Barnaul Znamensky nunnery - one of the attractions of the Altai Territory. In June 1754 in Barnaul novovozvedennoy church was consecrated in honor of the saints and the righteous Zacharias and Elizabeth. Already by 1772 the church building has strongly decayed. Then it was decided to build a new church. The new wooden church was built in 1778 with funds donated by local residents. The author of the project was student Polzunov I. Chernitsyn.

In 1844, the famous architect of Tours has developed a draft of a new three-altar stone church, which is presented to the Tomsk provincial construction commission. However, this project was not implemented, and in August 1852 had received a letter on the construction of a new stone church. Bookmark the temple took place in 1853. The final draft of the stone church approved in 1856, and two years later on the donations of believers in the Haymarket area of ​​the temple was built with an amazing three-tiered bell tower and the twelve bells. In 1916, at the Church of the Sign built stone chapel in honor of the 300th anniversary of the reign of the Romanov dynasty.

After October 1917 the temple suffered the same fate as most other churches in Russia - it was closed. In October 1918 the congregation decided to contribute annually a sum of money for the maintenance of the temple, but the new government has not supported this initiative, and in 1922 under the pretext of helping the starving Volga region began a campaign to seize the temple property.

In April, 1939, by the decision of executive committee finally closed the church. In the same year the dome was demolished, broken bell tower. A little later the building to build on the second floor and made other additions. The church lost its historical appearance.

In late 1992, it returned the Orthodox Church. From the beautiful temple there were only walls, warped porches. Soon after work began on the restoration of the destroyed temple. In 1994, at the Sign of the church it was founded a convent. To date, 20 nuns in the convent.