Wolfgang Krisai on Moscow.

The tallest structure in Russia for almost 400 years, the Ivan the Great Bell Tower rises 81 meters above the Kremlin’s Cathedral Square, its gilt dome still as much of a Moscow landmark as ever. “This was one of my first stops during a weeklong visit to the Russian capital last summer,” recalls Austrian high school art teacher Wolfgang Krisai, an inveterate travel sketcher. “The tower and its adjacent four-story belfry are magnificent to behold and, if you’re there on a church holiday, to hear: together they house 21 bells, including the massive Great Assumption bell, cast from 65 tons of bronze in the early 1800s. But the Kremlin is a busy place, and a lot of people stopped to have a look at what I was doing and to take a picture of the sketch. For a calmer but equally sketch-worthy monument, I’d recommend the Martha and Mary Convent, a 10-minute taxi ride south across the Moskva River. The garden behind it is an oasis of quiet in the city.”