Leo Tolstoy's Museum, Literary museum in Khamovniki District, Moscow, Russia

Leo Tolstoy's Museum is a wooden house in the Khamovniki District of Moscow where the writer lived with his family for nearly two decades. The two-storey building sits in a garden and still holds the original furniture, manuscripts, photographs, and personal objects from his time there.

Tolstoy bought the house in 1882 and lived there until 1901, a period during which he wrote some of his most widely read works. After his death, the property was turned into a public museum in 1920, making it one of the first writer's house museums in Soviet Russia.

The museum keeps the name Khamovniki from the weavers' quarter founded under Mikhail Romanov, and the Tolstoy family's daily life fills the house: the dining room, the children's rooms and the governesses' quarters on the ground floor, the drawing rooms with family portraits and a grand piano above. In the wooden wing Sofia Tolstoy ran the publishing office for her husband's works, where books were packed and mailed.

The museum is within walking distance of a metro station in a residential part of Moscow, which makes it easy to reach on foot. Some rooms may be closed on certain days, so it is worth checking ahead before your visit.

The gate is topped with the Tolstoy family coat of arms, and beside it stand stone bollards where cab drivers tied their horses. A wooden stuffed bear stands before the museum entrance; Jane and Stephen Hawking remembered it from their 1973 visit. The garden, which all the main rooms face, holds a summerhouse, a carriage shed and a wooden wing where Sofya Tolstaya ran the publishing office for her husband's works.