On the former Varvarinskaya or Varvarovskaya Square, now known as May Day Square, three churches with the same name existed at different times. The first of them, made of wood, was built in Pokrovskaya Sloboda in the 1730s-1740s and served as a cemetery church. In the 1770s, it was replaced by a two-story stone church.

In 1781, Catherine II approved the regular plan of Tambov, resulting in the Varvarin Church being located within the city limits. Due to the new law requiring cemeteries to be moved outside populated areas, the cemetery at the church was closed, and the church itself became a parish church.

In 1806, a new, larger stone Varvarin Church with a chapel dedicated to St. Paraskeva was built on the square, which is depicted on the city plan of 1832. By that time, "police private houses" had appeared on the site of the old church. At that time, Varvarinskaya Square was one of the three trading squares in the city, along with Sennaya (now the central market) and Khlebna or Pushkarskaya (now Lev Tolstoy).

In 1935, the Varvarin Church was destroyed.

The cemetery church was dedicated to St. Barbara the Great Martyr, who was considered a protector against sudden death, that is, death without repentance and communion. Her life recounts her sufferings for faith and how she came to know God through contemplation of nature and the beauty of the world: the sky, plants, rivers, and streams.