For centuries, the building complex was much smaller than it is today. It expanded to the northwest only at the end of the 18th and early 19th centuries, with the addition of the new cathedral and new wings. The monastery is clearly depicted before the extension in the drawing made in 1744 by the Russian monk and traveler Vasili Barsky. The north wing just behind the old cathedral as well as an intermediate wing in the south, where today the steps of the southern courtyard are found, were demolished in the expansion works that lasted from 1799 until the completion of the new cathedral in the 1830s. Barsky's drawing also shows 'the fortification around the monastery', which Symeon, the second founder, 'developed' in 1078. This consisted of the creation of a courtyard around the cathedral, which was protected on the west and south by the second line of walls, still partially preserved today.
