Cathedral of the Annunciation

Annunciation Cathedral
Благовещенский собор
Annunciation Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin
Coordinates: 55°45′00″N 37°37′01″E / 55.75000°N 37.61694°E / 55.75000; 37.61694
Location	Moscow
Country	Russia
Denomination	Russian Orthodox
Website	http://www.kreml.ru/en/kremlin/buildings/Blagoveshenskiy/
History
Consecrated	1489
Architecture
Architectural type	Russian
Style	Russian

The Cathedral of the Annunciation (Russian: Благовещенский собор, or Blagoveschensky sobor) is a Russian Orthodox church dedicated to the Annunciation of the Theotokos. It is located on the southwest side of Cathedral Square of the Moscow Kremlin in Russia, where it connects directly to the main building of the complex of the Grand Kremlin Palace, adjacent to the Palace of Facets. It was originally the personal chapel for the Muscovite tsars, and its abbot remained a personal confessor of the Russian royal family until the early 20th century.

The Cathedral of the Annunciation was built by architects from Pskov in 1484-1489 as part of Grand Duke Ivan III's plans for a large-scale renovation of the Moscow Kremlin. It was built on the spot of an older 14th-century cathedral of the same name, which had been rebuilt in 1416. This older cathedral in turn had replaced a previous wooden church from the 13th century that had fallen victim to the frequent fires in the Kremlin.

Construction work began using the existing foundations in 1484, and was completed in August 1489. A number of the early 15th-century icons were re-used in the new building. Due to its proximity to the palace, the church was chosen by Ivan III to be his personal chapel, and a staircase connecting the church directly to his personal chambers in the palace was constructed. Initially, today's Annunciation Cathedral had just three domes. After being badly damaged in a fire again in 1547, the then Grand Duke and (the first Russian Tsar) Ivan the Terrible began a restoration of the church, which was completed in 1564. Two additional domes were added on the western side. The building was surrounded by parvises from three sides, and four single-cupola side chapels were built over the arched parvises, each with a dome, so that the cathedral is now a total of nine domes. In 1572, the cathedral received an additional staircase on its south facade, later called "Grosnenski"), named after Ivan the Terrible (Russian for "Ivan Grozny").