St. Peter and Paul Cathedral, one of the oldest churches in Lugansk, was opened after the completion of restoration work on the painting of its interior. 
The head of the LPR, Leonid Pasechnik, and the vicar of His Holiness the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, Metropolitan Nikander of Naro-Fominsk, assessed the results of the work on the painting of the temple.
The painting of the cathedral was initiated by the Head of the Republic in response to the appeals of the faithful. The works were supported by the Agrosphere company and executed by artists from the Palekh Iconostasis workshop from the Ivanovo region. The painting is based on episodes of the lives of the saints, whose names the temple bears.
The head of the LPR expressed gratitude to the clergy for their constant support and noted that the church plays a key role in the spiritual education of young people and all residents of the Republic.
Viktor Nagorodny, CEO of the Agrosphere company, noted that during the year a team of 15 craftsmen from Ivanovo worked on updating the interior of the temple.
Nagorodny noted that in the future the company is ready to support other projects for the restoration and painting of temples in order to preserve the spiritual heritage for future generations.
Metropolitan Nikander awarded those who worked on the painting and beautification of the temple with the Order of St. Andrew the Iconographer. He also presented the cathedral with an icon of a local martyr, urging people to pray to him and remember the power of prayer of the righteous.
***
St. Peter and Paul Cathedral — the main Orthodox church of the Lugansk diocese, is one of the oldest churches of the Lugansk diocese, preserved during the times of mass destruction. The cathedral can be attributed to the monuments of temple architecture of the late XVIII century.

In 1761, with the blessing of Bishop Joasaph (Mitkevich) of Belgorod and Oboyansk, a wooden church was built in honor of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul. After 30 years of construction, the roof and vaults, as well as the foundation of the church, fell into extreme disrepair, and therefore it was planned to replace the top and repair the foundation while preserving the walls, and then it was decided to rebuild the church in the same place. As a result, in 1793, the wooden church was replaced with a stone one.
In 1905, with the money of the parishioners, the building was renovated, a bell tower and thrones were built in the name of the apostles Peter and Paul, as well as the Intercession of the Virgin and the Presentation of the Lord. In 1916, the parish of the temple had a petty-bourgeois Lugansk elementary school, two Lugansk city elementary schools, a parochial school and a two-grade school of the Hartman factory. The street along which the church was built was called Petropavlovsk.
In 1929, atheists asked the authorities to close the temple and build a school instead. As a result, the cathedral was closed, and the building was given to the Union of Militant Atheists. The entire iconostasis (about 89 icons) went to the city council, and all the bells were given to Rudmetaltorg. The Atheist film club was set up in the church. Since the bell tower of the church was used for geodetic purposes, it was saved from destruction, only instead of a dome with a cross, a spire was installed on it.
The Peter and Paul Church was returned to the parishioners only in 1942. In the post-war years, episcopal services were regularly held in the church. The interior painting was updated in the temple, and external repairs were made. In the mid-1960s, in the Luhansk region, services were held daily only in the cathedral.
In 1991, the cathedral was decorated with a bell tower. In 1993, a throne was consecrated in the baptismal room in honor of the Holy Martyr Vladimir, Metropolitan of Kiev and Galicia, and an iconostasis was built.
In 2011, St. Peter and Paul Cathedral celebrated its 250th anniversary.