The Novodevichy Convent was founded by Tsar Vasily III in 1524 in memory of the return of the city of Smolensk to the Russian lands. Hence the second name of the monastery - Bogoroditse-Smolensk.
The tsar prayed before the campaign to the icon of the Smolensk Mother of God and made a vow that if Smolensk was taken, he would build a new monastery near Moscow. True, after the capture of Smolensk, the tsar had another need for a monastery, he decided to hide his childless wife there. Ultimately, the king's wife ended her days in another monastery, in Suzdal; Tsar Vasily had a son, Ivan, known to us as the Terrible, from his new wife; and the new monastery for a couple of centuries saw many royal daughters and wives, forcibly tonsured into nuns.
But let's not stand at the gate, but go into it. :-)

To get to the monastery, you need to go under the gate, above which rises the Transfiguration Gate Church. 1687-1688

The Novodevichy Convent is also interesting because it was originally conceived as a fortress covering Moscow from a dangerous western direction. And yet it was a nunnery.
But how can women and soldiers be around? But no way.
The nuns lived inside the monastery, and guardhouses were arranged for the soldiers under the corner towers.
These rooms had no windows or doors inside, so the soldiers did not see the nuns and could not go to them. But when the enemy approached the monastery, the nuns were evacuated to Vologda, and the brave soldiers took up defense inside the monastery.
This is what one of these guardhouses located at the Nikolskaya Tower looks like.
As you can see, there are still windows in it, but they appeared much later, when the monastery lost its defensive value.

As I already said, in the 16-17 centuries the Novodevichy Convent became a place of tonsure for women from the royal family. Within the walls of the monastery lived the widow of the eldest son of Ivan the Terrible, Tsarevich Ivan. After the death of Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich, his widow Irina Godunova retired here with her brother Boris Godunov, the future Tsar Boris. And it was here that honest people came to ask Boris for the kingdom. The sister of Peter I, Princess Sophia, and her three sisters ended their days in the Novodevichy Convent. The first wife of Peter Evdokia Lopukhin was also imprisoned in this monastery for some time. And I haven't listed them all yet.
But, of course, the most important milestone in the history of the Novodevichy Convent is associated with the name of Princess Sophia. It was thanks to her that the ensemble of the monastery was formed and took on a modern look.
Sophia lived here even before her forced tonsure. Even though she was a queen, she was an unmarried girl. And an unmarried girl had to live either with her relatives or in a monastery. Of the older relatives, Sophia had only a stepmother - Peter's mother. It is clear that living with her was fraught, and Sophia decides to move to the Novodevichy Convent. And he begins to rebuild it, turning, in fact, into his royal residence.
Look at the decorations of the wall and the Irinskaya tower. Dovetails on the walls - a direct analogy with the Kremlin; the crowns on the tower are symbols of royal power.

Gradually the monastery turns from wooden to stone.
If we look at its layout, we will see a cross.
In the center of the cross is the Smolensk Cathedral or the Cathedral of the Icon of Our Lady of Smolensk, built simultaneously with the founding of the monastery. This is a monumental five-domed temple with paintings of the 16th and 17th centuries, with a five-tiered carved iconostasis and rare icons of the 17th century.
Unfortunately, this temple is not heated, it is summer (and it has always been), so for now it is closed and will open only at the end of May, when the really warm weather sets in.

On the eastern side of the Smolensk Cathedral, Sophia is building the Assumption Church with a refectory. 1685-1687
This temple, in which services are held all year round, was built in the Moscow baroque style.

What a marvelous tree grows in front of him.

On the north side, we see another red building - this is the Intercession Gate Church. 1687-1688 If the gates under the church were open, it would be possible to get from the territory of the monastery to the Novodevichy cemetery.

The southern end of the cross is the Transfiguration Gate Church, which we have already seen from the outside. Now let's enjoy it from the inside :-)

And finally, the western part of the cross - the Bell Tower, was also built in the Moscow baroque style. 1689-1690 Previously, the church of Saints Barlaam and Joasaph was located in the first tier of the bell tower, and the church of St. John the Theologian was located in the second. But the bell tower has preserved several bells of the 16th-17th centuries.
Let's take a closer look at her. The builders used two curious tricks in its construction.
Firstly, visually it seems that it is built of red brick, but if you look closely, you will see that the bricks are too small - the walls are specially painted in such a way as to give the bell tower lightness and openwork.
Secondly, from a distance it seems that all the tiers of the bell tower are of the same size. However, we know that the more an object is from us, the smaller it looks visually. 17th century architects we took this effect into account and in order to create the illusion of the same size of the tiers, each next tier was made significantly higher than the previous one. So the last tier exceeds the first 1.5 times. :-)

There are many more interesting buildings in the monastery.
Here, for example, are the so-called chambers of Lopukhina. 1687-1688. Sophia built these chambers for one of her sisters, then she herself lived in them for some time before she was tonsured. And later they were occupied by the first wife of Peter I Evdokia. Now this building is the residence of the Metropolitan of Krutitsy and Kolomna.
And we can admire the sundial, which still does not work in such weather.
Yes, the building is actually three-story, but the lower, service floor has long been sunk into the ground.

