Pavilion No. 55. Museum of Optical Illusions

Today from 10:00
Description
History
About place

The Museum of Optical Illusions is part of the Friends of VDNH loyalty programme. For now, you can only buy tickets online.

The pavilion is managed by the Roscongress Foundation. It is a socially-oriented non-profit development institution and major organiser of various international conventions, as well as exhibitions and business, public, sporting and cultural events.

Its partners for Pavilion No. 55 projects include LEGO Education Russia and CIS, Big Creative Company and the Moscow City Government.

Big Creative is a company known for providing the most extraordinary entertainment around the world. The VDNH Pavilion No. 55 is where you will find Big Creative's family-friendly edutainment museums.

  • Take a talk around the Upside-Down City and have a snack at a café with floating tables.
  • Visit the Museum of Illusions to become the main character of a 3D blockbuster and escape fr om the walking dead or take a walk on the roofs of the New York skyscrapers.
  • Find out how giants live at the Giant's House. Try a game of chess where the pieces are as tall as you!
  • Explore the Maze of Horror and walk a mile in a horror movie character's shoes. Let's see if you can escape the clutches of creepy monsters and ghosts!
  • Or how about the Mirror Maze? Experience the infinite dance of reflections and try to find your way out of endless rooms and optical traps. Just like Alice when she went through the looking glass!
  • There's the Ribbon Maze, too: a step into a rainbow. This is the world's only maze that has been built out of colourful ribbons, over 50 km long in total.
  • The Glass Maze, with its see-through corridors, looks like the realm of the Snow Queen.
  • And the Museum Inside a Human will take you deep within the human body. You will peek into a giant stomach or find out why people sneeze. School kids adore this museum, because the tours around it are immensely fun.
  • The Jailbreak quest will make you feel like the Prisoner of Azkaban, clawing his way to freedom. Can you find all the secret trap doors?
  • If all these adventures have made you a tad overexcited, blow off some steam at the Smash the Dishes attraction. Don't be shy! Go on and smash 3 bottles against a wall!
  • With peace of mind thus restored, leap into the world's only swimming pool wh ere you cannot drown. It's an experience like no other!

Big Creative's museums at VDNH are the perfect venues for a birthday party you will never forget, a kindergarten graduation or a school prom. And, of course, even the most ordinary day will give you cause to celebrate if you visit any Big Creative museum. That's the key secret!

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Date of Construction, Architect

The pavilion was built in 1939. It was redesigned in 1967 by L. I. Braslavsky.

Name Changes

Before 1959: Animal Husbandry.

Current State

All-purpose interactive venue for conventions, exhibitions and entertainment events.

