The Ryazan Historical and Architectural Museum-Reserve is one of the oldest in Russia, founded on June 15, 1884. Its collection holds 241,709 exhibits.

On the territory of the Kremlin, there are architectural monuments from the 15th century, such as the Archangel Cathedral, 17th-century buildings, the Epiphany Church, and the Church of the Holy Spirit. There is also a unique complex of civil, economic, and residential structures, including rare monuments of Moscow and Naryshkin Baroque, as well as the Assumption Cathedral, built in the late 17th century by the renowned architect Yakov Bukhvostov. Since the early 1990s, the Assumption Cathedral and some other churches of the Kremlin have been used jointly by the museum-reserve and the Russian Orthodox Church for services, but they are also accessible to tourists. The museum features a unique collection of icons created from the 13th to the 20th century.

Particular attention is drawn to the collection of weapons and armor from the 14th to the 20th centuries, which includes a chain mail that, according to legend, belonged to Grand Duke Oleg of Ryazan. The collection of manuscripts and early printed books contains significant historical and artistic monuments, such as a handwritten Gospel and Psalter from the 15th century with a record of the founding of Pereyaslavl-Ryazansky. It also houses a 1575 Gospel printed by Pyotr Mstislavets, a companion of Ivan Fedorov, a copy of the first Russian mathematics textbook, and much more.

The exhibition includes collections of porcelain, glass, and ceramics, old Ryazan treasures, masterpieces of ancient Russian jewelry art from the pre-Mongol period, wooden sculptures, as well as items from rich museum collections in the fields of ethnography, archaeology, memorial, and natural sciences. A significant part of the collection consists of archaeological finds from the Stone Age, Bronze Age, early Iron Age, and the period of Finno-Ugric and pre-Slavic settlement of the Ryazan region.

The reserve features a unique museum-theater "When Things Spoke," offers tours along various tourist routes in the Ryazan region, and a variety of animation programs.