Ostankino TV tower. Height, history, facts, photos, excursions for schoolchildren, observation deck, museum. Address, how to get there by metro

Anyone can visit the Ostankino Tower in Moscow. Introductory walks for residents and guests of the city are carried out daily. The excursions last 60 minutes, the groups are small – up to 70 people. We recommend booking the tour and tickets to the TV tower online in advance. The observation deck in Ostankino is open all year round, but during the winter months the opening hours should be confirmed. The administration is not responsible for weather conditions that prevent viewing of the panorama.

You should arrive at the site 45 minutes before the start of the excursion program.
To purchase a ticket at the box office, you will need a government document with a photo. Give the cashier a passport, driver's license or birth certificate if the visitor is a child under 14 years old. After payment at the box office, you will be given a plastic card indicating your name and ticket number.
If the pass was booked and paid for online, you must present it in printed form or take a photo of the image on your phone, and then present it at the checkout. It is important that the name and ticket number are clearly visible in the photo.

Is it possible to climb the Ostankino Tower without a guided tour?

According to the rules of the TV tower, you can only get here with a ticket purchased at the box office or excursion agencies. You can also go up to the observation deck of the Ostankino TV Tower and look into the restaurant complex only with a ticket. Therefore, it is not possible to enter the complex for free or on your own.

How to get on an excursion to Ostankino

Tickets to visit the attraction can be purchased at the box office or on the official website. If you do not want to waste time in line, and also want to be accompanied by the best guides, we recommend booking tickets on the Sputnik website. You can easily and quickly book excursions online, as well as choose a group or individual tour format. Prices for excursions for 2021 start at 1,200 rubles per adult visitor. Benefits are provided for children, students and pensioners.

How can you visit the TV tower without a guide?

You can walk around Ostankino without a guide. To do this, you also need to purchase tickets at the box office. Their cost will be 900 rubles for an adult visitor and 600 rubles for schoolchildren, students and pensioners on weekdays from 10:00 to 11:00. Prices for sessions held from 12:00 are slightly higher - 1200 and 800 rubles, respectively.

By car

A short path passes through Mira Avenue to the street. Academician Korolev. But it is better not to enter from the main entrance due to the large number of traffic jams. If you are leaving from Dmitrovskoye Highway (Butyrskaya Street), then the route goes along the street. Rustaveli. We leave for Sheremetyevskaya, follow Argunovskaya to Academician Korolev Street. Another option is to drive along Altufevskoye Highway, which smoothly flows into Botanicheskaya Street. On the left along the road you will see Ostankino Park and other attractions.

GPS coordinates of the Ostankino Tower: 55.8199081 north latitude, 37.6116028 east longitude. The navigator will indicate the shortest route and allow you to save travel time by avoiding road sections under repair and traffic jams.

Convenient free ground parking for 500 spaces is located near the television center. On the side of Novomoskovskaya Street there is surface paid parking for 15 spaces.

Options for visiting the Ostankino TV tower and observation platforms

All excursions to Ostankino are conducted along two routes:

The first option involves climbing to the main observation deck, located at an altitude of 337 meters. It is open to visitors all year round. If you wish, you can continue your walk through the 7th Heaven restaurant, which occupies three levels of the TV tower. And finally, visit the open observation deck at 340 meters. This excursion is conducted without a guide.
The second route includes a full introduction to the architectural features, construction history, purpose and other interesting facts related to the Ostankino TV tower. With a professional guide you will ascend to the technical floor from the island. Then you will visit the balcony where the weather equipment is located. After which you will visit two observation platforms, look at the exhibitions and stroll around the restaurant.

Ascent to observation platforms and floors in Ostankino is carried out by high-speed elevator. Interestingly, its speed is 7 meters per second. In case of strong wind it decreases. And in rare situations of severe bad weather, elevator operation may be suspended.

Open area

From the closed area a small staircase leads to an open area three meters above. This part of the Ostankino TV tower operates from the second ten days of April to the second ten days of October.

Guests find themselves at a colossal height. In cloudy weather, visitors feel as if they can literally touch the sky with their hands. The entire perimeter of the site is fenced with a special fence: this is a necessary safety measure taking into account the height and wind.

From the “balcony” there is a beautiful view of the nearby surroundings, the center of Moscow, VDNKh and the Ostankino estate.

