It was built by the Russian court architect Yury Felten in 1780, at the direction of Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia.

A memorial church,[2] it was erected adjacent to the Chesme Palace (Russian: Чесменский дворец: damaged during the Siege of Leningrad and restored in 1946) between Saint Petersburg and Tsarskoye Selo to commemorate the anniversary of Russia's 1770 victory over Turkish forces in Chesme Bay (Turkish: Çeşme) in the Aegean Sea during the Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774.

[6][8] The church is located in Red Village, which was a country estate of the Sergey Poltoratski family, friends of Alexander Pushkin.

[6][10] Located between St. Petersburg and the Summer Palace in Tsarskoye Selo, it served as a traveler's resting place.

Painted pink and white, the church appears like a "candy cone, with long, vertical white stripes (embossed vertical string cornices drawn together with figured horizontal fascias) giving the impression that it’s rising straight up from the earth like a mirage and shooting upwards".

[13] It is also said that the choice of the Gothic Revival architecture style was indicative of "triumph for ancient northern virtues in the spirit of the crusaders".

[10] Finials, spires and lancet windows were built over it, and the edifice emerged as a fusion of Gothic and neo-Gothic motifs.

The quatrefoil design was common in the late 17th century in many private estate churches and the style was known as the "Moscow baroque".

During the 18th century, its adoption during Catherine's reign was considered an experimentation reflecting "the increasing secularization of the upper nobility".

[7] When it was a naval museum, there was a vivid painting, in rich colours, depicting the sea battle and Russian victory over the Turks, in place of the "Christ the saviour in the iconostasis-less altar apse".

[14] The church precincts have been used as a resting place for war heroes since the time of its consecration and during the Siege of Leningrad.