The fates of the former Trinity Cathedral, now known as the Cathedral of Sophia, the Wisdom of God, and the Sofia Temple, which is now called the Nicholas Cathedral, are closely intertwined not only due to the similarity of their names. Both churches were the largest and most important in their city. The Sofia Temple stood out for its impressive size: it was a five-domed building in the "terem" style with five altars. Its bell tower, about thirty meters high, once towered over Laishево, but has not survived to this day. Both churches were closed during the Soviet era almost simultaneously; however, the restoration of the Nicholas Cathedral has been prolonged and is still not completed. The old Sofia Cathedral, built in 1767, is significantly older than the current one. It was constructed of stone, bypassing the stage of wooden construction, and its building was timed to the expected visit of Empress Catherine II. In 1780, when Laishево became a district town, the church received the status of a cathedral. However, the building is not eternal, and by 1853 it had decayed so much that it was dismantled. In its place, 17 years later, a new stone cathedral was built with state funds, consecrated in honor of the former one.

A quarter of a century after the cathedral was closed and the bells were removed, a cinema called "Zarya" was established in its building. The auditorium was arranged in the refectory, and in the pre-altar space, there were a buffet and restrooms. At that time, the temple lost its drums, domes, and upper tiers of the bell tower. Only in September 2013 was the cathedral returned to the believers, re-consecrated, and opened for worship. Today, restoration work is underway here. Builders and restorers strive to return the cathedral to its former appearance and make it even more beautiful. Originally, it was a massive building with a square base, three semicircular apses, a one-story refectory, and a bell tower. The windows of the refectory were arched, while the lower tier of the bell tower and apses had rectangular ones. The decorative design of the temple clearly emphasized the architecture of Russian terem houses of the 17th century, as seen, for example, in the rows of kokoshniks. A special attraction of the cathedral is the unique paintings of the interior, including works by the talented Mordovian artist and sculptor Stepan Dmitrievich Erzi. Surprisingly, of all the wall paintings in the cathedral, it is his works that have survived, created according to his own sketches on four pillars of the second tier of the temple. They depict 16 figures of Christian saints.