The Ascension Male Monastery was founded by monks led by Elder Gerasim, who arrived in Siberia together with the founders of the Irkutsk fort. In 1669, they separated from the Cossacks and chose a hill on the left bank of the Angara River for construction. The monastery was established on December 12, 1672, with the blessing of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich Romanov. Two monastic cells and a wooden church of the Ascension of the Lord appeared on this site, one of the first Orthodox buildings in Eastern Siberia. In 1678, after a fire, the monastery was restored, and the Church of the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God was built, consecrated in 1692. This church gained miraculous status as it remained unharmed after several fires, and in 1731, the Irkutsk Bishop Innocent Kulchitsky was buried there. However, in the 1930s, it was dismantled for firewood during the construction of a meat processing plant.

The saint Innocent held special significance in the history of the monastery. He graduated from the theological academy in Kyiv and, by order of Peter the Great, was sent to Beijing on a spiritual mission, but was not allowed into China. After living in Buryatia for about three years, on January 15, 1727, he became the Bishop of Irkutsk and Nerchinsk, and the Irkutsk diocese was founded at that time. Under his leadership, 37 churches were built in Irkutsk, and the first school opened in the monastery in 1725, where children were taught literacy and languages. However, a wooden house now stands on its site. Among the surviving buildings of the monastery is a small yellow structure that used to be the abbot's cells, which later also housed a school for the children of the clergy.

Kulchitsky managed the diocese for just over four years and died in 1731. In 1804, he was canonized due to the incorruptibility of his relics, which attracted pilgrims from all over the country, including members of the royal family. They stayed at the monastery's guesthouse, the building of which has survived to this day. In the 1930s, the monastery was destroyed, but services had ceased as early as 1925. In 1921, the relics of Saint Innocent were taken away in an unknown direction and were only found in 1990 in Yaroslavl. Excavations of the monastery began in 1992.

Among the surviving buildings of the monastery are two brotherhood houses, a school, a library, a bathhouse, and a sacristy, which were used as residential houses. The stone two-story cells located behind the "Melkombinat" stop have also survived. A tracing of their image was found in the Leningrad archive. Behind the wasteland, the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary with a refectory has survived, which was preserved due to its use as a club. During the excavations, part of the monastery wall was found, as well as the grave of Elder Gerasim, covered with an iron plate.

The existing structures of the monastery have changed over time. The windows of the sacristy have survived in varying conditions, while the Church of the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God was destroyed during the construction of the melkombinat. By the end of the 19th century, the monastery was a center of attraction, with schools, churches, libraries, and tombs of notable Irkutsk benefactors located on its territory. However, now nothing remains of them, and the towers of Soviet factories loom over the site of the monastery.