The Fedorovsky Monastery was founded after 1304 on the southern outskirts of Pereslavl-Zalessky. The location was chosen not by chance: in 1304, on the day of remembrance of the great martyr Fedor Stratilat, a bloody battle took place here between the armies of the Moscow and Tver princes. Many people died in this battle, including the leader of the Tver army, boyar Akinf. In honor of the victory, the Moscow prince Yuri Danilovich established a monastery here.

The oldest building of the monastery, the Fedorovsky Cathedral, was built in 1557 not far from the place where the wife of Tsar Ivan the Terrible gave birth to his son Fedor. The cathedral was entirely funded by the tsar and is located in the center of the monastery grounds. This massive four-pillar brick structure was surrounded by porches, and in the northwest corner stood a small bell tower. Its five domes rested on wide light drums. Originally, the square structure was covered with a tent-like roof, but it was later replaced with a more practical gabled roof. To the east, three apses with narrow windows adjoin the square structure. Inside, frescoes by the Italian artist Nikolai Tonchi, the father of one of the monastery's novices, Maria Tonchi, have been preserved.

In 1704, the cathedral underwent restoration: the dilapidated porches were replaced with walkways, some windows were bricked up, others were enlarged, doorways were reduced, and the bell tower was removed. In 1800, the wooden roof was replaced with an iron one. In 1886, the cathedral was renovated again, with the galleries rebuilt and single-domed chapels added in honor of Seraphim of Sarov and in honor of the Fedorovskaya icon of the Mother of God.

The cathedral was closed in 1928, and two years later the baroque bell tower was demolished. The cathedral was turned into a storage facility, then a children's colony and a nursing home. After the Great Patriotic War, a military unit settled here. In the 1980s, the territory of the monastery housed the Institute of Software Systems of the Russian Academy of Sciences. During this time, attempts were made to restore the cathedral, but the repairs dragged on. The only thing that was done was the installation of onion domes to give Pereslavl-Zalessky the appearance of an ancient Russian city for tourists on the "Golden Ring of Russia" route. In 1998, the cathedral was handed over to the revived women's monastery. In 2013, extensive restoration work was carried out, allowing the cathedral to present its beauty to pilgrims and tourists.