The Ascension Cathedral is the main cathedral of the city of Ostashkov. The stone cathedral in the terem style was built in 1692 in the center of the Znamensky Monastery. The monastery itself has been on this site since 1673. In 1928, the Znamensky Monastery was closed. To this day, only the wall along Lenin Street has survived from it, as well as the beautiful Ascension Cathedral.
The Bolsheviks did not destroy the Ascension Cathedral, since the relics of St. Nil Stolobensky were transferred here from the Epiphany Cathedral of the Nilo-Stolobensky Hermitage. In 1928, the temple was still closed, but the relics of St. Nil were left in the church, as an exposition of the Local History Museum. The rest of the temple was occupied by a grain warehouse. Other buildings of the Znamensky Monastery were destroyed and wooden houses were built in their place.
After the WWII, in 1947, the church was returned to the parishioner. Services resumed there. The relics of St. Nil Stolobensky were in the Ascension Cathedral of Ostashkov until 1995. This year, the Epiphany Cathedral was restored in the Nilo-Stolobenskaya Hermitage and the relics were returned to their former place. In the Ascension Cathedral, a piece of the relics of St. Nile was left in a silver shrine.
