One of the first and most important temples of the city is the famous Meadows Catherine Church. The temple was built in honor of St. Catherine of Alexandria the Great, who was a patroness of Catherine II.

Empress issued a decree on 10 September 1779 to start work on the board of the economic construction of Pskov governorship in the designated city of Lugano in the form of a stone cathedral church; The decree ordered to issue a ruling on the position of the governor of the city - lieutenant-general by the name Sievers - six thousand rubles, set a date for execution of the order of two years, starting from 1780. To date, the project is not only the Cathedral, but also estimates, unfortunately, it has not been found. If we proceed from the terms of funding, the construction of the church finally had to end in 1781, but construction was never completed.

Soon the question of the construction of the church in Luga was again raised. The authorities have decided to build a wooden church. From September 30, 1782 have been published in newspapers announcement of the tender for the construction of a wooden church, but soon decided to choose as the main building material stone. In 1784, the Treasury has been allocated almost 24 thousand rubles, and in 1786 a stone church was built. Information about the consecration of the church does not have survived as the name of the architect.

Renowned lyricist K.Sluchevsky 19th century, traveling the north-western part of Russia in 1877, wrote a historical essay in which he described Catherine's church in Luga. Therefore, a more just struck a modest view of the Cathedral, despite the fact that he was the most important in the city. Cathedral in the name of Catherine the Great - a stone church, having a throne. As for his appearance, it is especially similar to the Protestant cathedral, because that does not quite fit into the overall ensemble of buildings of the city. The temple was built on the banks of the river, towering over the city's buildings in Luga. The plan in 1841 on the facade of the building presented corbels, and on the west facade there were four-column portico with a small bell tower. The church has a pretty impressive portico with a little bulge at the bottom.

In 1858, in the Church of St. Catherine was a fire, after which needed to strengthen the load-bearing function of the western wall due to the presence of the bell tower. Cathedral separates quadrangular fence, equipped with stone pillars.

The appearance of the church in the mid-19th century is represented in the drawings V.Bolotova where the temple is presented after the great fire that broke out July 27 1858. Shortly after the fire it was decided to reconstruct the church, including the construction of a new bell tower. Responsible for the project was appointed Bolotov VA Composed project was approved by the Novgorod Metropolitan Isidor, but the General Directorate of Public Buildings rejected it because of the inconvenience of location. Then the facade has a more majestic appearance, and August 2, 1863 the project was approved and adopted. According to the drawings, the temple volume expanded by small additions, but this has not been done, because the temple was located too close to the river.

Most likely, because of poor soil initially Catherine Cathedral was erected a small, whereby the emphasis decided to make to the external architectural design. That is why the temple completely devoid of expression, which was achieved monumental portico with large columns, a semicircular apse and a classical pediment plastics.

It is known that in the church there was a valuable icon of Our Lady of the Caves, which was moved from the wooden chapel, located five miles from the town of Luga, namely Smeshinskom area. The most famous priest of the temple was Laskin Andrei Filippovich, who served for the good of the church for about 60 years and held a liturgy in the church in the presence of Maria Alexandrovna - Empress and Alexander II.

Some time later, in the years of the Soviet regime, Catherine's church has been transformed into one of the cultural institutions, which housed a cinema for children "Homeland." In 1993, the temple was consecrated again and began acting.