Novodevichy Convent
The Novodevichy Convent was founded in memory of the capture of Smolensk by Russian troops in 1514. The Convent’s cathedral dedicated to the Icon of Our Lady of Smolensk was built in 1524-1525 and rebuilt in the late 16th century. Boris Godunov received the appointment to the throne in 1598 and his sister Irina Fedorovna, the wife of Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich, took the veil in the Convent.
The Convent achieved its heyday when Peter I’s half-sister Tsarevna Sophia Alekseevna became one of its patrons. Under Sophia, the stone walls built in the 16th century were replaced with the ones that exist today which had twelve towers decorated with openwork crowns. In the same period the following structures were built: the five-domed Transfiguration Church above the northern gate (1687-1688), the three-domed Church of the Intercession of the Theotokos above the southern gate (1683-1688), the Dormition Church with a refectory (1684-1687), the Old Refectory, guardhouses at the four corner towers, cells and maintenance buildings along the entire perimeter. 1690 saw the completion of a 72-meters high six-level bell tower. Chambers were built for Peter I’s half-sisters Yekaterina and Maria. After the suppression of the Streltsy (shooters) uprising in 1698, Tsarevna Sophia was made nun in the Novodevichy Convent.
The Convent was among the monasteries regularly visited by the royal family. Peter visited it when his father Tsar Alexey Mikhailovich was alive. On September 27, 1698, almost a month prior to Sophia’s veiling, Peter came to the Convent to interrogate his sister. According to his order, several dozens of the Streltsy were executed near the walls of the Convent and five of them were hanged in front of the windows of Tsarevna’s cell. This plot was used by Ilya Repin in his painting “Tsarevna Sophia a year after her incarceration in the Novodevichy Convent”. The Tsarevna was kept in the shooters guardhouse at the Naprudnaya Tower. She also lived in the chambers of Tsarevna Maria Alekseevna which were adjacent to the gate Intercession Church from the east. According to the legend, Sophia lived in the Naprudnaya Tower, too. The Tsarevna was relatively free when living in the Convent and was visited there by her brother Tsar Ivan V and her sisters. She died on July 3, 1704 and was buried in the Smolensk Cathedral. Later, it also housed the tombs of half-sisters of Peter I Tsarevna Yekaterina and Tsarevna Eudoxia and his first wife Eudoxia Fedorovna.
In 1724, the Novodevichy Convent established an institution to receive foundlings and other female children who were taught to make lace at the Convent.
In the 19th – early 20th century, a privileged necropolis was set up on the grounds at the Convent which was partially destroyed during the Soviet time. In 1904, the Novodevichy Cemetery was laid out south of the Convent, which was a privileged burial place in the Soviet era.
In 1922, the Convent was discontinued. Since 1934, it has been a branch of the State Historical Museum. The Dormition Church was opened to hold worship services in 1945. In 1994, the monastic community was revived and in 2010, the Convent was fully transferred to the Church. The complex of the Convent is a monument of federal significance. It is also on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
