Cathedral of Saint Nicholas—Nikolayevskii Greek Monastery

The St. Nicholas Greek Monastery, on Nikolskaya Street, dates from 1390 and was built during the reign of Peter I. The Kremlin and Kitai Gorod Nikolai towers were named after the monastery. In 1556 Ivan the Terrible gave the monastery as a temporary refuge for visiting old Greek monks and priests from Mount Athos, though it remained subject to the Moscow Patriarchate. Greeks built the Church of St. Nicholas. The monastery closed in 1918 and was destroyed in 1935. Only the bell tower remained.