Nizhny Novgorod’s main cathedral took 13 years to build, sponsored by local merchants, and was inaugurated in 1881 for the visit of Alexander II to Nizhny Novgorod. It is 87 meters high.

Among its designers was Lev Dal, whose father authored the famous Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language. The cathedral is located in one of the greatest beauty spots of Nizhny Novgorod known as Strelka, a narrow strip of land at the confluence of the Volga and the Oka. The cathedral was restored several times. After the Russian Revolution of 1917, the iconostasis which was as high as an eight-story building and all the wooden decorations were used as firewood. There was even a plan to put a monument to Lenin instead of the cathedral, but the project was suspended. The interior adornments, iconostasis and paintings were lost, but you can still appreciate the third largest cathedral bell in Russia weighing 60 tons. The cathedral offers free guided tours by appointment, where you can learn about the architecture, sacred objects and places, services and sacraments of the Russian Orthodox Church.