The Church of St. Nicholas was built by the Russian merchant, Ksenofont Serebryakov by name. A legend says that he had nearly drowned during a heavy gale on Lake Baikal and decided to build a church in honour of St. Nicholas, the patron and the defender of sailors and fishermen. The construction of the church was started in 1846 in Nikola village on the bank of the Angara and was finished after Serebryakov’s death by his wife Natalya. The church was taken from one place to another twice: at first to the lakeside of the Baikal – to the village of Listvyanka, and then, in 1957, to the Krestovaya Pad, 500 m (1600 ft) from the shore. It was caused by the rise of the water level in the lake in connection with construction of the Irkutsk hydropower station.