It allows visitors to see archaeological monuments exactly where they were discovered, and shows how the city changed from medieval Zanaglimenye into today's capital. For many visitors it offers a rare opportunity to see authentic cultural layers beneath the pavements of the historic center.