Novospassky Monastery

Lonely Planet review

Another 15th-century fort-monastery is one kilometre south of Taganskaya ploshchad: the New Monastery of the Saviour, or Novospassky Monastery.

The centrepiece, the Transfiguration Cathedral, was built by the imperial Romanov family in the 1640s in imitation of the Kremlin's Assumption Cathedral. Frescoes depict the history of Christianity in Russia; the Romanov family tree, which goes as far back as the Viking Prince Rurik, climbs one wall. The other church is the 1675 Intercession Church.

Under the river bank, beneath one of the monastery towers, is the site of a mass grave for thousands of Stalin's victims. At the northern end of the grounds are the brick Assumption Cathedral and an extraordinary Moscow-baroque gate tower.