Built between 1868 and 1887, the cathedral was consecrated in 1888. It was damaged during the March 1920 massacre of the city's Armenians—and the destruction of their half of the city—by Azerbaijanis and experienced a decades-long decline well into the Soviet period. During the first Nagorno-Karabakh War Azerbaijan used the cathedral as an armoury to store hundreds of missiles. During the 2020 war, it was damaged by Azerbaijani attacks, which was designated a “possible war crime” by Human Rights Watch.