But in this guardhouse at the Naprudnaya Tower, Peter kept his sister Sophia. Once this guardhouse was intended for the chiefs of the garrison and therefore was the warmest and most comfortable.
They say that it was under her windows that the archers were hung, which is not entirely true, but we will return to this in another post.

And now let's look at the Ambrose Church and the refectory adjacent to it and the chambers of Irina Godunova (XVI-XVII centuries). Well, as the name implies, it was in them that the widow of Tsar Fedor Ivanovich and her brother Boris lived, who ruled the kingdom from here for some time.
Now in the chambers and the refectory there is a museum, a branch of the State Historical Museum, where we will look in a special post.

What else do we have left?
Treasury chambers of the late 17th century.

Mariinsky Chambers. 1687-1688

Pokrovskaya and Chebotarnaya tower

The hospital building of the end of the 17th century, on which there is a memorial plaque stating that an outstanding scientist, architect and restorer Baranovsky P.D. lived in this building.

And in front of the Smolensk Cathedral stands the Prokhorovs' chapel of the early 20th century.

Well, and finally, a couple of maps-schemes explaining what, where and to whom it belongs.

To be continued.

Year of inscription on the World Heritage List: 2004

The Novodevichy Convent was founded in 1524 by Prince Vasily III in honor of the greatest Orthodox shrine - the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God, and in commemoration of the liberation of Smolensk from the Poles and its return to the Russian lands. For several centuries, the monastery was closely associated with the main events and characters of the political, religious and cultural life of the Russian state: Ivan the Terrible, Boris Godunov (who was called to the throne in the monastery in 1598), Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. At the end of the XVII century. the monastery was involved in a sharp political struggle for power between Peter I and his sister Sophia. As a result, Sophia was forcibly sent to a monastery and tonsured a nun, where she died in 1704. During the Patriotic War of 1812, when the French occupied Moscow, the monastery was used to accommodate warehouses, and there was even a threat of an explosion of all its buildings.

In the XVI-XVII centuries. the monastery was one of the most revered convents in Russia, a place of tonsure as a nun for representatives of the royal dynasty, as well as the richest boyar and noble families of that time, and these women then received the right to be buried on the territory of the monastery. The necropolis, which arose here in the 16th century, subsequently expanded significantly, and prominent statesmen, war heroes, scientists, writers, etc. began to be buried here as well. Here are the family tombs of the Volkonskys and Prokhorovs, the graves of the historian S.M. Solovyov, hero of the war of 1812 D.V. Davydov, writer I.I. Lazhechnikov and others. At the beginning of the twentieth century. a new cemetery appeared behind the southern wall of the monastery, which later became the resting place for many representatives of the most elite part of Russian society. The necropolis of the Novodevichy Convent is one of the most ancient and significant historical necropolises in Russia.

The architectural ensemble of the Novodevichy Convent, which began to take shape in the first half of the 16th century, was basically completed by the end of the 17th century. It has reached our days almost unchanged. The ensemble is distinguished by its integrity and authenticity: it has not been subjected to restructuring and reconstructive intervention, there are no recreated objects here, only restoration and conservation work is being carried out. In addition, the ensemble has an exceptional town-planning significance: it was and still is an important town-planning dominant of the entire southwestern region of Moscow.

The center of the whole composition is the five-domed Smolensk Cathedral, the very first stone building in the monastery (1524−1525), built of brick with white stone details. In the interior of the temple, a unique wall painting, made by Moscow masters at the end of the 16th century, has been preserved; The main theme of the frescoes is the text of the Akathist, which sings of the Most Holy Theotokos. The style of painting gravitates toward the classical Old Russian style, with its strict canonicity of images, hierarchical figures and laconism of compositions; at the same time, this style turned out to be quite decorative. The ancient iconostasis (1683−1686) has been completely preserved - five-tiered, wooden, with gilded carvings, the brightest example of structures of this type.

With the exception of the main cathedral, all the main buildings of the monastery ensemble are designed in a single style, called "Moscow Baroque". This style is distinguished by the abundance of decorative details made of white stone on the facades of brick buildings, as well as the symmetry and grace of the buildings as a whole. It is noteworthy that the Novodevichy Convent is the only example of the ensemble embodiment of this remarkable architectural trend.