Schedule
Daily
10:00 — 22:00
Facilities
Wi-fi
WC
Loyalty program
Сервис аренды зарядок «Бери заряд»
Tickets price
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11 museums and attractions in the Arbat and at VDNH
RUB 1,500
All included: 11 super-awesome edutainment museums at VDNH: the Museum of Illusions (0+) — the Upside-Down City (0+) — the Ball Pit Swimming Pool (0+) — Smash the Dishes (6+) — Inside a Human (0+) — the Giant's House (0+) — the Mirror Maze (0+) — the Maze of Horror (12+) — the Ribbon Maze (0+) — the Jail Break (6+) — the Maze of Glass (0+). You can visit each museum once per ticket. The tickets are not personalised. You must simply present the ticket to enter. Children under 9 must be accompanied by adults. The ticket is valid for 1 year after purchase.
A choice of 5 museums and attractions in the Arbat and at VDNH
RUB 1,000
This ticket allows you to visit any 5 out of these super-awesome edutainment museums at VDNH: the Museum of Illusions (0+) — the Upside-Down City (0+) — the Ball Pit Swimming Pool (0+) — Smash the Dishes (6+) — Inside a Human (0+) — the Giant's House (0+) — the Mirror Maze (0+) — the Maze of Horror (12+) — the Ribbon Maze (0+) — the Jail Break (6+) — the Glass Maze (0+). You can visit each museum once per ticket. The tickets are not personalised. You must simply present the ticket to enter. Children under 9 must be accompanied by adults. The ticket is valid for 1 year after purchase.
The Upside-Down City
RUB 500
What's this?! The earth and sky have switched places! The entire city has been turned inside out. Everything is hovering in the air now: the cars in the streets, the goods on the store shelves, the café tables and even the money in the bank vault. Do you think you can snack on a pizza at an upside-down café? Or examine a patient at an upside-down hospital? Or stroll through the city square, where even the main monument has been turned upside down? How about robbing an upside-down bank? Think you have what it takes? Whatever your adventures in the Upside-Down City, you will carry the memories with you for a long time! Don't forget to grab a camera! Children under 9 must be accompanied by adults. The ticket is valid for 1 year after purchase.
A choice of 1 out of 7 museums
RUB 450
This ticket allows you to visit any out of these museums: the Museum of Illusions (0+) — Inside a Human (0+) — the Giant's House (0+) — the Mirror Maze (0+) — the Maze of Horror (12+) — the Jail Break (6+) — the Glass Maze (0+). You can visit each museum once per ticket. The tickets are not personalised. You must simply present the ticket to enter. Children under 9 must be accompanied by adults. The ticket is valid for 1 year after purchase.
A choice of 1 out of 3 museums
RUB 350
This ticket allows you to visit any out of these museums: the Ball Pit Swimming Pool (0+) — Smash the Dishes (6+) — the Ribbon Maze (0+). You can visit each museum once per ticket. The tickets are not personalised. You must simply present the ticket to enter. Children under 9 must be accompanied by adults. The ticket is valid for 1 year after purchase.
Children under 5 can enter for
free
Please have an ID ready.
Loyalty programme
Sign up to our Friends of VDNH loyalty programme for a discount on museum tickets.
Contacts

Background

The 1930s

During the 1930s, the site of the modern Pavilion No. 55 was occupied by another building, erected especially for exhibiting the nation's achievements in one of the most vital branches of agriculture: animal husbandry. That pavilion was designed by the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition's Architectural Workshop. It was laconic, spacious and snow-white in colour. Before the Exhibition of 1939, the entrance was decorated with a bas-relief by P. A. Balandin.

Post-war Reconstruction

After World War Two, as the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition was undergoing reconstruction, the pavilion's central segment (facing the Square of Mechanisation) was disassembled to make room for an ornate antechamber. Architects P. P. Revyakin, A. I. Ignatyev, A. M. Gromov and V. P. Tukanov designed a brand new main façade in the Stalin eclecticism style. The wall behind the collonade was painted a saturated orange, creating a rich contrast against the lavish stucco and the majestic white pillars, crowned with sculptured caps and an impressive ornamental cornice. The sculpted elements included haut-reliefs of animal heads, as well as plant motifs representing various types of fodder. A tall wall above the cornice, bearing sculptures of livestock farmers, completed the composition. The pavilion owed all of this splendour to the brilliant sculptors G. I. Ozolina, N. A. Kashin and G. E. Arapov. At the back of the building, rose a monument arcade facing the square. Its show ring was lined with pavilions representing different subsets of animal husbandry.

The 1960s

In 1967, as the nation was getting ready for an epic-scale expo in honour of the October Revolution's 50th anniversary, the building underwent another dramatic overhaul. The entire pavilion, except for two side walls of the 1954 structure, was completely taken apart. The building's sunken back was replaced with a spacious exhibition hall, and the lofty portico gave way to a new, modernist façade out of glass and concrete.

History of Expositions

Up until 1956, Pavilion No. 55 was dedicated to achievements in animal husbandry, the latest livestock- and poultry-rearing systems, best practices and key aspects of the sector's development. Later on, as the All-Union Industrial Exhibition began to share a venue with the Agricultural Exhibition, this building was converted into the Machine Tool Building exposition, which was eventually absorbed by the Mechanical Engineering section.

In 1959, the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition was renamed to VDNH of the USSR; Pavilion No. 55 received a new name as well—Electrification—with content to match.

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