10 best attractions in Eastern Europe (continued)

7. Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia. 3 110 000 visitors annually
The State Tretyakov Gallery is the largest museum of fine arts in Moscow and the largest repository of Russian fine art in the world. The History of the Tretyakov Gallery began in 1856, when Russia's famous businessman and philanthropist Pavel Tretyakov acquired the first works of Russian artists "Temptation" of N. Schilder and "Skirmish with Finnish smugglers" of V. Khudyakov. The works were purchased in order to create a collection that would later become a museum of national art: "For me, who truly and passionately loves art, there is no better wishes than how to put the beginning of the everyone accessible public repository of Fine Arts, which will give many benefits and pleasure to all people. In 1874 the maecenas has founded the building of the gallery that was opened to public in 1881. In 1892 Tretyakov gave his priceless collection together with the building of an existing museum to the Russian nation. The facade of the present Tretyakov Gallery to the south of the Kremlin was developed by the famous Russian painter Vasnetsov in the original style of Russian fairy tales. Modern collection of the gallery contains more than 130 000 exhibits, including such magnificent specimens as "Trinity" of Andrei Rublev, "Black Square" of Kazimir Malevich and the "Composition VII» of Vasily Kandinsky.

8. The Golden Ring. Russia. 2 996 000 visitors annually.
The famous Golden Ring is a series of tourist routes passing through the old cities to the north-east of Russia's capital Moscow. The cities presented at the Golden ring are the most important in Russia's history and kept a lot of unique monuments of history, culture and architecture of Russia’s 12-18 centuries, including Kremlins, monasteries, cathedrals and churches. The Golden Ring consists of such eight major cities as Sergiev Posad, Pereslavl-Zaleski, Rostov Veliky, Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Ivanovo, Suzdal and Vladimir. It the list of the cities of the Golden Ring are also often included such well-known Russian centers as Alexandrov, Bogoliubovo, Gorohovets, Gus-Khrustalnyi, Kalyazin, Kideksha, Moscow, Murom, Palekh, Ples, Rybinsk, Tutaev, Uglich, Yuriev-Polskiy and Shuya. The cities of the Golden Ring are among the most picturesque in Russia and allow travelers to get acquainted with the sights of ancient Russia at any time of the year.