Admission foreigners 80-150Rbl, Russians 0-90Rbl.

Borodino Battle Panorama Museum comments

• 17
  Jul
  2009
  Dennis Hager - U.S.A. Louisiana, Sorrento
  You have a beautiful museum at Borodino. I would love to visit there one day. I live near New Orleans and love to visit the battlefield and reenactment of the Battle of New Orleans. Near Baton Rouge we also have Port Hudson, a Civil War battlefield.Russian history is all very interesting and you certainly have much for all to see!
• 08
  Jun
  2009
  Ralf Serena - UK, London
  The Panorama museum is well worth a visit if you have any interest at all in history or the Napoleonic wars (and the perhaps overlooked Russian contribution to the downfall of Napoleon).The museum building itself is not huge - it is almost dominated by a rather magnifient statue of the Russian commander Kutuzov and his generals in front of it but then you see the collection of captured French and allied guns and the mosaics representing the victory (unfortunately in a 1960's period "Soviet" style - the age of the building after all, but it looks like so many of the WW2 memorials).Inside there is a collection of actual and reproduction uniforms and arms of the Russian and French armies involved in the battle. On the walls, maps of the campaign, the battle and the later French retreat tell the story of events.Paintings, pictures and other images of the protagonists and the main incidents give you a good feel for what happened.It would be worth reading up on the battle before you visit.. the museum does have translations of the exhibit descriptions in English but these are not everywhere. A rudimentary knowledge of the main events and landmarks of the battle makes some of the reproduced Russian maps, drawings and images easier to decipher.The main exhibit is without a doubt the panorama itself. It is staggering to see it in real life, even when you are anticipating it. It is viewed after climbing up into a dome, via some steps.. and the perspective is as you would have seen the battle, if you were at the much-contested "Bagration fleches".The level of detail in the painting, the lighting and the foreground dioramas that blend the near ground to the painting itself do make you feel that you are right there, standing in the middle of the battlefield.Again your rudimentary knowledge of the battle will be useful, to pick out the events being depicted and the landmarks shown. If you pay attention to the Russian tour party guides you can see them point out some physical features of the battlefield. Otherwise there are no labels, signs or depictions of the events on the panorama itself(rightly so, I think).If you're lucky and they switch on the background sound recording, you get a pretty good surround-sound experience... just the smell of powder and the whizz of shot passing overhead is missing! It's absolutely amazing!Ultimately the museum is quite small and so your experience inside won't last very long... though less than half an hour at the panorama itself doesn't do it justice! So when you eventually get outside, go and have a look at the preserved wooden hut where Kutusov and his general staff decided they would not fight the next day (nor defend Moscow). It's not labelled or signposted at all and very easy to miss.Up the road, you'll be able to see the Victory Arch. Reach it by under-pass. It is in a long promenade of flowers bounded by east and west travelling dual-carriageways. Consequently it'll be almost deserted but it's very pictureque (makes a great photo) and impressive to see. About 800m in the same direction is the park and museum of the Great Patriotic war. That's worth a visit in itself.. so your trip to Kutuzovsky Prospekt can take in all three attractions and that's plenty for a very enjoyable day.