 Ivanovsky-Precursor Convent is located in Zabelin Street (former Ivanovsky or Iconny lane).
There are convincing facts that originally a men`s monastery was situated there. It was founded by Vasil III in 1533 in honour of his new-born son √ future Ivan the Terrible. The church of Ioann the Precursor and the Nikolay the Wonderer`s church inn, erected in 1657, were the first stone buildings of the convent.
The erection has been completed by 1870 after numerous demolitions and restorations of the XVIII √XIX centuries. M. D. Bykovsky worked out a project of the convent.
According to it the complex turned out a complete ensemble, surrounded by high walls with a new imposing cathedral of Ioann the Precursor in the centre and an entrance between two bell-towers. This is the only Moscow conventual building e rected in the gothic style. Widows and daughters of famous noble`s families` took the veil in the Ivanovsky Convent.
Violent confinements also took place there. For example, Princess Tarakanova, who was considered to be the daughter of Empress Yelizaveta Petrovna, languished as a prisoner within the convent for many years and died under the name Dosifeya.
The convent was also the place of confinement for Darya Saltykova - 'torturer and murderer' of her serfs. In the XIX century the convent kept schools for girls-orphans and hospitals for Moscow nuns. During the Russian-Turkish war (1877-1878) a hospital for wounded soldiers was situated within the convent. At present Bykovsky▓s distorted creation is being reconstructed. The bell-towers at the main entrance, walls, ceilings of the cathedral of Ioann the Precursor and the colonnade by the church-porch are well preserved.
District: Downtown
Address: 2, Mal. Ivanоvskiy Lane, Moscow
Underground: Kitay-gorod (Kaluzhsko-Rizhskoy linii)
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