The Kazan Icon of the Mother of God Church in Rybinsk is the oldest in the city. Originally, it was a small church built in 1697, and a hundred years later it was adorned with beautiful frescoes. Today, the church is lost among neglected residential buildings and strange structures that are remnants of a once-existing temple complex. In the early 17th century, there was a men's monastery on the banks of the Cheremukha River, descriptions of which have been preserved in the Land Books. They speak of the Kazan Mother of God Monastery, surrounded by a fence, with a wooden church and modest decor. Nearby stood a wooden bell tower with four small bells.

After the revolution, the Kazan parish went through difficult times. In 1922, the seizure of church valuables began, and jewels worth almost a billion rubles were removed from the icon, along with several poods of silver taken from the church. In 1926, authorities returned to the church and took everything of museum value. Church property was transferred to the State Fund, and the iconostasis was cut up and burned. Five years later, the bell tower was dismantled, and the church itself was decapitated. In 1934, services ceased, and the church was closed. The community was left only with the warm Vvedenskaya Church, but it was soon closed and repurposed for housing. For several years, the church stood abandoned, and there were plans to open an anti-religious museum. However, the transfer of the church to the local history museum did not save its interior. Despite being recognized in 1926 as a monument of antiquity with 17th-century frescoes, by the 1940s, the former church housed the city archive. Documents were stored there until 1980, which likely saved the church, as the necessary temperature and humidity conditions were maintained for the documents, allowing the walls and frescoes to survive.

In Yaroslavl land, there are many variations of church completions. This is the so-called Yaroslavl 'classic' with heavy, powerful, closely set domes or, conversely, elegant, airy five-domes on narrow drums. The five-domed structure of the Kazan Church is the 'golden mean', moderately large and widely spaced. The apses are decorated more richly than the rest of the church's appearance. Textured 'pleated' cornices, geometric ornamentation at the foundation level, and columns separating the apses attract attention. The window frames, almost unnoticeable, are concise: a simple rectangle with protrusions at the top and bottom stands out on the walls due to the play of light and shadow. A plant ornamentation at the upper part of the window frame unexpectedly enlivens the dry decor. The Kazan Church is very compact: its length is 13.4 meters, width is 8.5 meters, and height is 12.7 meters. The height of the upper part of the church, from the roof cut to the top of the cross, is approximately equal to the height of the square base to the roof cut.