From 1653 to 1764, the Spaso-Zelenogorsky Men's Monastery was located in the territory of the present-day village of Zelenye Gory in the Vadsky district. In 1653, a wooden Spasskaya church was built in the monastery, which lasted until the 20th century. The monastery's bell tower, described in the directory edited by Professor V.P. Fadeev "Monuments of History and Culture of the Gorky Region" from 1980, was included in the list of monuments of urban planning and architecture of federal significance until the late 1990s.

The directory notes that the exact date of the bell tower's construction is unknown, but it existed at a time when all other monastery buildings and churches were wooden. Other sources indicate that the bell tower was built in 1664 by master Feodosiy. This architectural object was an example of 17th-century architecture: on a high prism of a quadrangular base, there was an octagonal tier of the bell chamber, covered with a tent roof topped with a small dome, and tiles of yellow-green glaze were inserted into the pillar walls.

By 1980, researchers noted significant damage: the iron covering of the tent was partially lost, the mass of the bell tower had deviated from the vertical, and large damage to the brickwork appeared in the walls of the lower square. As a result, in 1998, the monastery's bell tower collapsed. Today, only the monastery gates and a fragment of the wall from the 17th century have survived.

After Catherine's reform at the end of the 18th century, the Spaso-Zelenogorsky Men's Monastery was abolished, and its churches became parish churches of the village of Spas-Zelenye Gory, which arose near the monastery. In 1797, a parish stone church with altars of the Kazan Mother of God and St. Nicholas the Wonderworker was built near the monastery, to which the bell tower built by Feodosiy was attached.

From 1800, a women's community appeared on the site of the former monastery, and in 1842 the monastery was revived as a women's monastery, receiving third-class status in 1893. In the early years of service at the Sarov Monastery, Seraphim of Sarov often visited here, traditionally believed to have opened the "12 keys" springs near the village.

In the early years of Soviet power, the monastery was closed, and its churches were destroyed. To this day, the remains of the parish Kazan church and part of the monastery buildings have survived.