Tserkov' Tikhvinskoy Ikony Bozhiyey Materi Simonova Monastyrya

Early Moscow Baroque at Its Finest

The building you see today was constructed in 1677 on the foundations of an older refectory dating to 1485. Two architects shaped it: Parfen Petrov began the work, but after the patrons found the result too old-fashioned, Osip Stantsev — a master of late-seventeenth-century Moscow architecture — reworked the design. The result is considered the first baroque church in Moscow.↗↗↗

The style is Naryshkin Baroque (also called Moscow Baroque or patterned style): carved white-stone window surrounds, elegant columns, complex shaped gables, ornamental portals, and balustrade parapets that set it apart from the heavier, more traditional Muscovite architecture that preceded it. The three-story structure combined a vast dining hall below, the church above, and service rooms around the perimeter. A west wing added in 1680 housed personal chambers for Tsar Feodor Alexeyevich, who commissioned the whole project and enjoyed staying at Simonov.↗↗

Originally the church was consecrated to St. Sergius of Radonezh. In 1840 it was renamed in honor of the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God — the famous icon that St. Sergius reportedly used to bless Dmitry Donskoy before the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380 — and two-story side chapels were added to the eastern corners.↗↗

A watchtower rises above the west porch, and from its upper level visitors can catch views over the industrial district that replaced so much of the monastery grounds. The building is a federal cultural heritage site undergoing ongoing restoration.↗↗

A Living Community for the Deaf

In 1991 the church was returned to the Russian Orthodox Church and handed to the first and, at that time, only Orthodox community for deaf, hard-of-hearing, and blind-deaf believers in Russia. Liturgical services resumed in the mid-1990s and are conducted simultaneously in spoken voice and Russian sign language, without choir accompaniment — a practice that makes the worship experience visually extraordinary.↗↗

The parish has grown well beyond a simple place of worship. It hosts a Sunday school, a youth group, a sign-language song and performance ensemble, and regular spiritual talks for hearing-impaired and visually impaired believers. The community has also become a training hub for professional Russian sign-language interpreters. Recovery support groups for people dealing with alcohol and drug addiction meet on the grounds.↗↗

Visiting the Monastery Remains

Every Sunday at 12:00, a guided excursion leads visitors through the surviving ensemble: the Tikhvin church, the fortress wall, the Dulo, Kuznechnaya, and Solevaya towers, and the old storage building known as the Sushilo. The guide brings to life seven centuries of monastic history, military defense, imperial patronage, and destruction — a compelling narrative for anyone interested in Moscow's layered past.↗↗

The church maintains venerated icons including a full-scale copy of the Tikhvin Icon, a Kazan Mother of God icon, an icon of the Healing of the Deaf Man, and a shrine with relics of St. Jonah of Moscow (who was buried here) plus Optina elders. The daily midday service (Obnitsa) begins at 9:00; the Divine Liturgy is celebrated on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays at the same time. Feast days feature special akathist hymns at 16:00 the evening before.↗

The grounds sit just a short walk from Avtozavodskaya metro station on the Zamoskvoretskaya line. The surrounding area is decidedly industrial — the enormous ZIL Palace of Culture (built on the monastery's razed grounds in the 1930s) and old factory buildings frame the scene — so the monastery survives as a pocket of centuries-old stone amid Soviet-era concrete, which gives the visit a haunting, discovery-like quality.↗↗

Literary Echoes

Even visitors who know little of Russian Orthodox history may recognize this locale's place in literature. Nikolai Karamzin set his landmark 1792 sentimental tale "Poor Liza" at a pond near the monastery — the Sergievsky Prud, where legend held the tragic heroine drowned herself. For decades after the story's publication, Muscovites trekked to Simonov to find "Liza's grave" and scratched verses into nearby trees. The pond was filled in and paved over by the 1930s, but the association with one of Russian literature's founding works adds another layer of resonance to this quietly powerful site.↗