The first parish church in honor of the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God was originally located on Avilovskaya Street, now known as Gorky Street. In 1801, it was moved to the area of the Arsenal factory. In 1875, the land on which the church stood was purchased by the treasury to create an assembly workshop for the Bryansk arsenal. The church was demolished, and services were held in a temporarily arranged prayer house. In 1881, the construction of a new stone church in honor of the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God began, which included two warm chapels: in honor of Archangel Michael and the other Heavenly Powers, as well as Saint Barbara the Great Martyr. The warm part of the church was completed and consecrated in 1886, but work on the cold part was delayed due to a lack of funds. The church was sometimes referred to as the Archangel or Smolensk-Archangel church.

On May 26, 1927, the Bryansk city council appealed to the regional executive committee with a request to close and demolish the church to free up space for the expansion of the mechanical engineering plant (Arsenal). The regional executive committee supported this petition with resolution No. 43 on the same day, and the church was destroyed.