Cathedral of the Annunciation - Blagoveschensky Sobor

The Cathedral of the Annunciation (Russian: Благовещенский собор, or Blagoveschensky sobor) is a cathedral in the Moscow Kremlin, dedicated to the Annunciation of the Theotokos.

Formerly, the cathedral was a home church of the Muscovite tsars. Its abbot has been a personal confessor of the royal family until the early 20th century. The Cathedral of the Annunciation was built on the Sobornaya Square (Cathedral Square) by architects from Pskov in 1484-1489. It was erected on the spot of an older 14th century cathedral of the same name, which had been rebuilt in 1416. Initially, the Cathedral of the Annunciation had three cupolas (two of them built around 1572). It was surrounded by parvises from three sides. In 1562-1564, they built four single-cupola side chapels over the arched parvises. The north and west entrances from the parvise are decorated with whitestone portals of the 16th century. The fretwork is clearly influenced by the Italian Renaissance architecture. The bronze doors of the north and west portals are decorated with gold foil. The floor of the Cathedral of the Annunciation is made of jasper, which was brought from a cathedral in Rostov Velikiy in the 16th century. The walls contain fragments of murals, painted by Theodosius (1508) and others (second half of the 16th, 17th and 19th centuries). The iconostasis includes icons of the 14th-17th centuries, including the ones painted by Andrei Rublev, Feofan Grek and Prokhor, and 19th century, as well.