The winter church of St. Nikita the Martyr, with a single dome, was built in 1799 on the site of a previous wooden structure. Its orientation differs from the traditional layout: the small apse is located to the west. Such deviations from church canons were common in the architecture of the 18th-19th centuries and were often explained by urban planning needs. In this case, the deviation from the rules is likely related to the choice of a location for a freestanding bell tower to the east of the church.

The bell tower of the Church of St. Nikita the Great Martyr in the village of Porechye-Rybnoye is the tallest rural bell tower in Russia. This remarkable monument of Russian architecture has inspired admiration among historians and contemporaries. However, archival data on its construction has not yet been found in RGADA, GAYAO, and RF GAYAO. This may be related to the fact that the old volost archive of the village of Porechye, where these documents could have been stored, was destroyed in a fire on May 9, 1887, when a large part of the village burned down.

In local literature, the first detailed description of the bell tower and the date of its construction, 1799, appeared in 1848 in an article by F.Ya. Nikolsky titled "Porechye-Rybnoye" in the Yaroslavl Provincial Gazette. Nikolsky's article is considered a reliable source, as the author personally visited Porechye to study the topic. He may have interacted with local residents who still remembered the construction of the bell tower and had access to documents through his brother, I.Ya. Nikolsky, a priest in the village.

In his article, Nikolsky describes the bell tower as a structure that, according to experienced travelers, surpasses the beauty of the bell tower of Ivan the Great, not considering its historical significance. The Porechye bell tower consists of five tiers, pierced by wide arches, except for the fourth. The lower tier is adorned with eight massive Corinthian columns and four towers topped with golden stars instead of crosses. The second tier is surrounded by half-columns. The third tier houses 10 bells, the largest of which weighs 525 poods. The fourth tier is blind, featuring a clock with four dials. The fifth tier contains 11 clock bells. A large apple and a cross covered in gold crown the dome. The height of the bell tower is 44 sazhen, and from its top, a majestic view of the surroundings opens up, making it one of the architectural landmarks of Russia.