St. George's Cathedral in Gus-Khrustalny is an outstanding architectural structure built by order of glass manufacturer Yu. S. Nechaev-Maltsev.
In the late 80s of the 19th century, the owner of the Gus factory, Yuri Stepanovich Nechaev-Maltsev, decided to build another church in the Gus estate. Knowing how to appreciate solidity and beauty, he did not stop at a typical provincial church. The project of the Church of St. George was ordered from the famous Russian architect Leonty Nikolaevich Benois, the author of the burial vault of the highest persons at the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg, the French Embassy Church, banks on Nevsky Prospect, buildings in Peterhof and other famous buildings. Benois himself would later write: "... I put everything I could into this church, and perhaps it will remain the best of my creations." Yuri Stepanovich allocated 560 thousand rubles in gold for the construction of the St. George Cathedral.
The majestic cathedral was built between 1892 and 1903. However, Benois himself only came to Gus from time to time; the architect Georgy Yakovlevich Levi was in direct charge of the construction. The temple was erected by local Vladimir craftsmen, whose work Benois compared to the skill of the best European stonemasons. The building was designed in such a way that it simultaneously combined the traditions of both Western European and Russian architecture. On May 25, 1892, the foundation stone of this grandiose structure was laid - the Cathedral of St. George the Victorious with chapels in honor of John the Evangelist and the Holy Martyr Sophia for 3,000 parishioners. Five years later (1897), the main construction work was completed, although the decoration of the temple took some time.
According to the original plan of L. N. Benois, the cathedral was to be painted with glue paints with gilding on the finished plaster. But the customer entrusted the painting of the temple to the painting professor V. M. Vasnetsov. For the St. George Cathedral in Gus, Viktor Mikhailovich began to paint compositions in oil not on plaster, but on canvas. The external solution of the cathedral in the "Russian" style amazes with the art of masonry and stone carving. The huge volumes of the structure inside are supported by elegant labradorite columns. The original mosaics of V. M. Vasnetsov have also been preserved - both on the facade, the image of St. George the Victorious, and inside. Currently, the cathedral houses a crystal museum.