Set beside the Moskva River in southwestern Moscow, the Novodevichy Convent brings together the quiet of a religious enclosure and the scale of a fortress. Its brick walls and towers once guarded a southern approach to the city; within them stand churches, chapels, residential buildings and service quarters. The complex is still a religious place, while its historic architecture and collections are also presented through museum visits.
Grand Prince Vasily III founded the convent in the 1520s, after the return of Smolensk to Muscovy. The oldest major building, the Cathedral of the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God, dates to 1524–1525. The convent developed in stages, and its late-seventeenth-century additions became a leading expression of Moscow Baroque, with richly shaped façades and towers that contrast with the older cathedral.
