At the foot of Kozlov Val are the attractive churches of Our Saviour and St. Nicholas which stand on the site of Andrei Bogolyubsky's palace. The white stone Church of Our Saviour which he erected here in 1164 was badly damaged in the fire of 1778, and replaced by the present building at the end of the eighteenth century. It is inter­esting to note that the architects tried to imitate the form of the original building, although the final result was somewhat cruder of course. They copied the decorative band of blind arcading round the outer walls, the divi­sion of the walls by pilaster strips, and the deeply re­cessed entrances. They even tried to give the effect of the original white stone masonry in plaster. Excavations have shown that the present building does, in fact, stand on the ruins of the earlier one. A large number of majol­ica tiles have been found, which were used to cover the floor of the original building. It is quite possible that the general appearance of the earlier church was similar to that of the Church of the Intercession on the Nerl near Bogolyubovo, which was built a year later. In place of the present eighteenth-century building one must try to picture the graceful outline of the old stone church with its band of blind arcading, carved relief and deeply recessed portals.

Another church was erected alongside it in the seven­teenth century, the Church of St. Nicholas with rows of kokoshnik gables crowning all its walls, and a mag­nificent window surround. It possesses a highly original rectangular-shaped bell-tower, which is decorated with blind arches and band of deeply recessed rectangular niches faced with green tiles. The bell-tier is formed of arches on rectangular pillars. It is possible that the bell-tower was originally topped by a four-sided tent-shaped roof.