The history of the first Bor church is quite interesting. The Znamensky church was distinguished by the presence of nine chapels, which made it unique, as there were and are no churches in Nizhny Novgorod region with such a number of chapels. Even in Arzamas, the largest number of chapels in cathedral churches is six.

According to legends, this was the main, largest, richest, and most beautiful church on the left bank of the Volga within the entire Semyonovsky district. The ringing of its bells could be heard even on the opposite bank of the Volga. The church was built with the funds of the parishioners.

The first mentions of this church date back to 1533. In the land books of D. Lodygin, it is mentioned as 'the settlement of Nikolskaya, and in it the wooden church of Nicholas the Wonderworker.' Later, in 1794, a stone church was erected in Nikolskaya settlement in honor of the Icon of the Sign of the Mother of God, where the Nicholas chapel was preserved. Since then, the church has been known by a double name, the Nikol-Znamensky church.

In the new stone building of the church, eight chapels were built: three in the main part of the church, of the Sign of the Most Holy Theotokos, the Beheading of John the Baptist, and Saint Nicholas; in the warm church, added on the right, in honor of the Nativity of Christ and the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos; above the porch under the bell tower, three, in the name of the holy apostle and evangelist John the Theologian, the venerable Onuphrius the Great, Peter of Athos, and the holy venerable martyr Eudocia. The last chapel, built in 1881, was dedicated to the memory of the murdered Emperor Alexander II. The church was a huge two-story building, fifty-two meters long, with a refectory, porches, and stairs, consecrated at the end of 1794. A special attraction of the Nikolsky church, as it was and is called by the people, was the bell tower with a huge bell. Its size was impressive, one tongue of the bell weighed more than two hundred kilograms. For centuries, the Nikolsky church was the center of the spiritual life of the Bor residents. However, in 1930 and 1932, it was barbarically destroyed, with a city bakery placed in the building.