Each cathedral starts first with a wooden church. The first church was built here under Alexander Nevsky's brother Mikhail Khorobrit. It was 1248. In 1333, the tree was replaced with a stone - Ivan Kalita ordered a new building - in memory of the great famine, and on September 30, the Cathedral was consecrated. Services were held at the cathedral - memorial services for tsars and princes. Already in 1895, the cathedral was taken over by the Court Department.

When preparations for the 300th anniversary of the Romanov House were taking place in Moscow, the cathedral was restored and landscaped: a canopy with two lamps was made over the tomb of Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich. They were lit by Emperor Nicholas II personally.

The church is dedicated to Saint Archangel Michael the Archangel. The building itself is made of brick and decorated with white stone. The cathedral reflects the motifs of Italian Renaissance architecture. There used to be tiles on the heads of the temple, the walls were red from the beginning. The murals in the temple date back to 1666. The iconostasis is made of gilded wood and its height is 13 meters. Icon painters of the Armory Chamber knocked down the painting of the walls and painted it again in 1666.

The remains of princes and tsars of Russia are buried in the cathedral: a total of 54, 46 white-stone tombstones of 1636-1637. Bronze glazed cases are 1903. In 1928, after the Ascension Monastery was demolished, the burials of women of the Rurikovich dynasty were transferred to the crypt.