The Church of St. Sergius of Radonezh is the only surviving gate structure in the northwest of Russia. It was built by Archbishop Jonah at the Lord's Court of the Kremlin in 1463, during the last years of Novgorod's resistance to joining Moscow. The Novgorod Republic then sensed its impending downfall.

Over time, the passions surrounding the annexation to Moscow and Novgorod's integration into a centralized state subsided. The church, built in the Novgorod Kremlin and dedicated to St. Sergius of Radonezh, who was little known in Russia at the time and mainly venerated in the Moscow principality, symbolizes the idea of peace, rapprochement, and spiritual unity with Moscow. The fate of the frescoes in this church is unusual: before World War II, they were removed and stored in a museum, but now these miniature compositions, created under the influence of icon painting, have been returned to their place.

Next to the church stands an almost forty-meter tower with a clock, known as the Bell Tower. It is slightly tilted, evoking associations with the Leaning Tower of Pisa. The upper platform of the Bell Tower was used to monitor the roads in case of an unexpected enemy appearance and to control frequent fires.