If we entrance to city from Vladimir, we would see on the left the Church of Saint John the Baptist, which stands on the site of an old wooden tent-shaped Church right on the edge of the moat, around the Kremlin.
The present Church was built in 1720 at the same time as the Church of Saint Nicholas and yet they are completely different in character. It too consists of a bell-tower to the west, a vestibule-type refectory and then the main body of the Church, but the total effect is extremely impressive, almost austere. The cube-shaped body of the Church with pilaster strips on the corners, which give the effect of the vertical boarding used to cover the ends of logs in wooden buildings, is very reminiscent of the simple, rectangular type of wooden Churches of the seventeenth century. The walls have no cornices and end with the horizontal line of the hip roof. The window surrounds are also restrained.
The building has a definite touch of the Novgorod and Pskov schools, an impression which is heightened by the austere bell-tower. The base of the tower resting on two strong pillars forms the Church porch, similar to the one which we can see in the bell-tower of the Saint Nicholas Church at the Galleys in Vladimir. Like the Church itself, the corners of the upper section of the bell-tower's square base are decorated with pilaster strips. Its simple form is emphasised by dark small windows. The square base supports a comparatively short octagon with the belfry and a number of slender half columns which contrast with the overall severeness of line. The tent-shaped steeple has straight sides sloping at a gradient of 1:2 with tiny slit windows.
The architect clearly preferred laconic architectural lines to rich adornments, although the magnificent portal of curved brick was evidently the work of a craftsman with a keen appreciation of ornament. Standing under the vaults of the porch in a fine interplay of light and shadow the portal enhances the dignified simplicity of the building as a whole.