Cathedral of the Annunciation

Cathedral of the Annunciation (in Russian Blagoveshensky Sobor (Успенский Собор) – was the family church of the Tsars. It was here that they married and had their new-born heirs to the throne baptized, and the cathedral’s senior presbyter was the Tsar’s family confessor.

The church was built between 1484 and 1489 by the architects Krivtsov and Mishkin, while during the reign of Ivan the Terrible a covered gallery was added on the left side, so that the Tsar could stand there during services. In the south side-chapel was to be found his prayer room. This was necessitated by the fact that contrary to church rules he married for the fourth time in 1572, and so he was prohibited from attending general services. From the porch of this cathedral in March 1584 Ivan caught sight of a cross-shaped comet and decided that it foretold of his impending death, and indeed he died a few days later.