Simonov Monastery

The Simonov Monastery of the Dormition was one of the largest and wealthiest monasteries of medieval Moscow, forming part of the capital's southern defensive belt. The monastery also served as a place of confinement for political opponents of the ruling authorities. Most of its buildings were destroyed during the Soviet era, and today the partially preserved complex in the Danilovsky District operates as a patriarchal metochion.

The monastery was founded in the 1370s, during the reign of Prince Dmitry Donskoy, by St. Theodore, a nephew and disciple of Sergius of Radonezh. Its name is linked to the boyar Stepan Khovrin, who took monastic vows under the name Simon and donated the land for construction. In 1379 the monastery was moved to its present site on the bank of the Moskva River, where a stone cathedral of the Dormition of the Mother of God was founded; it took 26 years to build and was consecrated in 1405. Sergius of Radonezh regarded the Simonov Monastery as an “offshoot” of the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius and stayed there during his visits to Moscow; among those who took vows or served here were Metropolitan Jonah, St. Cyril of Belozersk, and the theologian Maximus the Greek.

In the 17th century, stone walls over 800 meters long with five towers were built around the monastery — the corner Dulo Tower is considered the largest fortress tower in the history of Moscow architecture. In 1677–1680 the architects Parfyon Petrov and Osip Startsev built the New Refectory with the Church of the Tikhvin Icon in the Moscow Baroque style. In 1835–1839, a five-tiered bell tower nearly 100 meters high — one of the tallest structures in pre-revolutionary Moscow — was erected to a design by Konstantin Ton. The iconostasis of the Dormition Cathedral was painted in the early 15th century by Theophanes the Greek and Andrei Rublev.

The monastery repeatedly served as a stronghold in the defense of the capital: in 1591 it withstood a raid by the Crimean khan Kazy-Girey, and during the Time of Troubles it served as an outpost for the people's militias. In 1771, during a plague epidemic, a hospital for two thousand people was set up within its walls. On the night of January 21, 1930, by decision of the Soviet authorities, most of the buildings were blown up to clear the site for the Proletarsky District's Palace of Culture: the Dormition Cathedral, the bell tower, three gate churches, and two towers were destroyed. The southern section of the wall with three towers, the New Refectory, and outbuildings survived. The gilded 17th-century Royal Gates, removed before the cathedral's demolition, are now kept in the Hermitage.

On the site of the destroyed cathedral and the monastery necropolis, the ZIL Palace of Culture was built in 1937 to a design by the Vesnin brothers. In 1991 the surviving buildings were handed over to the Russian Orthodox Church, and in 1992 services resumed in the Church of the Tikhvin Icon. A patriarchal metochion now operates here with a parish uniting people with visual and hearing impairments, and the surviving towers and walls are listed as cultural heritage sites requiring protection.

The history of the Simonov Monastery exemplifies the dramatic fate of Moscow's monasteries in the 20th century: once one of the greatest spiritual centers of the medieval capital, it became a fragmented ensemble preserving only part of its buildings — yet its spiritual life continues to this day.