Cathedral of the Annunciation

The Cathedral of the Annunciation (Blagoveshchensky Sobor) stands inside the Moscow Kremlin between the Grand Kremlin Palace and the Dormition Cathedral. Builders from Pskov completed the nine-domed structure in 1489 for Ivan III as the private chapel of the grand-ducal, later tsarist family. Unlike the nearby coronation cathedral it served daily court liturgy, baptisms and weddings of the Romanovs. Its iconostasis contains works by the greatest masters of early Russian painting: Andrei Rublev, Theophanes the Greek and Prokhor of Gorodets. Gilded domes, narrow windows, mystical half-light. Today part of the Kremlin Museums, a UNESCO site.