The five-tier monastery bell tower, erected in 1683-1690, is made of brick, has various white stone details, and stands out for its extremely picturesque appearance. The tiers, covered with vaults, are interconnected by intra-wall stairs, while the first tier is divided into two floors inside, and the fifth - into three floors, interconnected by wooden stairs. The bells of the 17th century have been preserved. Due to its significant height (73 m), precisely found location, beauty and proportionality, the bell tower has always played the role of the main high-rise dominant of this area of ​​Moscow.

Other important elements of a single monastic historical and architectural ensemble are the Assumption Church with a refectory chamber, the St. Ambrose Church, the Treasury, Pogrebovye, Singing, Mariinsky, Lopukhinsky chambers, the chambers of Irina Godunova and the chambers of Evdokia Miloslavskaya; it is also a hospital, archery guards, a school. In the interiors of these monastery buildings one can see brick ovens lined with polychrome tiles, vaulted ceilings and columns, ornaments and arched niches, profiled cornices and paneled doors, etc.

Located on the southwestern outskirts of the historical center of Moscow, at a strategically important point (a ford across the Moskva River), the Novodevichy Convent was at the same time a fortress: it was part of the defensive monastic “ring” formed around the city. The fortress walls with 12 towers (of which four corner ones - Nikolskaya, Naprudnaya, Setunskaya and Chebotarnaya - are round, the rest are square) were erected in the 1680s. In plan, the monastery fence resembles a rectangle (with an area of ​​5.3 hectares), one of the sides of which is facing the pond. The walls and towers are equipped with loopholes and internal galleries, in the center of the southern and northern sides there are three-span entrance gates with gate temples. Like the entire monastic ensemble, the walls and towers are made in the “Moscow baroque” style and are built of brick with a picturesque white stone finish, while the towers are decorated with easily recognizable openwork “crowns”.

The monastery ceased to exist in 1922, when a museum was created here. In 1934, this museum was transferred to the State Historical Museum as a separate branch. Nowadays, a number of expositions function here, thematic excursions are held. Modern protective statuses of the monastery ensemble: a particularly valuable object of cultural heritage of the peoples of the Russian Federation (since 1991) and an architectural monument of federal significance (since 1995). The museums contain the most valuable collections of ancient Russian paintings and icons, books (including manuscripts), fabrics, church utensils and other objects of decorative and applied art.

In August 2004, the 480th anniversary of the monastery was solemnly celebrated, as well as the 10th anniversary of the resumption of monastic life in it.

(No. 1097 Criteria: I, IV, VI)
Year of inscription on the World Heritage List: 2004

In 1524, a few kilometers southwest of the borders of Moscow at that time, in a large bend of the Moskva River, in the meadows opposite the then well-known Setun ford - the traditional crossing point on the road from Moscow, as to the west - to Smolensk and "to the Poles ”, and to the south - to Tula and the Crimea, by order of the Grand Duke Vasily III, the Novodevichy Bogoroditse-Smolensky Monastery was founded. It received such a name, as a new one - in relation to the Savvin Monastery, which already exists somewhat closer to the city, on the Maiden's Field, and according to the greatest Orthodox shrine located in it - the icon of the Smolensk Mother of God, returned to Moscow after the liberation in 1514 of Smolensk from Poles. She was dedicated erected in the Novodevichy Convent in 1523-1525. Smolensky Cathedral.

For several centuries, the monastery was closely associated with the main events and characters of the political, religious and cultural life of the Russian state: Ivan the Terrible, Boris Godunov (who was called to the throne in the monastery in 1598), Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. At the end of the XVII century. the monastery was involved in a sharp political struggle for power between Peter I and his sister Sophia. As a result, Sophia was forcibly tonsured a nun and imprisoned in a monastery, where she died in 1704. During the Patriotic War of 1812, the French, who captured Moscow, placed their headquarters and warehouses in the monastery, and even before leaving Moscow they were preparing to blow up all its buildings happily averted by one of the nuns.

In the XVI-XVII centuries. the monastery was one of the most revered convents in Russia, a place of tonsure as a nun for representatives of the royal dynasty, as well as the richest boyar and noble families of that time, and these women then received the right to be buried on the territory of the monastery. The necropolis, which arose here in the 16th century, subsequently expanded significantly, and prominent statesmen, war heroes, scientists, writers, etc. began to be buried here as well.

