Suzdal, unlike any other ancient Russian town, is rich in architectural monuments. Disposed in a picturesque and uniform manner throughout, the town's territory they form an architectural ensemble of rare beauty and unity. Close connection of the architecture and the nature conveys an unusual charm to the ancient town whose history counts almost a thousand years. The first written reference to Suzdal is found in the Chronicle of 1024 A.D.

The Suzdal as we know it today was being built during eight centuries. Within earthern ramparts of the Suzdal Kremlin the sublime Cathedral of the Nativity of Our Lady, built in 1222—1225, dominates in the place of the ancient cathedrals of Vladimir Monomachus and Yuri Dolgoruky. Its powerful five cupolas, created in the 16th century, dominate even now in the general panorama of the town. Almost simultaneously with the Cathedral "the Golden Gates" were built in the technique of "fire guiding" on copper to decorate its carved stone portals. The Gates is a unique example, of the ancient Russian applied art.
The building in stone, interrupted by the Tatar-Mongolian invasion, is resumed only in the 16th century. At that time quite a number of remarkable architectural creation appears on the territory of the ancient Suzdal monasteries—the Intercession, the Sacristial and the Eufemy-Saviour monasteries.

In Kremlin centre near the Cathedral there is the most important civil building of the town— the Archiyereyskiye Palaty (The Bishop's Palace that was the residence of local clerical sovereigns. Built on the verge of the 17th and the 18th centuries, it assimilated many of the former edifices: episcopal palace of the 15th century, private Church of the Annunciation, built in 1559 and the Bell-Tower of 1635. The sense of architectural harmony, charasteristic of local architects, the ability to combine edifices of different time and make them ensemble were best realized in the complex and picturesque ensemble of the Bishop's Palace.

The first bilding in stone in the sudurb – the St. Lazarus Church—marked the beginning of the Suzdal suburban architecture. Some three score parish churches and a number of stone dwelling houses are being built to the order of the town inhabitants and with their money during the 17th and 18th centuries. A small two-storied 18th century house near the Eufemy-Savipur monastery that has reached our days is a rare example of civil architecture in the Suzdal of that time. Its enterior recalls small Suzdal churches of the cage-like type fi;t were built as "warm churches" beside the summer temples. Such pairs of churches were often combined with a slender and light bell-towers crowned by a typically "Suzdal" concave rent. The architects considered the site of construction for each church with great attention, achieving a harmonious unity of architecture and nature, of scaling up between the new and the old edifices. Suzdal architects, responding to their customers' tastes, made the most of their building to render the suburban architecture the real decoration of the town.

In 1960 a wooden Nickolskaya Church built in 1766 was brought from the village of Glotovo to the Kremlin territory. It is a rare example of ancient' cage-like temples that were most of all similar to an ordinary peasant house (izba). The Glotovo church marked the beginning of the Museum of wooden architecture in Suzdal. Peasant houses, churches, windmills and other buildings brought to the side of the town beyond the river from different places of the Vladimir region depict vividly the appearance of a Vladimir village in the last century.

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