Moscow's most central and smallest monastery is so hidden away in a courtyard off Ulitsa Nikolskaya that most tourists don't even notice it is there. The monastery was founded in 1600 by Tsar Boris Godunov. Its name means the saviour ('spas') behind the icons ('za ikonami') as the monastery's main cathedral is the Miracle Image of the Saviour Cathedral which used to be located behind stalls selling icons. Between 1687 and 1814 the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy (the first higher education establishment in Moscow) was located on the grounds of the monastery. The monastery was closed in 1929 and only returned to the Orthodox Church in 1994. At first the former monastery's cathedral was used as a parish church but in 2010 the Holy Synod decided to reopen the monastery. The current version of the monastery's Miracle Image of the Saviour Cathedral was built on the orders of Tsar Alexis between 1660 and 1661 and is a fine example of a Moscow baroque tower-church.

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