In the summer of 1709, Russian troops defeated the Swedish army in the battle of Poltava. Such an event had to be immortalized in history, and Peter I ordered to lay a wooden church with a bell tower. The construction of the latter lasted from 1728 to 1740. The name of the architect is unknown — over the years, the authorship was attributed to Giuseppe Trezzini, Pietro Trezzini and Mikhail Zemtsov. At the time of construction, the temple was far from the city center and burials began to be held near it. Next to the cathedral are the graves of famous artists, sculptors, architects who made a huge contribution to the formation of the image of the Northern Capital — L. Karavaka, A. Shlyuther, S.Torelli and others.

During the Great Patriotic War, the church of St. Sampsony was badly damaged. In 1938, the church was closed, and ammunition was stored there for some time. In 1999, the temple received the status of a memorial museum of national importance. In order to restore the buildings to their original appearance, large-scale restoration and restoration work was carried out in the 2000s. Today, visitors can see the unique elements of the pre-Peter era, which are harmoniously combined with elements of European architecture.

Currently, the complex of Sampsonievsky Cathedral includes three buildings - the main temple, bell tower and chapel, built in 1909 by architect Andrey Aplaksin. The architectural style of the chapel is markedly different from previous buildings.

The main value for the temple is the gilded iconostasis with a height of 11 meters. The images of the iconostasis were created by artists T. Bazhenov and A. Pospelov. The cathedral also houses icons of the first half of the XVIII century.

In 2017, the church was transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church. Today, there are daily services, excursions and other activities.