Muscovite period at the Novodevichy Convent (16th century)
Vasili III, the
Grand Prince of
Moscow, founded the Novodevichy Convent in 1524 in commemoration of his
conquest of Smolensk in 1514. The structure began as a fortress at a curve of the
Moskva River three
versts to the south-west of the
Moscow Kremlin. It became an important part of the southern defensive belt of Moscow, which had already included a number of other monasteries. Upon its founding, the Novodevichy Convent was granted 3,000
rubles and the villages of Akhabinevo and
Troparevo. Vasili's son, tsar
Ivan the Terrible (reigned 1533–1584), would later grant a number of other villages to the
convent. The Novodevichy Convent housed many ladies from the Russian royal families and
boyar clans who had been forced to take the
veil, such as Ivan the Terrible's daughter-in-law
Yelena Sheremeteva (in residence 1581–1587),
Feodor I's wife
Irina Godunova (in residence 1598–1603; she was there with her brother
Boris Godunov until he became a ruler himself),
Sofia Alekseyevna (
Peter the Great's half-sister; in residence 1689–1704),
Eudoxia Lopukhina (Peter the Great's first wife, in residence 1727–1731), and others. In 1610–1611 a
Polish unit under the command of
Aleksander Gosiewski captured the Novodevichy Convent. Once Russian forces had retaken the convent,
tsar Mikhail Fyodorovich supplied it with permanent guards (100
Streltsy in 1616, 350 soldiers in 1618). By the end of the 17th century, the Novodevichy Convent possessed 36 villages (164,215
desyatinas of land) in 27
uyezds of Russia. In 1744, it owned 14,489
peasants.
Imperial period In the mid-17th century,
nuns from other monasteries in the
Ukrainian and
Belarusian lands were transferred to Novodevichy Convent, the first of whom was named Yelena Dyevochkina. In 1721, some of the aged nuns, who renounced the
Old Believers movement, were given shelter. In 1724, the convent also housed a military hospital for the soldiers and officers of the
Imperial Russian Army and an orphanage for female
foundlings. By 1763, the convent housed 84 nuns, 35
lay sisters, and 78 sick patients and servants. Each year, the state provided the Novodevichy Convent with 1,500 rubles, 1,300 quarters of bread, and 680 rubles and 480 quarters of bread for more than 250 abandoned children. In 1812,
Napoleon's army made an attempt to blow up the convent, but the nuns managed to save the cloister from destruction. In
Tolstoy's
War and Peace, Pierre was to be executed under the convent walls. In another novel of his,
Anna Karenina, Konstantin Lyovin (a main character) meets his future wife Kitty ice-skating near the monastery walls. Indeed, the Maiden's Field (as a meadow in front of the convent came to be known) was the most popular skating-rink in 19th-century Moscow. Tolstoy himself enjoyed skating here when he lived nearby, in the district of
Khamovniki. In 1871, the Filatyev brothers donated money for a shelter-school for the orphans of "ignoble origins". Also, the convent housed two
almshouses for nuns and lay sisters. In early 1900s, the Cathedral was surveyed and restored by architect and
preservationist Ivan Mashkov. By 1917, there were 51 nuns and 53 lay sisters residing in the Novodevichy Convent.
Soviet period and beyond In 1922, the
Bolsheviks closed down the Novodevichy Convent (the cathedral was the last to be closed, in 1929) and turned it into the Museum of Women's Emancipation. By 1926, the monastery had been transformed into a history and art museum. In 1934, it became affiliated with the
State Historical Museum. Most of its facilities were turned into apartments, which spared the convent from destruction. Since 1934, the Novodevichy Convent has become a branch of the
State Historical Museum. In 1943, when
Stalin started to make advances to the
Russian Orthodox Church during
World War II, he sanctioned opening the Moscow Theological Courses at the convent. Next year the program was transformed and became the
Moscow Theological Institute.In 1944, the Transfiguration Gate Church was opened. In 1945, the Soviets returned Assumption Cathedral to the believers. The residence of the
Metropolitan of
Krutitsy and
Kolomna has been located in the Novodevichy Convent since 1980. In 1994, nuns returned to the convent, which is currently under the authority of the Metropolitan of Krutitsy and Kolomna. Some of the churches and other monastic buildings are still affiliated with the State Historical Museum. In 1995, religious services resumed in the convent on
patron saint's days.
UNESCO World Heritage Site proclamation In 2004, the Novodevichy Convent was proclaimed a
UNESCO World Heritage Site. In the UNESCO team evaluation, it was affirmed that the convent is the most outstanding example of the so-called "Moscow Baroque". Apart from its fine architecture and decorative details, the site is characterised by its town-planning values. The team also pointed out that the convent is an outstanding example of an exceptionally well preserved monastic complex, and that it integrates the political and cultural nature of the existing World Heritage site of Moscow
Kremlin. Moreover, the convent is itself closely related to Russian Orthodoxy and the Russian history of the 16th and 17th centuries.
Bell tower fire On March 15, 2015, a fire engulfed the convent's tallest bell tower, which pinnacles at a height of 72 meters. The monastery had been undergoing major repair work and was covered in scaffolding. It took firefighters almost three hours to put out the fire. The blaze reportedly affected an area of three hundred square metres, but it was restricted to the scaffolding and did not do any damage to the historical building itself. The speculated cause of the fire was a short circuit caused by heat guns used for drying the facade. The press service for the Moscow cultural heritage department blamed the fire on the firm doing the restoration work. However, Russian Deputy Culture Minister Grigory Pirumov said heat guns were not in use on the territory of the convent and the bell tower had been disconnected from the mains power supply. ==Necropolis and cemetery==