In the 15th and 16th centuries, the monastery extended its commercial activities, becoming an economic and political center of the White Sea region.

Together with the Sumskoy and Kemsky stockades, the Solovetsky Monastery served as an important frontier fortress with dozens of cannons and a strong garrison.

Between the 16th and the early 20th centuries, the monastery was also a place of exile for the opponents of autocracy and official Orthodoxy and a center of Christianization in the north of Russia.

The monastery garden also had some exotic flora, such as the Tibetan wild roses presented to the monks by Agvan Dorzhiev, a Lama.

The wall incorporates 7 gates and 8 towers (built in 1584–1594 by an architect named Trifon), made mainly of huge boulders up to several tonnes of weight.

They are in turn surrounded by multiple household buildings and living quarters, including a refectory (a 500 m² chamber) with the Uspensky Cathedral (built in 1552–1557), Preobrazhensky Cathedral (1556–1564), Church of Annunciation (1596–1601), stone chambers (1615), watermill (early 17th century), bell tower (1777), and Church of Nicholas (1834).

In Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, the monastery appears as a location for a possible final mission.