Unfortunately, in the 1930s, during the persecution of religion and a “selective” attitude to history, the monastery’s necropolis, which numbered about three thousand burials, was almost completely destroyed, leaving only about 100 monuments - only “those who glorified themselves in the fight against tsarism, as well as prominent figures in science, literature and art. As a result, the family tombs of the Volkonskys and Prokhorovs, the graves of the historian S.M. Solovyov, hero of the war of 1812 D.V. Davydov, writer I.I. Lazhechnikov, General A.A. Brusilova and others.

At the beginning of the twentieth century. behind the southern wall of the monastery, the "New Cemetery" arose, which later became the resting place for many representatives, officially recognized as the most elite part of modern Russian society.

The architectural ensemble of the Novodevichy Convent, which began to take shape in the first half of the 16th century. erection of the stone Smolensk Cathedral, was basically completed by the end of the 17th century. It has reached our days almost unchanged. This ensemble is distinguished by its integrity and authenticity: it has not undergone significant restructuring and reconstructive intervention, there are no reconstructed buildings and structures in it, only limited restoration and conservation work is being carried out. In addition, the ensemble has exceptional urban planning significance, playing an important role in the planning and development of this historical district of Moscow.

This unique work of ancient Russian architecture was built mainly at the end of the 17th century. in a single style, called "Moscow Baroque". It is distinguished by the abundance of decorative details made of white stone on the facades of brick buildings, as well as by the symmetry and grace of the buildings as a whole. It is noteworthy that the Novodevichy Convent is the only example of an ensemble embodiment of this remarkable architectural trend (it is curious that this embodiment falls mainly on the years of the temporary reign of Tsarevna Sophia in Russia - 1682-1689).

However, the center of the whole composition is the five-domed Smolensk Cathedral, the very first building in the monastery (1524-1525) - majestic, somewhat severe, built of brick, and with only a few details of white stone, represents the architecture of an earlier period of construction in Russia - the period when the so-called. "big Moscow cathedrals", similar to the Assumption Cathedral in the Moscow Kremlin, as conductors of the ideology of the formation of a centralized Russian state. In the interior of the temple, a unique wall painting, made by Moscow masters at the end of the 16th century, has been preserved; The main theme of the frescoes is the text of the Akathist, which sings of the Most Holy Theotokos. The style of painting gravitates toward the classical Old Russian style, with its strict canonicity of images, hierarchical figures and laconism of compositions. And only the later iconostasis (1683-1686) belongs to the "Moscow baroque" style in the cathedral - five-tiered, wooden, with gilded carvings, the brightest and fully preserved example of structures of this type in Orthodox churches and cathedrals.

The monastery bell tower, erected in 1683-1690, is made of brick, has five tiers, and is distinguished by a picturesque facade, which also has various white stone details. The tiers, covered with arches, are interconnected by stairs built into the stone walls, while the first tier is subdivided into two floors, and the fifth - into three floors, interconnected by simple wooden stairs-ladders. The bells of the 17th century have been preserved. Due to its significant height (73 m), precisely found location, beauty and proportionality, the bell tower has always played the role of a landmark in this area of ​​Moscow.

Other important elements of a single monastic historical and architectural ensemble are the Assumption Church with a refectory chamber, the St. Ambrose Church, the Treasury, Pogrebovye, Singing, Mariinsky, Lopukhinsky chambers, the chambers of Irina Godunova and the chambers of Evdokia Miloslavskaya; it is also a hospital, archery guardhouses, etc. In the interiors of these monastery buildings one can see brick ovens lined with polychrome tiles, vaulted ceilings and columns, ornaments and arched niches, profiled cornices and paneled doors, etc.

Located on the outskirts of Moscow at that time, the Novodevichy Convent was at the same time a fortress: it was part of the defensive monastic “ring” formed around the city. The fortress walls of the monastery with 12 towers (of which four corner ones - Nikolskaya, Naprudnaya, Setunskaya and Chebotarnaya - are round, the rest are square) were erected in the 1680s, instead of older ones, also made of stone, dating back to the reign of Boris Godunov. The monastery fence surrounds an area of ​​5.3 hectares, which has a rectangular shape in plan. But its northern corner is significantly cut off, with the exit of the extended diagonal section of the wall formed at the same time to a large pond. The walls and towers are equipped with loopholes and internal galleries, on the southern and northern parallel sides there are three-span entrance gates with gate temples. Like the entire monastery ensemble, the walls and towers are built of brick with a picturesque white stone finish, while the towers are decorated with easily recognizable openwork “crowns”.

The monastery ceased to exist in 1922, when a museum was created here, first - "The Time of Princess Sophia and Streltsy Rebels", then - "Liberated Women", and, finally - just "Novodevichy Convent", in 1934 transferred to as a branch, to the State Historical Museum.

