Pokrovskaya Tower, a quadrilateral structure of the Novgorod Detinets, was built in the late 16th century. It has a rectangular shape measuring 16 by 10.5 meters and includes six combat tiers. The height of the tower with battlements is 18 meters, and the wall thickness at the first tier exceeds 3 meters. The tower is topped with a 13-meter high tent and extends more than 9 meters beyond the fortress wall. The walls of the tower are pierced with 55 embrasures, the barrel vaults of the two lower tiers have been preserved, and the wooden ties have been replaced with metal ones.

Before the existing tower, there was another one built in 1302. In 1305, Semyon Klimovich built a stone church of the Protection of the Mother of God near the tower, from which the tower got its name. The Prussian Street led to these gates. In 1389, the church was rebuilt by the posadnik Grigory Yakunovich, which likely also affected the tower. In the 15th century, during the reconstruction of the Detinets, the church and the tower were rebuilt again when the Small Earthen City was constructed. Since then, the tower became blind, as direct access to Prussian Street disappeared, and the Protection Church was built to the north but connected to the tower. In the 17th century, in the 1660s, the tower was repaired, and by the end of the century, it became part of the Voivod's courtyard complex. In 1693 and 1695, the Protection Church was rebuilt again. From the early 19th century, the tower housed a women's prison, which is why it was called 'temnishnaya', and from 1898, it housed a nursing home for elderly people of both sexes. By the October Revolution of 1917, only elderly women remained in the tower. Since the 1920s, the Pokrovskaya Tower housed archives. In 1968, according to the project by A.V. Vorobyov, the tower was restored in the style of the 16th century, after which it housed the famous restaurant 'Detinets' in Novgorod.