The brick Church in the name of the Holy Great Martyr Nicetas was constructed in 1695 in the tradition of Moscow Baroque, using funds of the parishioners. Before that, there had been a graveyard on this site, and an older, wooden church had stood.
At first, the stone church was a house church of old Kolomna's very rich merchant family, the Meshchaninovs. This family was founded in the late 17th century by Demid Meshchaninov; apparently, it was by his efforts that the Church (a large part of it) was built.
In the 18th century, the bell tower was rebuilt (a covered porch was added), and the northern side-altar was enlarged. In 1859–1860, the southern side-altar was set up, and the refectory underwent a major redesign, which involved replacing the vaulted ceiling. The building was plastered, and the linings were removed from the windows (only those around the apse's windows survived). The first row of kokoshniks survived. On the whole, however, after the redesign, 17th-century Moscow Baroque yielded to the Late Empire style.
St. Nicetas Church is a single-domed and pillarless one, in the form of a double-height square covered with a cloistered vault. The Church has two side-chapels: the first one in the name of St. James the Apostle, the Brother of the Lord, and the second one in the name of the Holy Hierarch Mitrophan of Voronezh. The Church's walls and vault feature the surviving part of the 1830 painting, including subsequent minor restorations.
In 1778, a stone fence was build, using funds of the daughter of Ivan Meshchaninov, Collegiate Counsellor Tatyana Tetyusheva.
The Church owned a house, with its lower, stone part being occupied by a communion-bread baker, and the upper, wooden part being let out.
The Church's clergy were maintained using the fund set up by Kiprian and Domnika Kislov. Since old times, this had consisted of a priest, a verger and a sexton.
According to the Church's register of 1840, Pyotr Nikitsky served as the priest at St. Nicetas Church. The son of a priest, in 1799 he graduated from Kolomna Seminary, was ordained and sent to the Church of the Synaxis of Our Lady, Cherkizovo Village, Kolomna District.
On 4 June 1824, the third son, Nikita (Russian version of Nicetas, 1824–1887), a future philosopher, a social commentator and a publisher, was born into the family of Fr. Pyotr Nikitsky (who derived his name from the name of his church, which was a tradition: his father's surname was Cherkizovsky). At his seminary, Nikita (just like his two elder brothers, Aleksandr and Sergey) received a surname that was different from his father's: it was Gilyarov (derived from the Latin word "hilaris" meaning "joyful"). Having graduated from the seminary as the best student, he decided to enter Moscow Theological Academy.
In 1848, Nikita also graduated the Theological Academy; being a good student, there he had been awarded an additional part, Platonov, to his surname (as a holder of the scholarship established by Metropolitan Platon). Gilyarov-Platonov was one of the first in Russia to undertake a detailed analysis of Georg W. F. Hegel's phenomenology. In 1848, he became the chair of the Department of Hermeneutics and Confession, Heresy and Schism Studies at the Academy. His contemporary wrote: "He would never sit at his desk and read from his notes; instead, having just entered the auditorium and greeted his students, he would start going back and forth around the auditorium and would speak ceaselessly up until the bell rang, having in his hand a small piece of paper that sketched what he was to speak about during the lecture. And how well he spoke! His language was lively, brilliant and captivating; having no sign of being artificial, his words poured smoothly out of his mouth. Needless to say, his students adored him!"
In 1867–1887, Gilyarov-Platonov published the "Sovremennyye Izvestiya" newspaper. At the newspaper, he was the publisher, the editor and the most important staff member. Gilyarov-Platonov became known as a talented, profoundly educated social commentator and was remembered as an open-hearted and extremely honest man.
St. Nicetas Church contained sacred objects: a wonder-working icon of Our Lady of Jerusalem, a cross and an icon of Our Lady of Vladimir, the latter having belonged to Duke Dmitry Pozharsky. The Church also kept relics of many saints.
In Soviet times, the Church was destroyed and looted. On 22 April 1922, in the Church of St. Nicetas the Martyr, as it was officially put, "in the presence of the priest V. Petrov, the following was confiscated to be subsequently handed over to the hunger relief fund of the State Precious Metals and Gems Repository: 3 stars containing 18 diamonds, 1 turquoise and 181 pearls."
On 25 April 1922, in the same Church of St. Nicetas the Martyr, the authorities confiscated "silver revetments from icons (8 puds 19 pounds), 24 sanctuary lamps (12 pounds), 2 silver crosses (4 pounds), 2 tabernacles (18 pounds), 2 cups with utensils (9 pounds), trinkets (9 pounds)." [Translator's note: in early 20th-century Russia, 1 pud was equal to 40 Russian pounds, 1 Russian pound being equal to 0.41 kg or 0.9 international pounds.]
The Church was shut down on 22 December 1929. Its dome and the upper tier of its bell tower were destroyed.
On 31 July 2001, the Church, in a dangerous state, was handed over to the church community.
The reopened Church hosted its first Divine Liturgy on 28th September 2001, the day of St. Nicetas the Great Martyr.
In 2002, in the side-altar of St. James the Apostle, an iconostasis was installed, painted by the Kolomna artist Andrey Gavrilov. The Church pays a lot of attention to church chant. At the Church, a Sunday school and, in summer, an Orthodox urban camp are open.
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