In the center of Tambov, the restoration of the church in honor of the Nativity of Christ has begun, which before the 1917 revolution was located at the Central Market of the city. The first step in this process was the construction of a temporary wooden church on the site of the future cathedral. On December 28, 2015, Metropolitan Theodosius of Tambov and Rasskazovo consecrated the domes and crosses of the church. On the day of the Nativity of Christ, January 7, 2016, the first service was held in the church, conducted by Priest Alexander Nepluev, who is responsible for the construction.

The pre-revolutionary Nativity Cathedral was built with funds from the honorary citizens of Tambov, the Ashurkov brothers, A.M. Nosov, and V.M. Anosov, and was consecrated in 1873. The church had three chapels: the central one in honor of the Nativity of Christ, the right one in honor of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker, and the left one in honor of St. John Climacus. This cathedral became the main attraction of Tambov in the mid-19th century. Its history began in 1836 when merchant of the 1st guild I.A. Suvorov bequeathed to build a church in the market square. Fourteen years passed from the foundation to the consecration, and in 1873, the solemn consecration of all three chapels took place. The cathedral was almost an exact copy of the Annunciation Church of the Cavalry Guard Regiment in St. Petersburg.

A year after the church was built, the city council appealed to the Holy Synod with a request to grant the church the status of a city cathedral, although there were no grounds for this. However, considering the diligence of the benefactors and the commitments to build a new church, the Holy Synod renamed the church to the Nativity City Cathedral in 1876.

The residents of Tambov complained about the high placement of the windows in the cathedral, as due to the high plinth, the windows were five meters above the ground. The clergy saw a special moral meaning in this architectural decision, as the worshippers could not be distracted by the nearby market stalls.