The cathedral was opened in 1822. It was expected that the merchant will be mainly a fair merchant. However, it soon became clear that the parishioners feel uncomfortable in the church. The embarrassment they caused the icons, made by the Italian master Toricelli in the framework of the European pictorial tradition. Many saints were represented there in a semi-nude form, which was poorly combined with the concepts of Orthodox about piety. It came to the point that the merchants began to bring their home icons, wrapped in rags, into the temple. A few years later, the icons were replaced. The new iconostasis was designed by architect V. Stasov. After the cathedral of Alexander Nevsky appeared at the fair, the Savior Cathedral was called the Old Fair. Today, its name is all the more justified, that this temple is the oldest surviving structure on the territory of the fair.