The Conception Monastery has a long and rather complicated history. The monastery, founded by Metropolitan Alexiy in 1360, during its history experienced periods of almost complete disappearance of monastic life within its walls, which was associated with the loss of existing monastery buildings. The first time this happened in 1547, when the famous Moscow fire destroyed the Alekseevsky monastery located on this site. Then, after almost forty years, the monastery ensemble revived here, created by order of Tsar Theodore Ivanovich. The new monastery became known as Zachatyevsky on the throne in the name of the Conception of St. Anna ("zachatye" means "conception" (rus.)). A new fire in 1612 destroyed this monastery along with Ostozhye. The monastery was revived under Mikhail Fedorovich and successfully existed until the end of the 18th century, when the reconstruction of its stone cathedral church began (which can date from the end of the 16th to the first third of the 17th centuries). The monastery ensemble that had taken shape at the beginning of the 20th century lost its main dominant - the cathedral - in connection with the next destruction of the monastery, which this time died in the fire of the atheistic persecution. A typical school was built on the site of succeeding cathedral churches. Dominated among the remains of disfigured monastery buildings, devoid of signs of church buildings. In 1995, the monastery was revived, and the school was dismantled. Over the past ten years, the monastery community has restored many of the monastery buildings, the refectory building has been restored (including the original appearance of the refectory interior), the hospital church of the Descent of the Holy Spirit, the abbot building has been restored. However, all these works cannot compensate for the loss of the main dominant, without which the monastery buildings remain disparate and multi-time buildings that do not form an ensemble. This is not only an architectural category, since the disappearance of the cathedral led to the loss of the dominant liturgical life of the monastery. Therefore, the ultimate goal of the modern reconstruction of the monastery is to return to the monastery ensemble of lost integrity. Its implementation is associated with the construction of the destroyed cathedral. This could be a reconstruction of the cathedral of the late XVIII - early XIX, demolished in 1924, or the construction in its general parameters, but in a different plastic study. The choice of option was determined at the end of archaeological excavations. After the school was dismantled, archaeological work of rare scale began, revealing the site of the temple complex, on which it reliably existed from the middle of the 16th century. After the end of archaeological work, it became clear that the nature of the architectural structure should be determined by the task of maximally preserving the ruins of the foundations and the basement of the walls of two cathedrals - the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th centuries and the end of the XVI - the first third of the XVII century, as well as the places where the cultural layer with objects of the XIV - the middle of the XVI century was saved. Open foundations are fragmented remains that were disrupted during the construction of the school. Its foundations and walls cut through the remains of two monastery cathedrals. Nevertheless, even in fragmented form, the foundations and walls of successive churches, and the necropolis of the XIV - XVIII centuries. They have a special historical, architectural and archaeological value, since they are associated with one of the earliest metropolitan monasteries in Moscow, which was reliably founded at the end of the 14th century. For the monastery - they are a relic and the object of worship of monks and parishioners, since they are connected with the spiritual experience of the natives who worked in this place. Therefore, they must be fortified, museified and prepared for exhibiting. The entire open archaeological complex should be preserved as much as possible during new construction. It can not be used as the foundation of the future temple. This complex is a kind of sarcophagus, which becomes the basis for the construction, which takes on the significance of the church over the genuine ruins of the monastery cathedrals, the church over the archaeological museum. According to the authors of the project proposal, the walls and foundations of the school, cutting the remains of the cathedrals, are dismantled. In place of school foundations, support should be placed on the ceilings of the archaeological museum, which will also become supports for the church. Formulating the attitude to the architecture of this cathedral, the authors were guided by the conviction that its architecture should emphasize the irrevocability of the lost. In addition, it seems certain that the more unique the lost building in its architecture, the brighter the individual, unprinted author’s intention was expressed in its appearance, the more difficult it becomes to adequately recreate it.

   In the absence of detailed measurements of the destroyed cathedral, the incompleteness of the photofixation material will add a certain share of conventionality and schematism to the reproduction of the lost forms. In addition, the new church is torn from its fragmentary surviving base and is a relic church over the remains of two, and according to some archaeological data, three cathedrals. Therefore, the authors chose a different path, offering to reproduce only the basic compositional parameters of the lost cathedral - its height, the general structure of the plan. The plastic study of its forms should not have a specific historical address, but should emphasize that the spectator has a new temple. At the same time, its architecture should be traditional, not aggressive in relation to existing multi-time buildings. In developing the spatial structure of the new cathedral, the customer’s desire to restore the system of monastic thrones that existed in the monastery and at different times existed in cathedral churches of different eras was taken into account. These are the thrones of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, the Birth of Virgin Mary, the Conception of St. Anna, St. Theodor Stratelates, Alexis Metropolitan of Moscow, martyr Irina, Alexy The Man of God, and the "Burning Bush" Icon. At the basement level - at the level of the archaeological museum, the plan of the cathedral at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries is being restored. Original fragments of the walls will not be load-bearing; their masonry will be prepared by the restoration methods for exhibiting. Lost parts of the walls, which should become a support for the slab of the sarcophagus, pillars and walls of the new cathedral, are being built from fundamentally new materials, including to indicate their newfound character. Continuity with destroyed in the XX century. Cathedral at this level is emphasized by the fact that the refectory houses the aisles that once existed there - St. Alexy Metropolitan and St. Theodor Stratilates. The entire basement covered with a common slab, like a sarcophagus, serves as a constructive foundation and visually as a pedestal for the new church. Following the shapes of the lost cathedral in the general layout of the plan, makes possible to repeat not only the general composition of volumes, but also the structure of the interior. At the same time, the architecture of the new church should be in correspondence with the monument of the late XVII century - with the gateway church of the "Image of Edessa", and with buildings of the historicism era of the second half of the 19th century. This dictated the choice of forms containing allusions to Moscow cathedral churches of the 16th-17th centuries, as well as their interpretation in the 19th century. In addition, judging by historical materials, such a modest five-domed cathedral, reliably existed in the monastery in the XVII-XVIII centuries. For the integrity of the monastery ensemble, the construction of the bell tower is also essential. The choice of its location is dictated by the need to have a cathedral square in the monastery.