Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin

For centuries this cathedral served as a national and religious centre. Coronations, church inaugurations, state ceremonies and major processions were held here. Constructed in 1475–1479 by Aristotele Fioravanti at the order of Ivan III.

It became the principal church of the Russian state and the burial place of important metropolitans and patriarchs. The cathedral preserves shrines with relics of Moscow hierarchs Peter, Jonah, Philip and Hermogenes, which are objects of Orthodox veneration. The Moscow Kremlin Museums state that the cathedral was commissioned by Ivan III and built by the Bolognese architect Aristotele Fioravanti.

It became the principal ceremonial church of the Russian state: rulers were installed and crowned here, senior church leaders were inaugurated, and important religious and state services took place within it. The cathedral also preserves the burials and shrines of major Moscow hierarchs. After the 1917 Revolution it functioned as a museum, while divine services resumed from 1990. Visitors therefore encounter both a carefully preserved museum monument and a church with continuing liturgical significance.