La Cathedral of the Twelve Apostles It is part of the same building as the Palace of the Patriarch Moscow. Although construction began in 1640, the whole complex relates mainly to Patriarch Nikon (1652 to 1658), whose tenure as head of the Russian Church was marked by the schism that separated the old believers from the official church, and by the ongoing conflict with Tsar Aleksei.
The site of the palace dates back further. Since the early 14th century this terrain had been that of the Metropolitan, and then the succession of the Patriarch.
The design of the Cathedral is based on the old churches of Vladimir and Suzdal, with four supporting columns, five domes, and a high, two-tiered porch on the north face. Although the building's sleek, somewhat austere exterior is understated, the Palace's original interior reportedly surprisingly lavish, rivaling Tsar Terem's palace in luxury and wealth.
The five-level iconostasis in the Cathedral was moved here from the Ascension Monastery, which was destroyed in the 1920s. The cathedral also contains images of Saints Peter and Paul, drawn in the 12th century, which were a gift to Peter the Great in the papacy.
The Cathedral was closed in 1918, and the ground floor of the Palace and Cathedral houses the 17th-century Museum of Life and Applied Art, which contains a series of icons from several of the Kremlin's cathedrals, as well as ecclesiastical furniture and costumes from time.