For more than 600 years, the NovodevichyMonastyr has been one of Moscow's most coveted and peaceful of religious retreats.
Its cloisters have survived rebellious royalty, invading armies and even the anti-religious Soviet era, despite being turned into a museum before being returned to its spiritual existence after the Second World War.
Its cemetery is the last resting place of many Russian notables, including writers, poets and politicians, while its five-domed Cathedral of the Virgin of Smolensk is a stunning landmark on the Moscow River.
Today the monastery survives virtually unchanged since the 17 th century, its 15 buildings and golden domes in walled surroundings. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, described as "an example of the highest accomplishments of Russian architecture with rich interiors and an important collection of paintings and artefacts".
Tsar Vasily IIII founded the Novodevichy Convent in 1524 to mark the capture of Smolensk from Lithuania and while it was always a religious institution, the convent was also a fortress because of its strategic location on the southern edge of the city.
A favourite destination for ladies of noble birth, the convent was also the place to which rebellious royal women such as Peter the Great's half-sister and first wife were despatched when they proved too troublesome.
While little is left of the original cloisters, what does remain dates from the 1680s when the Regent Sofia - later confined within its walls by Peter the Great - ordered that it be rebuilt.
Napoleon had demanded that the convent be destroyed during his march on Moscow but legend has it that a nun managed to extinguish the explosives before they ignited.
The building also survived the destruction that followed the 1917 Revolution before the ruling Bolsheviks closed it down as a religious retreat in 1922 and turned it into the Museum of Women's Emancipation. It then became a history and art museum.
Stalin rewarded the Russian Orthodox Church for its support during the Second World War by returning the Cathedral and convent to it in 1945, and the church began to restore the building in the Sixties while a community of nuns was also re-established there who remain to this day.
Today the monastery is still officially a museum containing rare Russian paintings, woodwork, ceramics, fabrics and embroidery. Its main attraction is the Cathedral of the Virgin of Smolensk, which contains an iconostasis of 84 wooden columns and icons from the 16 th and 17 th centuries.
A 236ft belfry, topped by six ornately decorated tiers and topped by a gilded dome, towers over the convent's eastern wall and can be seen for miles.
Many sightseers are also keen to explore the grounds of its cemetery, the last resting place of the likes of Anton Chekhov, Dmitri Shostakovich, Nikita Khrushchev and Boris Yeltsin among thousands of other Russian notables. The cemetery, with its small chapels and monumental sculptures is actually Moscow's third most popular tourist attraction.
And winter visitors can join Muscovites as they trek to the nearby Novodevichy Pond for winter skating and sledging.
