For the first three centuries, the cathedral in honor of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos, like all the buildings of the monastery, was wooden. The stone building of the Christmas Cathedral, the earliest in the architectural ensemble of the monastery, was erected at the end of the 17th century. The cathedral was built on the site of an ancient wooden church by tradition. Metropolitan Jonah of Rostov, while being an archbishop, not only erected the famous Archbishop's House, now known as the Rostov Kremlin, but also replaced the wooden cathedrals of Rostov monasteries with stone ones. The Christmas Cathedral is one of the most elegant and picturesque churches in Rostov. The main building is a square structure topped with an onion dome. A side chapel with one dome, which is lower and smaller than the main building, adjoins it from the north side. An elongated refectory building extends from the western wall of the cathedral. The complex acquires spatial plasticity due to the different levels of the roofs of the church, the chapel, the apses, and the refectory. The walls of the church are finished with decorative arcature with a keel-shaped zakomara, and the drums of the domes are adorned with keel-shaped kokoshniks. The tall chimneys above the altar of the chapel and the refectory harmoniously fit into the overall appearance of the cathedral. Today, the domes of the cathedral and the chapel are covered with white tin. The dome of the cathedral is decorated with a scale pattern and stars painted with ochre. The white walls of the cathedral, the light tin roofs, the ochre of the crosses, stars, and undercoats of the domes, and the weather vanes on the chimneys create additional shades in the decoration of the church. In the mid-19th century, the dome of the cathedral was painted bright green, and the dome of the chapel was covered with white tin. At the end of the 19th century, the domes were repainted blue, and after the restoration in the 1960s, the main dome was adorned with golden stars. In the 19th century, the cathedral had four altars: two on the first floor and two on the second. The main altar was located on the second floor. A chapel in honor of the Life-Giving Trinity adjoined the church from the north, which was originally consecrated in honor of the martyrs Cosmas and Damian. In the mid-18th century, the chapel fell into disrepair. Nun Nadezhda bequeathed 1012 rubles for its restoration and consecration in the name of the Life-Giving Trinity. The will was fulfilled, and the chapel was consecrated in 1772. The iconostasis in the Trinity chapel was gilded. A refectory with one large round pillar was located against the western wall of the church and chapel. The main church was decorated with frescoes, while the chapel, refectory, and porches were adorned with oil-painted panels. The painting of the cathedral began in 1715. The altar in the church is separated by a stone barrier, as in the churches of the Rostov Archbishop's House. The iconostasis, arranged in 1825, is gilded, and the smooth areas are painted turquoise. To the left of the Royal Doors was the miraculous Tikhvin icon. The icons for the new iconostasis were painted by peasant Ilya Egorovich Sokurov, and the gilding was done by Moscow goldsmith Pavel Savelievich Volkov. At the end of the 19th century, a wooden ceiling was made in the church, painted in 1883. There was a door in the wall between the church and the chapel leading to the vaults of the Trinity church, where the monastery's archive was kept. From the refectory, there was an entrance to the sacristy. On the first floor of the cathedral, there were two altars: in the name of St. Alexius and St. Dimitri of Rostov. The layout of the first floor is similar to that of the second. The church in the name of Alexius was warm and was first mentioned in documents in 1743. It is likely that the warm church was the Cosmo-Damian chapel, which fell into disrepair after the establishment of the Alexius chapel. The Alexius church was enlarged in 1743 at the request of Anisya Chekina. The consecration took place in 1744. The church had a carved iconostasis, covered with gold, made in 1809. The chapel of St. Dimitri was established in 1794 and renovated in 1849. The refectory on the first floor is similar to the refectory on the second floor. In front of the refectory was a kitchen. In 1810, a porch leading to the cathedral was built. Above the porch rose a two-tiered bell tower, built in 1817 in the classical style. The upper tier is decorated with columns, and above the dome is a lantern with a head. The previous bell tower was tent-like, similar to the bell towers of the Resurrection and John the Theologian churches of the Rostov Kremlin. In the early 20th century, there were six bells in the bell tower. In 1889, with the funds of Elizaveta Dmitrievna Malgina, a clock with a chime was installed. The stone cathedral was a successor to the wooden ones, so it housed ancient icons and utensils. By the end of the 18th century, cracks appeared in the walls of the cathedral, which were repaired, but problems remained. In 1798, three buttresses were added to the wall. In the 19th century, cracks continued to appear due to ground deformation. In the mid-19th century, eight wooden houses for novices stood near the church. Behind the cathedral were utility buildings.