The chronicler I. Ponomarev reports that in 1729, Bishop Lavrenty Gorka issued a decree for the construction of a stone church in the Pokrovsk parish on the Luga River. The patrons were the merchants Semyon and Maxim Pestovsky from Lyal. In 1740, the lower warm church of the Three Hierarchs was consecrated, and in 1750, the upper cold church in honor of the Intercession of the Mother of God.

Information about the builders and the circumstances of the construction has not yet been found, although it could explain the uniqueness of the monument, which stands alone as a whole ensemble. In the Veliky Ustyug branch of the state archive of the Vologda region, only a contract for the painting of the upper church with the Ustyug merchants Andronan Protopopov and psalmist Semyon Popov was discovered. They worked on the Luga for two years, but, as the patrons complained, did not complete the work and did not return for the third year.

The Pokrovsk church is not entirely unique, as the type of two-story building with an altar part, where the lower church is located under the apse of the upper one, appeared in Veliky Ustyug earlier. The region is characterized by the completion of churches with small tiered octagons, from where it came to Vyatka. However, many features of the Pokrovsk church are unique. For example, the combination of the lower altar made of two semicircles with the upper pentagonal one, the location of the bell tower, which may not have been originally planned. The western facade, with its magnificent decoration, could have been obscured by an annex. The bell tower was built closer to the end of the 18th century and connected to the northwest corner of the building through a narthex. Before this, there were probably wooden staircases leading to the second floor, adjacent to the refectory, on the walls of which portals have been preserved. The proportions of the church, especially its completion, are also unique. The main octagon is larger and longer than in other monuments, and the bell tower was lowered so as not to compete with the top of the church.

The facade decoration of the Pokrovsk church also creates a complex impression. Many elements can be compared to the Lyal Resurrection Cathedral, which is connected to the Vvedensky in Solvychegodsk. Here, there are capitals in the form of rollers, order-like window frames with columns, twisted or treated 'under carving', heavy broken pediments, and other elements. In the frames of the lower altar, there are gshlyastrichki, narrowing downwards, and on the facades, popular eyebrow shapes in Ustyug. However, all this is reinterpreted: the eyebrows are attached to the entablatures of the windows, and the plasticity of the details is exceptional. In the 18th century in the North, such richness and palatial splendor are not found.

The decoration sometimes transcends 'Moscow Baroque' and is marked by the influence of metropolitan architecture. This is evident in the windows of the upper row, the central frame with protruding 'ears', oval openings, and the framing of the side windows. The pediment-sandrik above the portal of the second-floor refectory could be in St. Petersburg. However, the elements that came from the banks of the Neva were perceived in a unique way. The cartouches under the upper windows resemble baroque stucco, but their design and the combination of stepped rectangles are unique. This is a whimsical invention of folk masters on a new basis.

The Pokrovsk church brilliantly combines the forms of Stroganov buildings, the Ustyug school of architecture, and metropolitan forms. It has no equal in Ustyug or Lyal. For the Russian North of the 18th century, it is as much a masterpiece as the Church of the Intercession on the Nerl for Ancient Rus. It is unacceptable to leave 'Pokrov on the Luga' in a dire state, threatening destruction. The restoration of the church, capable of attracting pilgrims, will justify itself and preserve one of the brightest pages of the northern stone chronicle.