The exact date of the founding of the church in honor of Nicholas the Wonderworker, known as Nikola Gostinsky, is unknown, but it is mentioned in the Hundred Book of 1630. In 1629, a wooden cold church in honor of Saint Nicholas, Archbishop of Myra, burned down, leaving only a warm wooden church in honor of Dmitry of Prilutsk, which also burned down in 1679. On May 17, 1682, the construction of the stone Nikolskaya church began on the site of the burned wooden one, and it was completed in 1685. In 1698 and 1715, the church suffered greatly from fires and no later than 1720, it was raised by a second tier, becoming a cold church. The cold church is dedicated to Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker, while the warm church is dedicated to the Reverend Dmitry of Prilutsk, with an altar in honor of the Reverend Fathers Zosima and Savvatiy of Solovetsky.

In the lower Dmitrievsky temple, among the iconostasis, there were icons of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker, an ancient Greek icon of Reverend Dmitry of Prilutsk, as well as an image of Cosmas and Damian. In the kiots were kept icons of the Mother of God of Pashkov and the Mother of God "Help to Give Birth to Women," as well as an image of the Almighty on enamel. Among the valuables stood out a silver reliquary with 12 parts of holy relics and three rings from the relics of the Great Martyr Barbara, one bone and two silver.

In the upper Nikolsky temple, there was a temple image of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker. Simultaneously with the construction of the second floor in 1720, a separate bell tower was erected. Initially, it had a decorative dome, but in 1776 it was replaced with a slender spire topped with a cross and an angel. Previously, there was a wooden bell tower with 8 bells, built in 1674 and burned down in 1679. According to legend, the Nikolskaya church was built with the funds of the merchants Panov, as confirmed by an inscription on the wall of the porch of the warm church: "On March 19, 1746, the servant of God Vasily Alexeev Panov, a merchant of Veliky Ustyug, passed away." According to V. P. Shilnikovskaya, the church was founded by visiting merchant "guests," hence it received the name "Gostinskaya." Among the attractions of the church and bell tower are the domes, forged from green copper and gilded through fire, which cost 700 gold coins from the Panov merchants. In February 1930, the Nikolskaya church was closed and from March was used as a transit camp, and later as a carpentry workshop. On August 1, 1978, after restoration, the dome of the Nikolskaya church was opened, for which 70 grams of gold leaf were used. The dome and cross were made by specialists from the Veliky Ustyug Foundry and Mechanical Plant. A little further up the river was another temple, approximately where the sundial is now located.