[1] The notion that the city's principal structure, the Transfiguration Cathedral, ought to have been constructed in accordance with the plans of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome has been deeply ingrained in Dnipro literature for over 200 years.

The cathedral was considered a broad emblem of the vast socioeconomic and cultural changes occurring in the recently joined Southern Territory of the Russian Empire.

[2] The National Russian Military Historical Archive in Moscow is home to the original Transfiguration Cathedral projects.

An inscription-adorned copper gilt mortgage board is set in a particular location in the altar's foundations for the future temple.

A dome rising above the central pre-altar section, each with a diameter exceeding 8 metres (26 ft), are supported by the vault's four rectangular sails.

[4] According to accounts at the time, only the cathedral's foundation had been completed by 1787–1789: huge and tiny wild stone had been set with limestone filler, and deep trenches had been constructed.

[2] On 29 March 1806, Emperor Alexander I ordered the plans were revived and updated by Duc de Richelieu, but construction did not start until 1830.

The cathedral was closed in 1930, and was supposed to be demolished after the 1917 October Revolution[7] to make way for a monument honoring the head of the global proletariat was to be built in its stead.

[8] The diocesan bishops' and clergymen's resting places are currently located on the cathedral grounds, and next to the central gate lies the mass grave of those slain in 1941 in surrounding streets.

[6] The cathedral's distinctive iconostasis was kept in its original location on the pretense of historical significance, and the bell, which weighed four hundred beds, was hidden behind the church's gate.