The State Tretyakov Gallery holds the world's largest collection of Russian art, from medieval icons to the twentieth-century avant-garde. This guide covers what a ticket costs, when the gallery is open, and how to plan a visit that avoids the queue. All figures below come from the gallery's own website and were checked in August 2026 — prices and hours do change, so confirm before you travel.
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A standard adult ticket to the main building in Lavrushinsky Lane costs 700 RUB. Concession tickets are 350 or 400 RUB depending on the category, and several groups — including young children — are admitted free of charge. The gallery publishes the full list of eligible categories on its site; bring the document that proves your status, because concessions are checked at the entrance.
Two things are worth knowing before you compare prices online. First, temporary exhibitions are often ticketed separately from the permanent collection, so a headline price may not cover everything you want to see. Second, the Tretyakov is not one building: the historic house in Lavrushinsky Lane, the New Tretyakov on Krymsky Val, and the Engineering Building each sell their own tickets, and a combined ticket is offered for some combinations. Check which venue your ticket is for — arriving at the wrong address is the most common mistake visitors make.
If you plan several visits across a year, the gallery runs a membership programme, "Friends of the Tretyakov Gallery", which covers entry to exhibitions without a separate ticket and without queueing.
Opening hours
The main building is open Tuesday through Sunday, 10:00 to 21:00, with the box office and last entry at 20:00. Monday is a closing day. That late finish is genuinely useful: the last two hours are the calmest part of the day, and the halls of nineteenth-century painting are far easier to enjoy without a crowd in front of every canvas.
Schedules shift around public holidays and major exhibition openings, and individual halls occasionally close for rehanging. The gallery posts the current day's hours on its homepage, which is the fastest way to check before you set out.
Buying tickets
Buy online, in advance, for a specific time slot. Tickets bought on the official site are timed, and holding one means you join the entry line for your slot rather than the general queue at the box office. Weekends, school holidays and the opening weeks of a headline exhibition are the times when walk-up tickets are most likely to be sold out.
Note that foreign Visa and Mastercard cards issued outside Russia do not work on Russian payment pages. If your card is not accepted, book through a service that handles payment for you, or plan to pay at the box office.
Getting there
The main building is at Lavrushinsky Lane 10, in Zamoskvorechye, on the south bank of the Moskva River opposite the Kremlin. Three metro stations sit within a ten-minute walk: Tretyakovskaya, Novokuznetskaya and Polyanka. From Tretyakovskaya the walk is signposted and takes about five minutes. The gallery's phone number is +7 (495) 957-07-27.
The New Tretyakov, which holds twentieth-century and contemporary Russian art, is a separate building on Krymsky Val next to Gorky Park — a different metro stop and a different ticket. If your interest is the classic collection — Ivanov, Repin, Vrubel, Serov, and the icon halls with Rublev's Trinity among them — Lavrushinsky Lane is the address you want.
Planning your visit
Allow at least two to three hours for the main collection; the building is larger inside than its façade suggests, and rushing it is a waste of the ticket. Cloakroom use is compulsory for coats and large bags, so factor in a few minutes at the entrance on either side of the visit.
If you are combining museums in one day, the Tretyakov sits within walking distance of the Kremlin embankment and the Muzeon sculpture park, and the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts is two metro stops away. Book each venue separately — Moscow museums rarely share ticketing.
One last practical note: photography rules differ between the permanent collection and temporary exhibitions, and some loaned works may not be photographed at all. Signs at the hall entrance are the authority, not the general rule you read online.
