The red and white crenellated walls and golden domes of Novodevichy Convent make it one of Moscow's most attractive monasteries. Novodevichy, or "New Maidens Convent" in English, was founded by Vasily III in 1524 to commemorate the recapture of Smolensk from the Lithuanians in 1514. The convent is rather like a miniature Kremlin, built as a fortress In the bend of the Moskva River, became an im portant component of the capital's southern defence belt which consisted of the Donskoi Monastery, the Monastery of St. Daniel, the Monastery of St. Simeon, and other cloisters. The fortress-convent played a part of some consequence in the struggle against the Tatar conquerors and the Polish invaders.