Extant documents date its construction to 1524–1525; yet its lofty ground floor, magisterial proportions, and projecting central gable are typical of monastery cathedrals built at the behest of Ivan the Terrible.

The blood-red walls and crown-towers, two lofty over-the-gates churches, a refectory, and residential quarters were all designed in the Muscovite Baroque style, supposedly by a certain Peter Potapov.

An arresting slender belltower, also commissioned by tsarevna Sofia, was built in six tiers to a height of 72 metres (236 ft), making it the tallest structure in 18th-century Moscow (after the Ivan the Great Bell Tower in the Kremlin).

Vasili III, the Grand Prince of Moscow, founded the Novodevichy Convent[2] in 1524 in commemoration of his conquest of Smolensk in 1514.

Once Russian forces had retaken the convent, tsar Mikhail Fyodorovich supplied it with permanent guards (100 Streltsy in 1616, 350 soldiers in 1618).

[citation needed] In the mid-17th century, nuns from other monasteries in the Ukrainian and Belarusian lands were transferred to Novodevichy Convent, the first of whom was named Yelena Dyevochkina.

In 1724, the convent also housed a military hospital for the soldiers and officers of the Imperial Russian Army and an orphanage for female foundlings.

In 1812, Napoleon's army made an attempt to blow up the convent, but the nuns managed to save the cloister from destruction.

In another novel of his, Anna Karenina, Konstantin Lyovin (a main character) meets his future wife Kitty ice-skating near the monastery walls.

In 1943, when Stalin started to make advances to the Russian Orthodox Church during World War II, he sanctioned opening the Moscow Theological Courses at the convent.

The team also pointed out that the convent is an outstanding example of an exceptionally well preserved monastic complex, and that it integrates the political and cultural nature of the existing World Heritage site of Moscow Kremlin.

The blaze reportedly affected an area of three hundred square metres, but it was restricted to the scaffolding and did not do any damage to the historical building itself.

The press service for the Moscow cultural heritage department blamed the fire on the firm doing the restoration work.

However, Russian Deputy Culture Minister Grigory Pirumov said heat guns were not in use on the territory of the convent and the bell tower had been disconnected from the mains power supply.

Like other Moscow monasteries (notably the Danilov and the Donskoy), the Convent was coveted by the Russian nobility as a place of burial.