It was the first monastery to be founded in the Moscow Kremlin in the early 14th century, affiliated with the Saviour church. Upon its removal to the left bank of the Moskva River in 1491, the cloister was renamed the New Saviour, to distinguish it from the original one in the Kremlin. The monastery was patronized by the Sheremetyev and Romanov boyars as a family sepulchre. In 1571 and 1591, the wooden citadel withstood repeated attacks of Crimean Tatars.