Moscow museums · Science and nature
Science and nature · since 1951
MSU Botanical Garden
Botanical Garden of Moscow University
The garden was laid out in 1951 together with the new university buildings on the Lenin Hills, and it is kept as a collection: every holding has its name, its count of varieties and its year. The flowering part by the gate is open to walk through on your own — lilacs, irises, roses, peonies, perennials. There are more than two hundred and fifty varieties of lilac here and about seven hundred irises; the tree peonies were bred in the university itself. One comes here for the fact that everything has a name and a provenance.
Founded
1951
Today
10:00–20:00
What to see
Lilacs: more than two hundred and fifty varieties, Russian and foreign; the display plot was laid out in 1974. Irises — about seven hundred, from bearded to bulbous. Roses, more than two hundred varieties. Peonies, more than three hundred, among them tree peonies bred in the university itself. Daylilies, about two hundred varieties, from the old ones to the present.
Minimum route
An hour for the flowering part. Everything open lies in the first stretch from the gate: lilacs, irises, roses, perennials. If you have another hour, take a tour — otherwise the rock garden and the arboretum stay behind the fence.
Reference
About the museum
The garden of Moscow University on the Lenin Hills was laid out in 1951 together with the new university buildings. It is a teaching and research collection: the holdings are kept by curators, the plants are determined and recorded, and every collection carries the year it was planted. The part by the gate is open to walk through on your own; the rest is shown on a guided tour, by timetable.
Good to know
Not all of the grounds are open on your own: the ticket admits you to the flowering part by the gate. The rock garden and the arboretum are shown on a guided tour only, by timetable.
Getting in
How to get there
The nearest metro is Universitet, about twenty minutes on foot from there. The Garden gives the coordinates of its gate itself: 55.705305, 37.523554. To drive across the university grounds you need a free pass, issued on the Garden’s website; parking at the gate is free.
Opening timeschecked on 20 August 2026, the museum website
opens today at 10:00
| Mon–Sun today | 10:00–20:00 |
From November to mid-April the Garden is closed for the winter. It is open from 15 April to 31 October, every day from ten in the morning, and the closing hour moves with the season: until 21:00 in May and July, 20:00 in August, 19:30 in September, 18:00 in October. Admission stops half an hour before closing.
Tickets
When to go
Lilacs flower in May, irises at the turn of May and June, peonies in June, roses from late June into the autumn. From November to mid-April the Garden is closed.
Contacts
Of interest to children
There is plenty for a child to look at, but this is a garden: you may not walk on the lawns, and the Garden asks specially that small children be watched. A pram goes through the open part; prams are not allowed on a guided tour.
Access for visitors with limited mobility
The museum — not checked. Not established. The Garden writes about prams and says nothing about access for people with reduced mobility; we shall ask by letter.
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