[1][2] The history of the Church of Mary Magdalene begins as early as 1778, when Mariupol was not yet inhabited by Greeks and was called Pavlovsk.

It was named Mary Magdalene after Grand Duchess Maria Fedorovna, the wife of the heir to the throne of the Russian Empire, Pavel Petrovich, who later became Emperor Paul I.

[1] Foundations were laid and walls erected, but after the resettlement of people from the Crimean Khanate (Orthodox Greeks, Armenians and Bulgarians who were relocated by the tsarist state from the Crimea), Pavlovsk was renamed Mariupol, the new church passed to the care of the settlers and its completion was delayed.

[11] Father Prokofiy Orlovsky, the rector of the new Church of Mary Magdalene, was elected chairman of the committee and the board of trustees.

[11] According to recollections of the era, the church kept the altar icon of the Saviour of time and an ancient, embroidered shroud.

[11][1][12] The church was built of brick in the pseudo-Byzantine architectural style and had three domes and three chapels in honour of St. Mary Magdalene, St. John the Baptist and in memory of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin, consecrated and celebrated the Divine Liturgy.

As a result of excavations in 2018, fragments of the church's foundation were unearthed near the theatre and placed under a protective dome for exhibition.