Zachatievsky Monastery

Zachatievsky Monastery is a stauropegial convent of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Khamovniki district of Moscow, between Ostozhenka Street and the Moscow River (the geographical center of the Golden Mile concept).

Founded in the 1360s. It was closed in 1918 and reopened in 1995 with stauropegial status.

The Gate Church of the Savior Not Made by Hands, the only one that survived in Soviet times, is an architectural monument of the late 17th – early 18th centuries.

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Gate Church of the Savior Not Made by Hands. The building, designed in 1696, is the oldest preserved on the monastery’s territory. In the basement is the family tomb of the Rimsky-Korsakovs and the chapel of St. Alexis of Moscow.

The external restoration was conducted in the 1960s. At the same time, ceramic glazed tiles were restored on the dome.

The church decorates the holy (northern) gates and is made in the style of the Naryshkin baroque.

Church of the Descent of the Holy Spirit. The building consisted of a two-tier one-altar one-domed church, connected by a passage – a refectory with a two-story almshouse. The temple was made of solid brick, the lower floor of the almshouse, where the cells of the old women and the “services” were located, was stone, and the top, where the sacristy and the chambers were located, was wooden. Construction work began in 1849.

The building consisted of a two-tier one-altar one-domed church, connected by a passage – a refectory with a two-story almshouse. The temple was made of solid brick, the lower floor of the almshouse, where the cells of the old women and the “services” were located, was stone, and the top, where the sacristy and the chambers were located, was wooden.

Cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The cathedral, built in 2008-2012 on the site of the destroyed temples of the 16th-19th centuries, is in the center of the monastery territory. It has an above-ground part, a few one-story temples, and an underground level. The architect was Andrey Anisimov.

In the above-ground part is a five-domed main temple with a cross-domed vault system, including the main altar and two side aisles; a small church built on the site of a ruined 18th-century church; a refectory with two aisles. In the underground level, in the basement, fragments of the walls of the demolished monastery churches, as well as about 150 white stone tombstones of the XIV-XVI centuries over the burial places of the Bolotnikovs, Vorontsovs, Golovkins, Koshcheevs, Usoltsevs, Bratsevs and other families.

The total area of the temple is 3.8 thousand m2; the cathedral’s height to the top of the cross is 48 m.

Working hours: Mon-Fri 08:00–17:00.

Address: 2nd Zachatievsky pereulok, 2, building 2, Moscow.

Nearest metro: Park of Culture, Kropotkinskaya.

See also architecture of Moscowchurches and cathedrals of Moscow

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