The Nikolskaya refectory church is a mysterious and interesting structure from the 16th century that has not yet been fully studied. Its construction began almost simultaneously with the Assumption Cathedral in the autumn of 1555, and the consecration took place in 1556, as confirmed by the inscription on the canvas that has survived until the beginning of this century.

Initially, the church was a square-plan, single-domed white stone building of Pskov type with a hipped roof. Later, the altar part was rebuilt from brick, and in its current form, it dates back to the second half of the 17th century, as does the decorative design of the window opening. In a brief description compiled by Borisov and Kikin ten years after the completion of construction, it is stated: "the church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker and the refectory is a warm stone building, and beneath it are 6 services, two refectory walls and with the church 14 fathoms, and two walls of ten fathoms, at the church the front is beaten with German iron, at the refectory a stone porch 6 fathoms long and 3 fathoms wide, beneath the porch a stone sytna."

The walls of the refectory and the church were laid out of hewn white stone, from which the four-tiered bell tower was also built. The features of the bell tower's volume, which is accessed by a steep internal staircase, and the eastern gable of the temple indicate that the bell tower was erected somewhat later than the church itself.

In the church and in the large refectory hall, consecrated on three sides, there were frescoes. The inventory of 1614 mentions images created by "wall painting." The 16th-century fresco discovered by V.V. Chumakov in 1957 in the niche of the outer wall of the Nikolskaya church confirms that the painting adorned not only the interior, as in the Assumption Cathedral.