Cathedral of Athanasius and Cyril, Patriarchs of Alexandria (Belev)

In written sources, the church is mentioned in 1620 in the Belev Watch Book of Churches, Posad Black Residential Courtyards and Yard Empty Places of the City, Letter and Patrol of Governor Vasily Afanasyevich Kirikreysky, where it says: “ In Belev, inside the city is the church of Athos the Great and Cyril of the Alexandrarians, woody. And in it: the image of the messenger Athos the Great and Cyril ... but on the bell tower of the bell . " The Belevsky scribal book for 1621 also mentions the church and Athanasius-Cyril’s parish ^{[1] [2]} .

In 1757, a wooden church burned down. A new stone church was built in 1757-1761 at the expense of parishioners, the estate of which was diverse: merchants, bourgeois, officials, military, peasants. But finally the temple was completed only by 1788. For services on the right side of the refectory , a chapel was built in the name of the great martyr George , hence the other naming of the temple - St. George. In 1790, on the left side of the refectory, a chapel was built in the name of the icon of Our Lady of Vladimir . In the future, the temple was repeatedly updated and repaired both outside and inside. In 1864, at the expense of Belev merchants, the brothers Subbotins and Kurabtsev were replaced in the refectory by the old iconostasis . In 1880, the church received the status of the Cathedral - the main temple of the city, instead of the Cathedral of the Transfiguration Monastery that existed until that time. In the cathedral there were ancient icons of Saints Athanasius and Cyril of Alexandria and the Great Martyr George, who were still in the old wooden church. There were also two things of the Empress Elizabeth Alekseevna , who died in Belev: this is a canopy that hung over her coffin in this church and a banner sent in 1827 from the Imperial Court ^{[2] [3] [4]} .