CATHEDRAL OF THE ARCHANGEL MICHAEL

Grand Prince Ivan Kalita built the fifth white-stone church in Moscow in the name of the Archangel Michael in 1333. It was erected on the embankment side of the Kremlin. According to the legend, there had been an old wooden church before. It took only a year to build it, and on 20 September 1333, the cathedral was consecrated by Metropolitan Theognostus. It is probably that the church was meant as a burial place for the Moscow princes. The church founder was buried there first; it happened in 1340 and marked the beginning of the Grand Princely shrine. The Archangel Cathedral, built in its place in 1508 by Alevisio Novy, became the successor of the old one.