The main shrine of the first ecclesiastical district was the three-altar cathedral dedicated to the Most Holy Life-Giving Trinity. This temple was built in 1814 and will soon celebrate its 200th anniversary. The cathedral is also associated with the Cemetery Church, a stone single-altar church built between 1852 and 1858 and consecrated in honor of the icon of the Mother of God "Joy of All Who Sorrow."

According to documents, on April 11, 1932, an expanded meeting of the Gorbatov City Council plenum, with the participation of local party, trade union, and economic organizations, reviewed Frolov's report "Religion and the Proletarian State." The majority of the population, reasoning that there are two Orthodox churches in Gorbatov, the cathedral and the cemetery church, as well as a third Old Believer church, and that there are two more Orthodox churches in the neighboring villages of Nizhny Izbyltse and Meshcherskiye Gory, decided to transfer the cathedral to a cultural center. They also proposed to hand over church valuables to the state and use the funds to acquire a brass band.

Despite loud statements, the church was not closed. However, on November 26, 1934, the presidium of the city council discussed the issue of stopping the ringing of church bells in Gorbatov. This was prompted by petitions from voters and requests from vacationers. The document states that out of 1,384 voters, 946 voted for stopping the ringing, and only four were against. As a result, it was decided to ask the Presidium of the Pavlovsky Executive Committee to stop the ringing, as it interferes with rest and study.

On January 11, 1935, the presidium of the City Council again discussed the issue of closing the Trinity Cathedral and decided to satisfy the requests of labor collectives to convert the building into a palace of culture and cinema, as the city lacked cultural institutions. They also proposed to convert the bell tower into a water tower to improve water supply. Two months later, a commission was created to liquidate the cathedral, and on March 25, 1935, the theater was equipped.

A cinema opened in the Trinity Cathedral, but local residents criticized it: "It was cold there in winter and damp in summer." During the Great Patriotic War, a soldiers' canteen was set up in the church. After the war, there were plans to convert the cathedral into a gym. In the mid-1950s, a decision was made to partially demolish the church and completely destroy the chapel and the watchman's lodge, but this did not happen. In the 1960s, the cathedral housed an RTO warehouse, and nearby were beer pavilions. For a long time, the church watchman's lodge served as the city bus station. Only in 1987 did the restoration of this long-suffering building begin, and in 1990 the church reopened for believers.