The Vladimir Cathedral and the Church of Alexander Nevsky were built in the 1740s with funding from the Pereslavl merchant F. Ugryumov and were located on the territory of the Bogoroditsko-Sretensky Novodevichy Monastery. In the second half of the 18th century, after the abolition of the Pereslavl diocese, the monastery, lacking significant funds, was closed, and its churches became ordinary parish churches. In the early 20th century, after a major renovation, the spacious Vladimir Cathedral became the New City Cathedral, to which the old Spaso-Preobrazhensky Cathedral was annexed. The Church of Alexander Nevsky and the Vladimir Cathedral were richly adorned with liturgical utensils, silver chalices, reliquaries, and icons from the 16th to 18th centuries. Nearby stood a bell tower in the form of a tall round tower with a set of bells, audible far beyond the city limits.

In the 1920s, the Vladimir Cathedral and the Church of Alexander Nevsky were managed by a religious society of 19 people. In November 1925, thieves broke into the cathedral, bypassing the guard. Among the stolen items were silver coverings and gem-encrusted crowns from the icons of the Pechersk Mother of God and the Savior Not Made by Hands from the 17th century, as well as an 18th-century reliquary.

In 1929, the Church of Alexander Nevsky and the Vladimir Cathedral were repurposed as a central library and a House of Physical Culture, while the bell tower, left without bells, stood empty. Later, a bread shop was set up in the altar of the Church of Alexander Nevsky, and the rest of the church housed a garage for the Lespromkhoz with two wells for car repairs. By this time, almost nothing remained of the former decoration of the churches; 19th-century paintings were severely damaged, iconostases were absent, and construction debris lay around the building. The future fate of the churches remained uncertain. In 1936, a commission arrived to inspect the condition and use of the 'historical monument of the City Cathedrals, Alexander Nevsky and Vladimir.' It was noted that these monuments were located next to the cathedral and the 12th-century rampart, as well as the 16th-century Church of Peter the Metropolitan, representing an interesting architectural complex from the perspective of the history of Russian architecture. Thanks to this, the Vladimir Cathedral and the Church of Alexander Nevsky were preserved.

Since the 1990s, services have resumed in the churches, and through the efforts of local clergy, the first Orthodox gymnasium after the October Revolution of 1917 was opened here. The only reminder that a monastery once stood near Red Square in Pereslavl is the remaining fragment of the monastery wall with a guardhouse, while the foundation of the church bell tower ended up under the expanded roadway of the Yaroslavl highway.