Novospassky Monastery


Novospassky Monastery is one of the Russian Orthodox Church fortified monasteries surrounding Moscow from the south-east.
The abbey traces its history back to Moscow's first monastery established in the early 14th century at the location where the Danilov Monastery now stands. The Saviour Church in the Kremlin was its original katholikon. Upon its removal to the left bank of the Moskva River in 1491, the abbey was renamed the New Saviour, to distinguish it from the older one in the Kremlin.
The monastery was patronized by Andrei Kobyla's descendants, including the Sheremetyev and Romanov boyars, and served as their burial vault. Among the last Romanovs buried in the monastery were Xenia Shestova, Princess Tarakanova and Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia.
In 1571 and 1591, the wooden citadel withstood repeated attacks of Crimean Tatars.
Upon the Romanovs' ascension to the Moscovy throne, Michael of Russia completely rebuilt their family shrine in the 1640s. Apart from the huge 18th-century bell-tower and the Sheremetev sepulchre in the church of the Sign, all other buildings date from that period. They include:
During the Soviet years, the monastery was converted into a prison, then into a police drunk tank. In the 1970s it was assigned to an art restoration institute, and finally returned to the Russian Orthodox church in 1991.