St. Nicholas Cathedral in Kup’yans’k was built between 1848 and 1852 according to a design by Fyodor Danilov.

The city’s first wooden St. Nicholas Church stood from 1705 to 1824.

The new church was built with funds from the landowner Ananyin and parishioners, with the participation of the nobleman leader Klepatsky. Its style is eclectic, with elements of classical and Russian-Byzantine architecture, the official style of the first half of the 19th century. St. Nicholas Church is an architectural landmark.

At the same time as the church, service outbuildings were built to the left and right of the entrance. In the 1860s, a garden was planted on the church grounds, which later became a public garden.

In the 1870s, two naves were added to the church.

In 1932, the dome and bell tower were demolished by Soviets, and meat was sold in the church’s sanctuary.

Services began to be held again in St. Nicholas Church in the 1940s. Gradually, beginning in the late 1980s, restoration work began, but it was not fully restored to its original appearance until the 2000s, according to a design by architects Vladimir Novgorodov and Yuri Likhansky.

It’s worth noting that the dome and bell tower’s crown were gilded with “golden” titanium nitride only in 2015; prior to that, they were covered with more authentic black copper sheets (the bathhouse’s shape was slightly altered during the roof replacement process). The church was adorned with more than 10 19th-century icons, crafted by Sloboda Ukraine artisans from the village of Borisovka.

The temple grounds were damaged as a result of shelling by Russian forces on September 26, 2022.

As a result of the shelling, the Sunday school and the church store were destroyed by fire.

But the temple itself and its interiors were still in good condition in photographs from August 2025.

The church did not survive 2026. As a result of shelling by Russian forces, the bell tower was destroyed, and the roof and outbuildings of the church complex were damaged.