Tsar Ivan the Terrible favored monastery. Here, in the walls of the Holy Trinity Cathedral, he was baptized, he often visited the holy abode, and tried in every way to bestow. In 1559, his order he commanded here lay the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. At that time the monastery had grown and needed a bigger church. The construction lasted 26 years and ended a year after the death of the first Russian tsar. The ceremonial consecration of the church was already in his receiver - King Theodore Ioannovich.

Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin became a model for the eponymous temple of the Trinity Sergius Lavra, but lost in size. The majestic and austere, monastic cathedral became the largest building of the monastery. It is located in the center of the monastery's land - in the eastern part of the cathedral square. The temple stands on six pillars bearing the five chapters. Large domes quite closely pressed against each other. The central dome is covered with gold, and the rest - blue paint with glittering stars. Initially, the head of the helmet were, and in the middle of the XVIII century became poppy-heads, keeping this form to our times.

The walls, arches and pillars of the cathedral are decorated with frescoes of biblical themes Yaroslavl painters, together with the local masters, headed by Dmitry Grigoriev. Above all, the paintings depicting the Assumption of the Virgin. The magnificent five-tier carved iconostasis further emphasizes the solemnity of the temple. At the top of the back of the iconostasis was built three-tiered wooden gallery for the choir. Sound pours through the temple "like from the sky." Under the two domes are secured descending copper carved chandeliers, made by masters of the Armoury Chamber in the XVII century.

The main altar of the cathedral - Assumption - placed in one of five apses church. On the other side of the iconostasis built three more limit. One - in honor of St. Nicholas, saved by giving the monks and parishioners from the epidemic of scurvy during the siege by the Poles in 1609. The other two - in honor of the holy martyr Theodore Stratelates and martyr Irene, whose names were given to the Emperor Theodore Ioanovich and his wife Irina Fedorovna. The last two chapels are arranged more in the construction of the temple. Hoping to gain the mercy of God and to conceive a child, the couple tried in every way to endow the temple. Grand Cross of the altar of the cathedral marks the spot where the young Peter I sought shelter during a riot musketeers 1682. It is said that one of the angry archers broke into the temple, and he brought over sovereign knife, but was stopped by his comrades. The fifth is the apse of the altar.

On the northwest side of the house you will find the tomb of the Godunov family, on which in 1780 was built tent tent. To this day the building has not been preserved.

From the south-west side adjacent to the cathedral Nadkladeznaya chapel of the XVII century on the site of a holy spring opened. The rich decoration chetyrёhyarusnoy chapel in the style of the early Baroque-Russian ("Naryshkin Baroque"), emphasized the white walls of the Assumption Cathedral.

Until 1786 the temple was a wooden coffin of St. Sergius of Radonezh, in which he was buried, until the power has not been transferred to the silver shrine and transferred to the Holy Trinity Cathedral of the monastery.

Initially, the Assumption Cathedral was conceived years. In it served only in the warmer months. Only from the 1980s, work began on the temple warming. Powerful majestic temple can accommodate up to five thousand worshipers. There are daily services.