The first wooden Orthodox church on this site is believed to have been built around mid-1300’s, under the initiative of Uliana of Tver, the second wife of Grand Duke Algirdas. A brick church was built in 1514 by Konstanty Ostrogski as a commemoration of the victory in the Battle of Orsha. Since building brick-and-mortar Orthodox churches in Vilnius was forbidden at the time, he had to receive a privilege from Sigismund the Old to do so. The new church was built on the old foundation. It was a rather small, Byzantine Gothic style structure, with a triangular pediment on the façade and a small tower. It was given to the Uniates in 1609. Following the fires in 1747 and 1748, it was reconstructed in Baroque style. Up until the mid-1800’s, the church had been blocked off from the street by another house. In 1865, on general-governor Muravyov’s order, the surrounding buildings were torn down and the church itself rebuilt after the architect Alexander Rezanov’s design. The reconstruction was supervised by Nikolai Chagin. The old Gothic-style walls were preserved, the volume of the building left unaltered, but the previously Baroque façades were rebuilt in Neo-Byzantine style. A passage to Bokšto street alongside the church had been named the Nicholas Alley. Joan Shverubovich, father of the famous Russian actor Vasily Kachalov served as a priest in the church in the late 1800’s and Vasily Kachalov himself was born in Vilnius in 1875 and lived next door to the church (current 14 Didžioji st.) until 1893.