The ancient cathedral of the God's Transfiguration is the center of the Novospassky Monastery, which is located near Krestianskaya Zastava Square on the high bank of the Moskva-Reka (Moscow-River). The monastery was founded in 1490 and the church of the Transfiguration (original cathedral) was built by Ivan III's order. Monks were transferred there from the Kremlin.
The Cathedral of the Transfiguration of the Savior was rebuilt in 1645 on the site of the original cathedral and designed to look like the Cathedral of the Assumption in the Kremlin, the church and its crypt served as the family vault of the Romanov boyars until Mikhail Romanov's ascension to the throne in 1613. The cathedral's exterior features huge arched gables and helmet-shaped domes and its interior is covered with frescoes charting the history of the sovereigns of Russian from St. Olga to Tsar Alexei, and images of the great Greek philosophers.
The Muscovites and tourists are mostly struck and attracted by the imposing forms of this cathedral.