The main entrance into the convent was through the Holy Gates in the south wall, which were topped by the gateway Church of the Annunciation. Like many other buildings in the convent these were built around 1518 and commissioned by Vassili III. Restored by Alexei Varganov in 1958 they are one of the most original and finest specimens of sixteenth-century Suzdal architecture.

The large archway is placed somewhat to the east. In the adjoining wall there is a staircase. Above the gateway is a small church. Its walls, crowned with zakomaras surmounted by a dome over a row of kokoshniks, rise] above the roofs of the narrow parvises that surround the church on three sides with open arches. At the east ends of the gallery there are two tiny chapels like miniature churches each with its own kokoshniks and little dome. There is something almost toy-like about this intimate little church obviously intended for private services at which only two or three people would be present. The church's three domes remind one again of the old triple-domed cathedral in the kremlin. Due to the church's miniature dimensions the apses are barely distinguishable in the interior and only just visible on the outside. The main south wall of the Holy Gates is decorated from top to bottom with bands of ornamental brickwork framed with round moulded posts and niches of different sizes. These are arranged somewhat hap­hazardly as if the builder had carved them from wood instead of laying them in brick. This interesting feature gives the building an air of simplicity.

Entering the convent through the Holy Gates you have a fine view of all its main buildings set out one after the other in the centre of the courtyard which was sur­rounded on all sides by rows of cells. As early as the six­teenth century some of the cells were made of stone, as well as certain of the convent's domestic buildings such as the brewery, the cellars and the ice chambers used for storing food. In the southwest corner of the convent there is an early seventeenth-century brick building known as the "trial chamber" (sudnaya palata) with an underground dungeon. The building was restored by Alexei Varganov in 1957 and there is another structure of a similar type partly restored in the northwest corner of the convent.