Until 2010, the monastic ensemble, as a branch of the museum, was considered to have the status of: “a particularly valuable object of the cultural heritage of the peoples of the Russian Federation (since 1991), it is a monument of history and culture of federal significance (since 1995); and since 2004, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Extensive restoration work has repeatedly been carried out in it, including the restoration of damage caused to some structures by a hurricane that swept over Moscow in the early 2000s. (bell tower, crosses on the domes of the cathedral).

However, the monastery is gradually returning to religious life. Yes, back in the 1940s. religious services were restored in the Assumption refectory church of the monastery, and since the 1950s. one of the buildings housed the residence of the metropolitans of Krutitsy and Kolomna - the second persons in the hierarchy of the Russian Orthodox Church. In 1994, monastic life was resumed in the revived women's Novodevichy Bogoroditsa-Smolensky Monastery. And in 2010, in accordance with the law on the transfer of religious property to the ROC, the entire monastic complex of buildings and structures was returned to its jurisdiction. At the same time, on the basis of museum objects and the richest collections of the Novodevichy Convent, the Church Museum of the Moscow Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church was founded, which is now entrusted with the responsibility of monitoring the state of the World Heritage Site.

Add.: In May 2013, the ensemble of the Novodevichy Convent was "returned" to the number of especially valuable objects of cultural heritage of the Russian Federation, no longer as a branch of the Historical Museum, but as a separate complex transferred (returned) to the Russian Orthodox Church.

Novodevichy Convent

May 6th, 2017 09:43 am

In 1514, after unsuccessful attempts to return Smolensk captured by the Lithuanians, Grand Duke Vasily III made a vow: “If by the will of God I get my fatherland, the city of Smolensk and the lands of Smolensk, then I will put a maiden monastery in Moscow on the settlement.” Either the prince's prayer was heard in heaven, or the power of the siege artillery frightened the Lithuanians, but the next day the garrison surrendered to the mercy of the winner. The prince did not forget his vow and in 1524 founded the Great Monastery of the Most Pure Theotokos Hodegetria New Maiden Monastery in the bend of the Moskva River.

The Novodevichy Convent is dedicated to the Most Holy Theotokos Hodegetria, which in Greek means “Guide”, “Mentor”. The icon became a family shrine of the Russian princes, a symbol of continuity and dynastic closeness of Constantinople and Russia. At the beginning of the 12th century, Prince Vladimir Monomakh transferred the icon to Smolensk, where he founded the church of the Assumption of the Mother of God, in which a Christian shrine was subsequently placed. The Grand Duke summoned from Suzdal the “reverent and dean schema nun” of the Intercession Monastery, Elena (Girl), whom he revered for the holiness of her life and believed in the power of her prayers for the princely family, with whom 18 Suzdal old women arrived.

In 1598, for several months, the monastery became the royal residence: Tsarina Irina Fedorovna Godunova moved here, the nun queen continued to receive reports from the boyars and sign decrees. On February 22, 1598, in the Smolensk Cathedral, Boris Godunov accepted the election to the kingdom. During the reign of Boris Godunov, the Novodevichy Convent enjoyed its special location - the Smolensk Cathedral was completely renovated, a new iconostasis was erected, the murals were updated, “wonder-working images were overlaid with an expensive salary with stone”, extensive cells were built for the widowed nun-princess, called the Irininsky chambers, with refectory and house church in the name of John the Baptist. Wanting to turn the monastery into a fortress-outpost, Godunov erected stone walls with battlements, loopholes, galleries and many towers about 900 meters long, 13 meters high and 3 meters thick. Guard rooms were attached to each tower to accommodate up to 350 archers.

In the 17th century, the monastery became a refuge for royal persons who became victims of the struggle for the Russian throne and a strategic object for various military and political forces. With the accession of Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov, the restoration of the monastery, devastated in the Time of Troubles, began. In the 17th - early 18th centuries, the monastery owned 15,000 souls of serfs and more than 150,000 acres of land in 36 villages scattered from Onega to the Lower Volga.

From the first years of the creation of the monastery, noble persons became its inhabitants. Under Peter I, Princess Sofya Alekseevna was imprisoned in the monastery, forcibly tonsured a nun after the Streltsy rebellion. Later, the disgraced Empress Evdokia Fedorovna Lopukhina lived here.

In 1812, the French, retreating from Moscow, tried to blow up the Novodevichy Convent, but, according to legend, one of the nuns managed to pour water on the wicks brought to the powder magazines. In the first years of Soviet power, divine services were banned in the monastery, the “Museum of the Emancipation of Women” was located in the temples, and since 1934 the Novodevichy Convent became a branch of the State Historical Museum. During the Great Patriotic War, the attitude of the authorities towards religion changed, in 1944-1945 the Transfiguration Gate and Assumption Refectory Church were opened. In subsequent decades, the museum and religious components coexisted in these ancient walls, and in 2010 the Novodevichy Convent was transferred to the gratuitous, perpetual use of the Moscow Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church. Currently, restoration work is underway in the chambers, on the bell tower, towers, and fortress walls.

