There is a legend, recorded in a number of sources of the 19th century, which states that Tsar Ivan the Terrible stopped in Snovitsy in 1552 on his way to his last, victorious, Kazan campaign. And as if resting, the sovereign saw a dream in which he beat the Kazan Tatars and captured their capital city. The dream came true, and, returning to Moscow, Ivan Vasilyevich ordered to found a monastery in Snovitsy and build a stone church in it. According to this legend, the toponym Snovitsy (Dreamers) itself recalls the prophetic dream of the Terrible autocrat.
It is reliably known that in 1640, on the very spot where the stone church now stands, there was its wooden predecessor. In the second half of the 17th century, it was replaced by a stone church, which, after numerous reconstructions and rebuildings, has survived to this day.