From 1652 to 1654, with the funds of the Cossacks of Kuralov, the first wooden church dedicated to Archangel Michael was built in the settlement. This church is believed to have existed until 1767, when it was replaced by a new wooden church due to its dilapidation. According to clerical records, the second wooden church stood in the Karlin settlement from 1767 for over 130 years, until the early 20th century.

In 1875, the bishop of Simbirsk, Theoktist, visited the Karlin settlement and noted the poverty of the rural wooden church, as well as the fact that local parishioners were busy selling agricultural products in the neighboring city and did not attend the church diligently enough. After the bishop's admonition, in the 1880s, the residents of Karlin began the construction of a new stone church in the center of the village. The construction lasted several years and by the autumn of 1897 was mostly completed, but another year was spent on interior finishing, including the creation of a multi-tiered carved iconostasis. On November 1, 1898, the bishop of Simbirsk, Nikandr, consecrated the new church in honor of the Protection of the Holy Virgin. For some time, there were two Protection churches in the village, the old wooden one and the new stone one. However, after two major fires in 1900-1903, only the stone church remained in Karlin, distinguished by its capacity and the splendor of its architecture.

During the Soviet era, the Karlin Protection church was closed, plundered, and abandoned, but not destroyed. The sturdy brick walls of the church stood until the late 1980s, when local residents began its restoration. In July 1990, even before the completion of the restoration, the ancient Protection church was re-consecrated and became one of the first renewed Orthodox churches in the restored Ulyanovsk, Simbirsk diocese in 1989.

The architectural appearance of the five-domed stone Protection church in the village of Karlin is typical of the time when the "Russian-Byzantine style" was established in cult architecture after the experiments of Konstantin Ton and his followers. Despite its typicality, this rural parish church stands out for its special slender silhouette, rare proportionality of volumes, and harmony of transitions from the whole to the details.