In the center of the Novodevichy Convent is the five-domed Smolensky Cathedral, in the interior of which fresco paintings of the 16th century have been preserved. It was built on the model of the Assumption Cathedral in the Kremlin. At the end of the 17th century, during the reign of Princess Sophia, an architectural ensemble was created around the Smolensk Cathedral, in which the cathedral turned out to be the center of the intersection of two main axes. The north-south axis is formed by two gate churches, and the west-east axis is formed by the bell tower and the refectory. According to a document from the second half of the 18th century, the author of this ensemble and the creator of most of the buildings of the monastery is the architect Pyotr Potapov. In 1689-1690, a six-tier bell tower in the Naryshkin style was erected, 72 meters high, with alternating openwork and "deaf" tiers, at the time of construction it was the tallest bell tower in Moscow after Ivan the Great. The fortress walls and towers appeared under Boris Godunov, but at the end of the 17th century they were completely rebuilt. As an exceptional specimen of the Moscow baroque, the ensemble has been placed under the protection of UNESCO and declared the property of all mankind.

The ensemble consists of dozens of buildings: the Cathedral Church of the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God (1524-1525 or 1560s), the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary with a refectory (1685-1687), a refectory at the Assumption Church (1685-1687), a bell tower (1689 -1690), the Church of the Transfiguration of the Savior over the northern gate (1687-1689), the Lopukhinsky Chambers (1687-1688), the Church of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos over the southern gate (1683-1688), the Mariinsky Chambers, the Church of St. Ambrose of Milan (the end XVI - beginning of the XVII century), the chambers of Tsarina Irina Godunova (XVII century), the Singing Chambers (1718-1726), the Treasury Chambers (the end of the XVII - the beginning of the XVIII century), the Streltsy guard at the Naprudnaya Tower (the chambers of Princess Sophia, the XVII century), Chambers of Princess Evdokia (late 17th - early 18th century), Filatievsky School (1871-1878), Hospital wards (XVII century), Streltsy guard at the Nikolskaya tower, Streltsy guard at the Chebotarny tower, Setunskaya archer guard, Funeral chambers (end of the 17th century ) , the chapel-tomb of the Prokhorovs (1911), fortress walls with twelve towers (end of the 17th century).

Learn more: N. Antushev. Historical description of the Moscow Novodevichy Convent. - Moscow, 1885.
I.G.Borisenko. Novodevichy Convent. - Moscow, 2003.
A.I. Vlasyuk. Novodevichy Convent. - Moscow: Art, 1958.
A.A. Delnov. Novodevichy necropolis and monastery. Moscow: Eksmo, 2006.

Novodevichy Convent. 1997: https://pastvu.com/p/70698

The cathedral church of the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God was built in 1524-1525 - this is the oldest church of the Novodevichy Convent, the project is attributed to the work of either Aleviz the New or the architect Nestor, who died during the construction of the cathedral. The frescoes of 1526-1530 and the iconostasis of 1683-1686 have survived to this day.

Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary with a refectory chamber (1685-1687)

The bell tower, 72 meters high, was built in 1689-1690, presumably by Yakov Bukhvostov. Chambers of Princess Evdokia at the bell tower (late 17th - early 18th centuries)

The Church of the Transfiguration of the Savior above the northern gate (Transfiguration Gate Church) was erected in 1687-1689, surrounded by a balcony-gully, this is the house church of the Metropolitan of Krutitsy and Kolomna

The Lopukhin Chambers are adjacent to the Church of the Transfiguration; they were built in 1687-1688 for Princess Ekaterina Alekseevna, and are named after the first wife of Peter I, Evdokia Lopukhina, who lived here for a short time. The oldest sundial in Moscow has been preserved on the facade.

The Church of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos over the southern gate (the Intercession Gate Church) was erected in 1683-1688. It was possible to go through the gate to the Novodevichy cemetery, but they had been locked for a long time.

The Mariinsky Chambers are adjacent to the Church of the Intercession, built in 1683-1688

The Church of St. Ambrose of Milan (Amvrosievskaya Church) was originally dedicated to John the Baptist, built in the late 16th - early 17th centuries

The chambers of Tsarina Irina Godunova, together with the refectory, are located at the St. Ambrose Church, these buildings are among the oldest in the monastery

The singing chambers were built in 1718-1726 as fraternal cells, later the viceroy and nuns-singers lived here

The Treasury Chambers were erected at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries as the abbot's cell

The Streltsy guardhouse (Chambers of Princess Sophia) of the 17th century is combined with the lower tier of the Naprudnaya Tower

The Filatiev School (1871-1878) was built at the expense of N. Filatiev for orphans of different classes. Now here is the Moscow Diocesan Administration.

