St Nicholas' Eparchial Cathedral is better described as an architectural complex comprising three buildings: a bell tower and two churches. The five-domed Intercession Church which dates from the turn of the 18th century and the adjacent turquoise-coloured St Nicholas' Church which was completed in 1885. The complex was closed in 1930, but Archbishop Hermogenes of Kazan managed to persuade the authorities to reopen it in 1946, from which moment it became the Eparchial Cathedral of the Kazan and Tatarstan Eparchy.