The cathedral was built in honor of the Annunciation of the Virgin. This is the house church of rulers — princes and kings. At the beginning of the 14th century, there was a wooden church here, built by Alexander Nevsky's son. At the end of the 15th century, the fashion for the restructuring of the Kremlin by foreigners began, but Prince Ivan III did not give them his house church, and architects of the city of Pskov undertook to build it. At the eastern wall of the newly erected church there was the State Yard, which housed the treasury.

In 1547, the temple was damaged by a fire, and in 1563 it was decided to rebuild the temple, even then the three-domed church became nine-domed. The children of the rulers were married and baptized here, and in 1572 the Groznenskoye porch was added.

In 1917, the porch of the temple was damaged and destroyed by shelling. In March 1918, the church was closed.

There is a legend that Ivan the Terrible ordered the Grozny porch to be added — after his fourth marriage he was excommunicated from the church, and the tsar decided to get out in such a way as to listen to sermons. The roof and heads of the temple were covered with gilded copper at the end of the 16th century.

Thanks to the interesting lighting, it creates a feeling of upward movement. The lower part of the temple is in the shade, and light flows from the upper part.

The murals of the temple were made by Theophan the Greek, Andrei Rublev and Prokhor from Gorodets. The painting of the church was renewed under Alexey Mikhailovich, Catherine II and in the 19th century. There are images of Byzantine emperors and Russian princes here. It is especially worth noting the iconostasis, a masterpiece of Russian art.

According to legend, the floor of the temple — flint interspersed with agate and jasper — was brought from Rostov the Great by Ivan the Terrible, and the stone itself comes from Byzantium.