Hospital wards of the 17th century with a memorial plaque in memory of the restorer Pyotr Baranovsky

Setun archery guard

Chapel-tomb of the Prokhorovs (1911)

Mausoleum of the Volkonskys (first half of the 19th century)

Tombstone of the hero of Borodino, General Vasily Timofeev

After the reconstruction of the territory in the 1930s, no more than a hundred tombstones remained in the monastery necropolis. Tsarina Evdokia Lopukhina, princesses, nuns, abbesses found their last shelter here. The names of many prominent citizens of their time are carved on the tombstones - the heroes of the Patriotic War Denis Davydov and Dmitry Volkonsky, generals Dmitry Milyutin and Alexei Brusilov, writers Mikhail Zagoskin and Alexei Pleshcheev, philosopher Vladimir Solovyov. On the south side, behind the fortress wall, there is a large Novodevichy cemetery, but that's another story.

Outside the fortress walls, in 2016, the Church of the Beheading of John the Baptist was recreated. Chronicles date the appearance of the Church of the Beheading of John the Baptist of the Moscow Novodevichy Convent to the time of the founding of the monastery, that is, to 1525. During the Napoleonic invasion, the Novodevichy Convent was occupied by the enemy army and subjected to desecration, and the Beheading Church was blown up.

His Holiness Patriarch Kirill consecrated the Church of the Beheading of John the Baptist: “The temple is always built with prayer, always built for the benefit of people, with the hope that through prayer in the temple people will live a fuller and happier life. A temple is always a shrine, it is a place of spiritual comfort for people, a place of their meeting with the Lord. May God grant that the construction of new churches continues successfully in our Mother See City and that the construction of churches continues throughout Russia - wherever there is a need for them. And we believe that this renewed face of historical Russia for many, many years - God forbid, centuries - continued to inspire people and help them turn their eyes to the sky.

There was once a cemetery near the walls of the temple, now a cenotaph has been built on this site - tombstones, under which there are no remains.

Today, in the Novodevichy Convent, a functioning monastery and museum expositions coexist, as it is not only a monument of antiquity and part of Russian history, but also a place shrouded in legends and legends.

Legends and traditions

One of them says that the Baskaks of the Golden Horde collected tribute from Russia not only in money, but also in girls. The field, where Moscow beauties said goodbye to their relatives before being sent into captivity, was called Maiden. According to the second legend, the monastery owes its name to the first abbess - Elena, nicknamed Devochkina. The third, most prosaic legend says that this name was given to distinguish it from the Kremlin Ascension (Starodevichy) Monastery, which was destroyed in 1929.

Traditions have been preserved that in difficult times the ghosts of the first abbess of the monastery, Elena, and the sisters appeared either on the church porch or on the monastery walls. They were seen crying during the plague of 1771, when the monastery became a hospital; figures of nuns appeared on the walls of the monastery in 1812, when Napoleon had just crossed the border of the Russian state; they came to the unjustly offended nuns, and once Elena and her cell attendants appeared to the Moscow archpastor and asked to intercede for the oppressed, after which an investigation was launched in the monastery.

Monastery in the fate of women

The monastery was founded by the decree of the Moscow Prince Vasily III, who vowed to found a monastery at the crossroads of the Smolensk road and the Moscow River in honor of the return of Smolensk Russia from the Polish-Lithuanian rule. True, there was another reason, already of a personal nature, that prompted the Grand Duke to begin construction. He was going to divorce Solomonia Saburova, who for 20 years of marriage did not bear him an heir, and exile her to this monastery. But Solomonia did not become a prisoner of Novodevichy - after she was tonsured, she insisted that she be sent to the Intercession Monastery in the city of Suzdal, which she patronized as the Grand Duchess.

I must say that the history of the Novodevichy Convent for centuries has always been intertwined with the tragic fate of many noble Russian women. After the death of the last Rurikovich, Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich, his widow, Tsarina Irina, sister of Boris Godunov, retired to the monastery. Before being sent into exile, the famous schismatic, noblewoman Morozova, was kept in the monastery. The rebellious Princess Sophia, having suffered a defeat in the struggle for power, was tonsured a nun at the Novodevichy Convent under the name Susanna. The objectionable wife of Peter Evdokia Lopukhina was also waiting for the fate of the nun of this monastery. In addition to persons of royal blood, objectionable boyar wives, widows, unmarried daughters and sisters went to the monastery.

