For six centuries the Assumption Cathedral had been the state and cultural center of Russia: Great Princes were set for reigning and local princes swore fealty, inaugurations of Tsars and coronations of Emperors took place here. Bishops, Metropolitans and Patriarchs were inaugurated, statements and ceremonial documents were publicly read, church services before military campaigns and in case of a victory were held at the Assumption Cathedral. The first stone cathedral’s foundation was laid in 1326 by the first Moscow Metropolitan Peter and Prince Ivan Kalita (Money-bag). In late XV century, Great Prince Ivan III who had consolidated all Russian princedoms under the power of Moscow, began the construction of the new residence from rebuilding of the Assumption Cathedral. It was erected by a specially invited Italian architect in 1479. Because of ceremonial functions, particular attention was paid to the cathedral’s interior. Its wall-paintings, icons and various secular utensils are artworks of international artistic value. The murals of 1642-1943 and the grand iconostasis of 1653 create the present-day look of the cathedral. In front of the iconostasis you can see Tsar’s, Tsarina’s and Patriarch’s praying-seats. The Tsar’s one is of special interest. At the south-western corner higher its bronze marquee.  In XIV-XVII centuries, the Assumption Cathedral was the burial place of the Russian Orthodox Church heads - Metropolitans and Patriarchs. After the Revolution of 1917, the Assumption Cathedral became a museum. Making the exposition, the staff tried to preserve the interior. Thanks to permanent restoration works practically all the icons and murals were open up. Since 1990, church services have been recommenced.  Aristotle Fioravanti followed the pattern of the Assumption Cathedral of the city of Vladimir – ancient cross-and-cupola church.  At the same time, he created quite a new architectural construction.  The cathedral consists of small white-stone blocks.
It is particularly solid: all its parts are of equal size, altar apses are made plane and masked with massive flats, huge drums are placed closer. The surface of the walls is marked with narrow windows and a small arcature frieze. In the manuscript the building was described to look as one stone.  The architectural originality of the Assumption Cathedral can be understood better in its interior with all the sections of the church enlarged through new technical ways and the church’s area not crowded by round pillars, which create an impression of an immense palatial room.  The contemporaries were astonished by the cathedral’s “unusual majesty and height, luminosity and spaciousness”. The Assumption cathedral was first painted in 1513-1515. In 1642-1643, the murals were demolished with the wall plaster, having made copies, and the team of 150 artists headed by royal painters Ivan and Boris Paisein and Sidor Pospeev created murals existing.  Architecture and murals of the cathedral create an image of cosmos, where vaults symbolize heaven, held on the cathedrals’ pillars. Traditionally, at the pillars there are depictions of martyrs, who do support the Church by their lives and death just like pillars support the vault. The murals of the Assumption Cathedral have clear composition.  In the domes there are placed various images of God, the upper parts of the walls are covered with illustrations of the Gospel, their location corresponds to sequence of divine services within a year.  The two following tiers are dedicated to Our Lady’s life scenes and illustrations of Acathistus, hymn in honour of Our Lady. In the lower tier there are depicted seven Ecumenical Councils. At the western wall there is an immense composition of “The Judgment Day”. On the round pillars there are depictions of multitudinous martyrs.  In the late XIXth- early ÕÕth centuries, during the restoration of the cathedral, in the altar there were found several frescoes of the XVth-XVIth centuries, which were considered to have been created by Dyonisy,  the most eminent artist of that time, i.e. images of venerable saints, compositions “Seven Adolescents of Ephesus sleeping”, “Forty martyrs of Savaty”, “Worship of the Magy” and others. The iconostasis of the cathedral was erected in 1653 on the initiative of Nikon the Patriarch. Its sixty nine icons illustrate the whole Bible history of the humankind. The upper tier –– patriarchal – depicts the period of the Old Testament, that before Christ’s incarnation. The next – prophetical tier – depicts images of prophets in front of Our Lady of Holy Sign, they hold scrolls with prophecies about Christ. In the festive row there are placed icons, dedicated to the main events of Christ’s life. The Deisis tier, reminding of the Second Coming: Christ-Pantocrator is confronted by Our Lady, John the Precursor and, according to the Greek tradition – twelve apostles. The Tsar’s Praying seat – the Monomakh’s Throne – was created in 1551 for Ivan the Terrible, the first Russian Tsar. It might have been erected by carvers from Novgorod.  Here one can see various motives and ways of carving widely spread   in Ancient Rus. In the seat’s base there are four round sculptures  - depictions of fantastic beasts of rapine. They hold the quadrangular construction with four carved pillars and , balusters, crowned with a marque decorated with kokoshniks, roses and vases. The twelve low-reliefs on the walls depict “The Tales about the Princes of Vladimir”, telling the story of transfer to the Russian land of royal regalia – the Monomakh’s Crown, barmas (royal ceremonial collar) and other objects.