New data on the necropolis of Novodevichy monastery: the funerary vault of Smolensk cathedral and the restoration of the 1880s

The paper investigates the epigraphy of one of the largest cemeteries of the aristocracy of Russia in the 16th-17th centuries. It is located in Novodevichy (New Maidens) Convent in Moscow. The most numerous burials are concentrated in the funerary vault of the main monastery church in the name of the Image of the Mother of God from Smolensk. Inscriptions on dozens of monuments in the crypt have been known since the end of the 18th century. But it was only during the restoration in the 1880s that the stone sarcophagi and the inscriptions on them were discovered. But information about this restoration has not been published. Since the 1990s, the plan and description of the tombs studied during the restoration became known. But the information obtained during the restoration was not published. During the new restoration (2017-2019), the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences studied the burial objects in detail again. At the same time, materials from the 1880s were prepared for publication. They are published here with brief comments.