History of the monastery

The appearance of the Novodevichy Convent was not always the same as it appears to us today. Initially, its walls and towers were wooden. In 1523, 230 kilograms of silver were allocated from the treasury for the construction of the monastery, and a year later it was erected. The construction of the Smolensk Cathedral was completed on May 13, 1525. Due to the haste in the construction process, the building collapsed and several artels of masons died - a total of 56 people; they are still commemorated with prayers in the monastery.

Stone walls and 12 towers of the Novodevichy Convent appeared at the end of the 16th century under Boris Godunov. They guarded the approaches to Moscow from the west. The monastery was one of the four powerful outposts around the capital, along with the Donskoy, Danilov and Simonov monasteries. But they could not protect the monastery from ruin during the Time of Troubles.

The new flowering of the monastery began with the arrival of the Romanovs. It was restored and turned into a royal pilgrimage. However, the holiness of this place did not prevent Napoleon Bonaparte from placing his battery here, and before leaving Moscow, to give the order to burn the temples. But the treasurer of the monastery, nun Sarah, managed to put out the fuses near the powder kegs. Napoleon stood for a long time on the other side of the Moskva River, waiting for a grandiose fire in Novodevichy. And then the owner of the house next to the monastery set fire to his buildings. The raging fire deceived the emperor, and the monastery was saved.

In 1922, the monastery was closed, and the Museum of the Emancipation of Women was created within its walls, which later became a branch of the Historical Museum. During the Great Patriotic War, divine services were again allowed to be held in the churches of the Novodevichy Convent, and Moscow Theological Courses and the Theological Institute were opened on its territory. Now the residence of the Metropolitan of Krutitsy and Kolomna is located in Novodevichy. Also in the monastery is an interesting exposition of the Church Museum of the Moscow Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Novodevichy, one of the oldest and most beautiful monasteries in Russia, received a certificate of inclusion in the UNESCO World Cultural and Natural Heritage List in 2004 as a masterpiece of Russian and Italian architects, stone cutters and painters. The ensemble of buildings, unique in its preservation, which was formed at the end of the 17th century, has never been rebuilt or reconstructed, and carried through the centuries the amazing beauty of Moscow Baroque architecture.

Cathedral of the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God

The Italian Aleviz Fryazin and the Russian architect Nestor built the cathedral in 1524–1525, modeled on the great Cathedral of the Dormition in the Moscow Kremlin. 70 icons decorating the iconostasis of the Smolensk Cathedral were donated by Boris Godunov. The unique fresco painting of the temple, illustrating the Akathist to the Most Holy Theotokos, tells about the difficult political situation during the construction of the cathedral. It was here that Boris Godunov agreed to reign.

Tsars Mikhail Fedorovich and Alexei Mikhailovich Romanov went to the Novodevichy Convent on pilgrimage on foot from the Kremlin. Under the walls of the monastery, after the service, pilgrims were treated; since then, a tradition of folk festivals near the walls of Novodevichy has arisen in Moscow.

Moscow baroque style

Buildings built in the second half of the 17th century form a unique and well-preserved ensemble in the then elegant and elegant style for Moscow. Behind the wall with two-horned battlements, with towers decorated with carved crowns, an ensemble of amazingly beautiful buildings opens up. Grandiose construction on the territory of the monastery unfolded during the reign of Princess Sofya Alekseevna.

Bell tower

The authorship of the project of the bell tower of the Novodevichy Convent is attributed to the serf architect Yakov Bukhvostov. Most likely, the ruler Sophia in the monastery under her care wanted to see a bell tower on the model of the Kremlin Ivan the Great. But she exceeded expectations. Five successively decreasing octagonal figures of unusually adjusted proportions, exquisitely decorated with white stone carvings, harmoniously resonate with other buildings of the monastery. The great architects Bazhenov and Beauvais considered the Novodevichy bell tower to be the most beautiful and harmonious in Russia.

The ancient Moscow street Prechistenka got its name by decree of the tsar in 1658 in honor of the icon of the Blessed Virgin, with which they walked from the Kremlin to the Novodevichy Convent.

Necropolis of the Novodevichy Convent

On the territory of the monastery necropolis, family members of princely families, prominent artists, politicians, scientists and military leaders are buried. At the end of the 19th century, the cemetery was expanded beyond the monastery. This part of the necropolis was damaged during the reconstruction in the 30s, many graves were considered "superfluous", leaving only the burial places of scientists and writers. In the Soviet years, the Novodevichy Cemetery acquired the status of the second most important necropolis after the Kremlin wall.