Novodevichy Convent, Moscow

Novodevichy Convent tickets: is it free?

For Russians visiting on their own, yes — the grounds of this working convent are free. Foreigners are a different case: the Church Museum’s official price list has a 1,000 ₽ ticket for foreign tourists covering the grounds and the museum exhibition (500 ₽ for foreign school and university students), and the museum says entry to the grounds is paid for groups and for foreign tourists with a guide.

Whether an independent foreigner without a guide is charged at the gate isn’t spelt out, so budget 1,000 ₽ and treat anything less as a bonus. Pay in roubles: cash or a Russian bank card. Visa and Mastercard cards issued abroad have not worked in Russia since March 2022.

The museum exhibition itself is small — an exhibition on Abbess Seraphima, who revived the convent, in a 17th-century guardhouse by the Naprudnaya Tower. The museum also runs a guided walk of the grounds for 1,500 ₽ per foreign visitor, for groups of five or more, booked 2–3 days ahead.

Is Novodevichy Convent worth visiting?

Yes, if you have a second day in Moscow. It is the best-preserved monastery ensemble in the city: red-and-white walls, a 72-metre bell tower, gold domes and late-17th-century churches in the ornate “Moscow Baroque” style, all in a quiet riverside corner with few crowds compared with the Kremlin.

It is less worth it if you want interiors. The main cathedral opens only for services and the museum is small, so most of what you see is from outside. Pair it with the cemetery and Sparrow Hills and it becomes one of the best half-days in Moscow; on its own, an hour is enough.

What to see inside the walls

• Smolensk Cathedral (1524–1525) — five domes on a high base, frescoes covering every wall and a 12-metre gilded iconostasis. Sophia, her sisters and Peter the Great’s first wife Eudoxia Lopukhina are buried here.
• The bell tower — six octagonal tiers, 72 m; a seventh tier was planned but never built.
• Transfiguration gate church over the north entrance, with the Lopukhin Chambers beside it.
• Dormition Church and refectory (1685–1687) — a vast pillarless dining hall of 390 m².
• Naprudnaya Tower — by tradition the place where Sophia was held; the museum exhibition is next to it.
• St Ambrose Church and the chambers of Irina Godunova — 16th-century, among the oldest buildings here.
• Intercession gate church over the south gate, with three domes in a row.

Novodevichy Cemetery: who is buried there

The cemetery lies outside the south wall with its own entrance. Opened in 1898, it is Russia’s best-known burial ground: Anton Chekhov, Mikhail Bulgakov and Nikolai Gogol (moved here in 1931), Vladimir Mayakovsky, Sergei Prokofiev, Dmitri Shostakovich, Nikita Khrushchev, Boris Yeltsin and Mikhail Gorbachev all lie here.

Independent visitors walk in free. Guides give seasonal hours of 9:00–19:00 from May to September and 9:00–17:00 from October to April. There is a plot map at the gate; the famous graves are spread across several sections, so allow 45–60 minutes. Yeltsin’s grave is on the central alley of the newer section.

A short history

Grand Prince Vasily III founded the convent in 1524 to celebrate taking Smolensk back from Lithuania, which is why the cathedral is dedicated to the Smolensk icon of the Virgin. The name means “new maidens’ convent” — new compared with Moscow’s older convents.

Royal and noble women came here, by choice or by force. Tsar Fyodor’s widow Irina Godunova moved in in 1598; Regent Sophia, Peter the Great’s half-sister, rebuilt much of the convent in the 1680s — and was locked up here by Peter from 1689 until her death in 1704.

In 1812 Napoleon’s retreating troops tried to blow the convent up; the nuns are said to have put out the fuses. From 1934 it was a branch of the State Historical Museum. In 2010 it passed back to the Church, and nuns live and pray here today.

Novodevichy Convent vs the Kremlin vs Kolomenskoye

Do the Kremlin first. Novodevichy is the best pick for day two: calmer, cheaper and next to Sparrow Hills. Kolomenskoye suits you if you want a big riverside park.

Moscow’s churches and monasteries compared

Every church and sacred site in Moscow rated by YesGo. Tap a column heading to sort.

Nearby — add to your day

49

Sparrow Hills

Moscow, Russia

45 min · Free · 33 min walk

Yes — add to my route: Sparrow Hills

How to do it right

• Come at 9:30 on a weekday: the courtyard is nearly empty and the bell tower photographs well in morning light.
• Start from the pond, not the gate — see the whole ensemble first, then go inside.
• Chekhov, Bulgakov and Gogol are in the old part of the cemetery; ask for the plot numbers at the gate.
• Autumn is the prettiest season: gold domes over yellow trees by the ponds.
• Afterwards, walk to Luzhniki and take the cable car up to Sparrow Hills.
• Back to the centre: two metro stops from Sportivnaya to Park Kultury for Gorky Park.

Questions