Visiting rules

For safety reasons, Ostankino has a number of rules that you should definitely read before visiting the attraction. Otherwise, you may not get to the TV tower. Here are the main ones:

To get to the TV tower, you need to have an identity document.
Children under 6 years old are not allowed to visit Ostankino. Teenagers under 14 years of age are allowed to climb the TV tower only if accompanied by an adult.
Persons who belong to groups with limited mobility are not allowed into Ostankino. This category includes citizens in wheelchairs, crutches and using other mobility aids.
Professional video and photography in all locations of the TV tower is prohibited. The ban on amateur photography applies only at checkpoints.

History, description of the Ostankino TV tower

The Ostankino TV Tower, whose height is amazing to this day, is a monument to the greatest Soviet era. Conventionally, its history can be divided into several important parts: design, construction, fire, and the present.

Design stage

Built in the late 30s of the 20th century, the Moscow Television Center broadcast in the city of the Moscow Region. However, it did not have sufficient power to broadcast throughout the country. And in 1953, it was proposed to build a television center in the capital with many channels, a transmitting station, a tower antenna and about two dozen studios.

The height of the tower was supposed to be about 500 m , which would allow it to provide solid and uninterrupted reception both in the Moscow region and throughout the country. The project was approved by A. Puzin, and later he presented it to Khrushchev. Already in 1955 it was decided to build a center. At the beginning of 1956 In the Cheryomushki zone, space has been provided for construction.

During the research, it was found that the soil was unsuitable for construction.

Afterwards, several sites were considered, and the choice was made on the territory of the Ostankino nursery. Based on the results of a competition held throughout the entire Soviet Union, the optimal option proposed by the Kyiv Design Institute was chosen.

His employees proposed a project with an openwork metal tower, reminiscent of the Eiffel, but N. Nikitin proposed building it from concrete. He prepared his project, which was later approved by all mandatory authorities.

Construction phase

Construction of the tower began in the mid-1960s, when the project had not yet been finally approved. Almost a year later, it was decided to suspend the project due to doubts about the foundation. After which changes were made to increase the length and depth of its location, in addition to this, the supporting structure was strengthened.

Only on March 22, 1963, the final design of the tower was approved, with the latest changes, which allowed construction work to resume. The Ostankino TV tower, whose height was supposed to be 505 m, due to the amendments made, was now built at a height of 540 m (including the flagpole). At the base of the tower there is an arch, and above it a glazed cylinder.

At the top of the cone there were portholes, giving the tower the appearance of a rocket. At an altitude of 325 to 360 m, an expansion of the area was built into the tower to accommodate an observation deck, a restaurant (three floors high) and equipment in this part.

The balconies and the trunk of the TV tower itself were placed in:

equipment for portable television stations;
meteorological complex;
equipment for radio relay lines;
intelligence facilities;
radiotelephone communication equipment.

The grand opening of the Ostankino Tower, scheduled for November 1967, could not take place, since not all work was completed.

It was decided to send the first television signal from the new tower on November 4, and on the 5th of the same month to endorse the act that it was possible to begin operating the first part of the Hardware-Studio Complex, including the tower.

The second part was put into operation only on December 26, 1968. The year 1969 was marked by the opening of a restaurant and an observation deck. The Ostankino TV Tower, whose height consists of 45 floors, turned out to be the tallest building in the whole world at that time.

2000 fire

A severe fire occurred on August 27, 2000, due to a fire due to overvoltage of high-frequency cables located at a level of more than 400 m. The fire quickly spread along the entire trunk of the tower and by the end of the day engulfed 320 m of the building, reaching a height of 80 m. Firefighters extinguished the fire within 24 hours, and only in the evening of August 28, 2000, they managed to control the fire.

The fire damaged the communications system and power supply system, destroyed 3 floors of the television tower, and rendered 121 stressed steel ropes unusable. During the fire, elevators and their supporting structures collapsed, resulting in the death of three people. The broadcasting of several television channels broadcasting in Moscow and the region was temporarily interrupted. The broadcasts of some channels were combined.

Programs had to be transferred to other channels. The canals were restored on September 5, 2000, but the reconstruction of the tower continued until 2007. Excursions to the tower resumed only in 2009, and the observation deck began operating two years later - in 2011. The restaurant, located in the tower, began accepting visitors only in 2021.

