This UNESCO listed Convent was founded in 1525 to celebrate Grand Prince Vasily III's recapture of Smolensk in1514. Many aristocrats took their vows here and it became known as a nunnery of the nobility.
Most of the buildings in the Moscow Baroque style were added in 1680 by Regent Sophia, Peter the Great's half sister, ironically later imprisoned by him here in 1689. The Convent was occupied in 1812 by Napoleon's troops, and later used as a female prison before becoming a Museum of Women's Emancipation during Communism. It has been a working Convent since 1994.
