The stone church of the Twelve Apostles on the Abyss was built in 1454 on the site of a wooden church of the same name erected by Archbishop Euthymius in 1432 in place of an earlier wooden church of 1358. For the first time the church was mentioned in chronicle in 1230 in connection with the building of a common grave nearby for victims of the plague.

Nowadays the small church with exquisitely fine proportions is one of the finest examples of 15th-century architecture. The architect adopted the traditional forms of Novgorodian churches in the 14th and early 15th century and reduced the decorative elements to an absolute minimum. The original trefoil gables were later replaced by a double pitched roof.

During World War II the temple was seriously damaged, in 1949 and 1957-1958 it was repaired.

In 1992 the monument was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

In 2017 the church was transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church.