The bell tower, which was 44 meters high, was preserved by God's providence. After the destruction of the cathedral in 1934, it stood empty. During the Second World War, from 1941 to 1946, the church of John the Baptist was restored there, which had been operating here since February 27, 1787, the day of its consecration. The bell tower of the cathedral stood in ruins for a long time after the war, then it housed various workshops. On the 1100th anniversary of Poltava, it was decided to restore the bell tower and build a city museum in it with an observation deck on the upper tier.