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This city which sits on Moscow's outskirts has everything a modern urban powerhouse could ask for.

Grand but imposing buildings tower over vast manicured parks, glamorous shops line the streets, and long queues of traffic tail through the city.

There's also an impressive rail system, a beach and a gothic cathedral.

But Moscow shouldn't feel threatened, as this metropolis is only 55 square metres big.

It's also made entirely out of Lego.

On display at a Lego museum in Zvenigorod, its founders claim it's the biggest Lego city in the country.

"Each house is a masterpiece of architecture, not only outside, but also inside. Inside there are toilets, a bathtub, a shower, cribs, a pin-pong table, a billiard table, there are even such attributes of our life as, for example, a real Lego chandelier," says Timur Murtazin, who founded the Lego museum.

The museum first opened in 2019, occupying a small space of only 70 square metres, but quickly it expanded to 350 square meters.

And there's an incredible amount of work that's gone in to the display.

Some of the buildings are not simply Lego sets, they were designed and created from scratch by enthusiasts.

The gothic cathedral is made up of an astonishing 22,000 parts weighing a total of 20 kilograms.

Some of pieces date right back to Timur's childhood, when he started building pieces at only 6-years-old.

"Since childhood, from 6-7-years-old, I had a rule, to assemble it once, and to never disassemble, and not to modify. I still adhere to it, so, all sets were assembled once, and have retained that stunning brilliance of one assembly," he says.

Timur is especially proud of the gift sets in the museum that were originally given by Lego to their own employees.

Apparently it's a common ritual of the company to distribute sets to their staff periodically.

The sets are considered rare finds and Timur is hopeful to get a full collection of them.

The oldest exhibits are boxes from the 1960s and 1970s that stay unpacked.

"We have a main rule in the museum, that we only buy new sets, sealed, to preserve their amazing brilliance, and complete newness, so to say. We open these seals ourselves, as it is very important for us," says Murtazin.

There are over 800 sets in the collection.

A replica of the Taj Mahal used to be the biggest Lego set in terms of number of parts – almost 6,000.

The replica of Rome's Colosseum consists of over 9,000 parts and is currently the second biggest Lego set.

His passion and meticulousness is now shared by his wife Asya too.

"I was not a particular fan of Lego before we met, I was quite neutral about it, but when we met, he (my husband) really showed me that Lego can be interesting not only for children, but also for adults. I became interested in studying the history of the company, in assembling, I love it now, at some point it was my kind of meditation," says Asya Borisova.

This idea may explain why the Danish toymaker has achieved such enduring international appeal.

It celebrates its 90th birthday in 2022 and although sales are healthy, the company has had to navigate choppy waters.

In 2003 and 2004 the company reported a series of heavy net losses and was forced to restrategise, focusing its efforts on overhauling its design team.

People with a life-long passion for Lego were recruited and given creative control of new product launches.

Adult fans like Timur were highly valued as they had literally grown up with the product.

Eventually the company made its way back to profits, and in 2020, while many retailers struggled, Lego reported a sales increase of over 20% in 2020.

The company says it's currently pursuing plans to open 120 new stores worldwide.

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