Sightseeing

The Holiday Inn Simonovsky is situated right next to two of Moscow's oldest and most interesting monasteries. The Novospassky Monastery, just north of the hotel, has a claim to be the oldest in Moscow, although it was not moved to this site until 1491 and its surviving buildings all date from the 17th century. One of a ring of fortified religious houses designed as the outposts of Moscow's defenses, the monastery's most impressive buildings are the Transfiguration Cathedral dating from 1645 and the magnificent baroque belltower.

Smaller but no less interesting, the Krutitsy Metochion is right opposite the Holiday Inn Simonovsky. A Metochion is an Eastern Orthodox monastery that houses representatives of a different autonomous church. In this case, it was founded in the 13th century by clergy from the Diocese of Sarai and Don, which ministered to the Christian population of the lands ruled by the Golden Horde. The buildings here also date mostly from the 17th century, but the monastery has a more organic design, with all structures made of red brick, and uniquely Russian architectural features which were hugely influential in the Russian Revival movement of the late 19th century and can be seen echoed in some of the grandest Moscow buildings from that era. Closed in the 1780s and used for over 150 years as a military warehouse, the Metochion owes its survival and regeneration to the tireless work of the great Soviet restorer Pyotr Baranovsky.