The Seven Sisters

Every major city has its own unique buildings and architectural style that sets it apart from other cities, and Moscow is no exception. Looking at any picture of the Moscow skyline, you will quickly notice seven massive buildings in the distance, each with numerous spires on the roofs pointing upwards. It no coincidence that all these buildings share the same style and immensity, as they were meant to display the immense grandeur of the Socialist state after victory in WWII.

Locally, the Seven Sisters are known as Stalin’s High-rises (Сталинские высотки) as they were designed and built under his secret management between 1947 and 1956. All seven buildings were built in the same Russian Baroque and Gothic style and Intended as a response to skyscrapers in capitalist cities. Stalin decreed the state build a chain of as many as eight or nine high-rise buildings to compete. In the end, seven buildings were built, all of which were extremely over engineered and limited in their height by the sheer weight of the structures and lack of technology and experience of the builders.

Nonetheless, these seven buildings give Moscow its own unique character and skyline unlike any other buildings outside of the former Eastern bloc.

The Seven Sisters include:

Moscow State University (Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова)

Hotel Ukraina (Гостиница Украи́на)

Hotel Leningradskaya (Гости́ница Ленингра́дская)

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation (Министерство иностранных дел Российской Федерации)

Kotelnicheskaya Embankment Building (Жилой дом на Котельнической набережной)

Kudrinskaya Square Building (Жилой дом на Кудринской площади)

Red Gates Administrative Building (Административно-жилое здание возле Красных ворот)