Empress Anna granted permission in 1738 for a Catholic church on Nevsky Prospekt, and earlier designs by Domenico Trezzini were abandoned in 1751. Jean-Baptiste Vallin de la Mothe drew designs in the 1760s, and Antonio Rinaldi completed it. Groundbreaking was in 1763, and it was finished on October 7, 1783. The article names no style or materials.
It is a Latin cross, 144 feet (44 m) long, 82 feet (25 m) wide and 138 feet (42 m) high, holding about 2,000 people. A large cupola covers the transept, and a monumental arched portal sits on self-supporting columns.
It was closed in 1938, and a fire in 1947 destroyed the interior and organ. The city returned it to the Catholic Church in 1992. The main nave reopened in November 2008, and it became a minor basilica in 2013.
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