Ostankino today

Today the tower:

active participant in international cooperation processes;
founding member of the World Federation of Tall Towers, created in 1989;
maintains relationships with high-rise buildings all over the world, and this allows you to keep abreast of modern innovations and apply them in your activities;
Many modern digital broadcasting technologies are being introduced into the operation of the television tower.

The tower is a reinforced concrete pipe that is compressed by steel cables. Ostankino consists of a base and a mast weighing 55,000 tons. The main equipment occupies an area of 16 floors in the lower part of the building. Transformers, pumps that supply water, and other equipment are located on 4 levels above the observation deck.

The total usable area of the premises is 15,000 m2. Four elevators (out of 7 available) in the tower are high-speed.

There are 3 observation platforms for visitors at Ostankino: 2 closed and one open. At an altitude of 340 m there is a main closed observation deck with a glass floor and a viewing radius of ≈ 60 km. Below, at an altitude of 85 m, there is a second observation deck. Those interested can visit the revolving restaurant in the tower.

How the Ostankino TV tower works in Moscow

You can visit the Ostankino Tower and its observation decks any day of the week. From Monday to Thursday it is open to visitors from 10:00 to 23:00. On Friday, Saturday and Sunday, the opening hours of the attraction are from 10:00 to 23:00. The ticket office is open from 9:15 to 21:55 any day. Every third Monday of the month is a sanitary day.

If after an excursion to Ostankino you decide to spend time at the 7 Sky restaurant complex, then please note that its schedule is slightly different. The coffee shop, located at an altitude of 334 meters, is open to guests from 10:30 to 22:00 from Monday to Thursday and from 10:30 to 23:30 on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Visiting hours for the cafe, whose mark is at level 331 meters, are as follows: from Monday to Thursday - 11:30 - 23:00, Friday, Saturday, Sunday - 11:30 - 24:00. The restaurant with panoramic views, towering 328 meters above the city, is open on Monday - Thursday from 12:00 to 23:00, and on Friday and weekends from 12:00 to 24:00. At the same time, the kitchen’s opening hours on any day of the week are until 22:30.

Before visiting, we recommend checking the opening hours on the official Ostankino website, where you can also book a table in advance.

How to get there by metro and monorail

When planning a trip to Ostankino by metro, depending on your location, you need to determine the most convenient line and transfer points.

VDNKh is the nearest metro station

The fastest way to get to the TV tower is from the VDNH station. The distance to Ostankino is about 3 kilometers. If you walk, it will take 30-40 minutes. Public transport will take you in 10-15 minutes:

Trolleybuses No. 36, No. 73 to the stop “Ulitsa Akademika Korolev”;
Buses No. 13, No. 15 to the stop “Excursion complex TV tower”.
Monorail from Vystavochny station. Next, walk a little to the entrance from Novomoskovskaya Street.

The monorail is part of the Moscow metro, operating since 2004. The monorail, raised above busy transport lines, allows you to quickly get from the Timiryazevskaya metro station to the Sergei Eisenstein Street stop.

The metro and monorail stations are not combined in technical terms: to go from the metro to the departure point of the monorail cars, you will need to go outside and go up to the overpass along which the monorail train travels. It is important to keep in mind that the first trains start running at 8 am but end at 8:15 pm. Therefore, it will not be possible to travel by monorail after 8 pm.

From Alekseevskaya station

From Alekseevskaya metro station to the Ulitsa Akademika Korolev stop there are buses No. 561 and No. 379, minibus No. 61 and trolleybuses No. 9, 37. Access to the ticket office is from Novomoskovskaya Street.

From metro station "Dmitrovskaya"

From the station, crossing the road, you will find yourself at the “Staroalekseevskaya Street” stop. Wait for the bus following route: 15; T 13; 85; T 73; T 36. You can also take trolleybus 37 and get to the stop. "Akademika Korolev Street". Ostankino is only 360 meters away, or a 10-minute walk. The entire journey from the station is 38 minutes.

From Maryina Roshcha station

From the Maryina Roshcha metro station, buses No. 13, No. 15 and No. 24 go to the Ostankino TV Tower. You need to stop at the “Excursion Building of the TV Tower”, and then walk in a few minutes to the entrance from Novomoskovskaya.

From "Vladykino"

You can get to Ostankino Pond by bus No. 24, 85 and M 9, and walk from the stop.