The first documented mention of the temple dates back to the early 14th century. The Church of Archangel Michael, which was previously a cathedral, served as a burial place for the princely family of the Gorodets principality in the 13th-14th centuries. According to legend, there was already a church on this site where the son and grandsons of Grand Prince Alexander Nevsky were buried: Andrey Gorodetsky, Mikhail, and Vasily Andreyevich. In 1368, the church was struck by lightning and burned down. It was later restored by Prince Boris Konstantinovich but was again destroyed by fire. The existence of a wooden church of Archangel Michael in Gorodets in the 17th century is confirmed by census books from 1623, 1627, and 1666. At that time, there were 6 households and fourteen cells on the church grounds where the poor lived, fed by the church.

According to literature and archival documents from the early 20th century, the Church of Archangel Michael in Gorodets, Nizhny Novgorod province, was built in 1707. However, no exact documents confirming the date of the church's founding have been found, suggesting its earlier existence. In 1712, an antimins was issued for the consecration of the church by a blessed decree for the newly built stone church in the name of Archangel Michael.

The brick church, erected between 1707 and 1712, is a single-domed structure without pillars, featuring a refectory and a southern chapel dedicated to the Nativity of the Forerunner, as well as a columnar tent bell tower. The northern chapel was added in 1860. The church was closed in 1935 and returned to the faithful only in 1991. The three-tiered stone bell tower, square in its base, measures 5.7x5.7 m and has an arched passage to the main western portal of the church. On the second tier, the bell tower transitions into an octagon with a ringing tier and a triple brick tent. To the east, there is a three-part altar with semicircular apses, to the west, a four-pillar refectory measuring 10.6x10.6 m, and to the south, a single-apsed chapel. The windows of the church and the lower chapel are adorned with keel-shaped frames made of patterned bricks in the 17th-century style, and the entrances are decorated with perspective portals, with the portal of the southern entrance to the prayer hall preserved. The onion-shaped brick dome is covered with tiles, and the cross on it is gilded. A similar but smaller dome crowns the southern chapel. Inside, the temple is bright and cozy. The prayer hall, according to measurements from the early 20th century, is a pillarless square, measuring 7.6x7.6 m, with one dome raised to a height of 11.7 m. Despite its small external dimensions, the church is very spacious. During major holidays, even with a large crowd, there is no need to squeeze between people in the church. In 2009, the summer church, the chapel of Archangel Michael, was repainted.