Dormition Cathedral (Assumption Cathedral)

The main church of Vladimir city, Dormition Cathedral (sometimes translated Assumption Cathedral), was built in second hal of 12th century. It is a classic work of early Russian architecture that used to be a mother church of medieval Russia in the 13th and 14th centuries. The original cathedral built by Andrei Bogoliubsky in 1158-1160 was crowned by a single golden dome and smallerground plan, which made it seemtaller and more slender. But after the fire in 1185 and the following reconstruction, the charred walls were enclosed with new ones, and a new two-tier gallery topped with smaller four domes on the corners of the buildings had appeared in 1189. The Dormition cathedral in Vladimir served as a model for the Bolognese architect Aristotle Fiorovanti when he created the cathedral of the same name in the Moscow Kremlin.

The Dormition cathedral in Vladimir was more than just a seeting for services and preaching. In its precincts chronicles were written and the first library in the city appeared. Of exceptional artistic value are the fifteenth-century frescoes still to be found inside the cathedral. They are work of Andrey Rublev, one of the greatest Early Russian icon painters. The cathedral is the burial place for many Russian princes canonized by Russian Orthodox church as Saints.