Church burial tradition came to Rus from Byzantium, where emperors, higher official persons and patriarchs were honoured like that. The Moscow Principal Cathedral devoted to Archangel Michael, who was esteemed as a guide of souls of the dead, is a family necropolis of eth Rurikovich Dynasty and first tsars of the Romanov Dynasty. The burial places of the Ryurikovich are located along the cathedral's walls. Along the southern wall there are burial places of great Moscow Princes, along the western wall - those of local princes, close relatives of Great Princes; along the northern wall there are burials of princes, who died in disgrace. The most honoured places are located in the solea of the cathedral, close to the altar part. Here are burials of donators of the cathedral Ivan III, Vassily III and Vassily II. Tombstones of the Romanov Dynasty, that came to the power in the XVIIth century, are located at the south-western and north-western pillars.

The survived tombstones were executed in the 30-s of the XVIIth century. They were made of bricks and tiled with white-stone tables, adorned with carved vegetation ornament telling the name of a buried person and dates of his life and death. In the XVIIth century, each burial place was surrounded by a high iron lattice and covered with a black velvet shroud with an embroidered cross. On Sundays and holidays, black coveres were replaced with red ones, adorned with silver plates and pearls. In 1893, on the order of the Holy Synod, all the valuable covers of the princes' tombs were taken to the Patriarchal  Vestry.  In 1901, in Saint-Petersburg, there was organized a special committee to take care of the burial places and  bring them on order. On the committee's initiative, there were executed the nowadays' brass covers for protection of white-stone tombstones. Every cover is surrounded by a chased border with state coat-of-arms (double-headede eagles in corners) and topped with a cast bronze crosses. Metal cases with glass sides were mounted in 1911.