 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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