Ivan the Terrible had the church rebuilt to replace a previous church that stood on the same location. After he married his fourth wife and was prevented from attending services due to the rules of Russian Orthodoxy, he stood on the porch that was subsequently rebuilt along with the construction of the new church. You can see it in the left of this picture, with stairs leading up to the covered porch.
Icons by some of the most celebrated icon painters grace the interior of the Annunciation Cathedral. Andrei Rublev, Theophanes the Greek, and Prokhor of Gorodets contributed to the decoration of this private chapel.
