2 Roubles Peter and Paul Cathedral. Gomel

The Peter and Paul Cathedral in Gomel is one of the oldest surviving Orthodox structures in Belarus, its construction completed in 1819 — exactly two centuries before this coin's issue date. The Rumyantsev-Paskevich estate that surrounds it changed hands through two of Russia's most decorated military families before the Soviet state converted the cathedral into a museum, a fate common to religious architecture across the USSR. It was returned to the Orthodox Church only in 1989.