Cathedral

"This Cathedral is damned, Daniil. Your project required a miracle to bear fruit, yet no miracle would ever happen within this empty shell of a temple."

- Yulia Lyuricheva

The Cathedral (Собор) is a building located in The Bridge Square opposite The Crucible. It was commissioned by the Kain family and designed by Farkhad. Despite being a cathedral, it doesn't function as a church.

Pathologic Classic HD
The Cathedral is one of the two buildings in town whose water supply is from the underground springs as opposed to the main water system, along with The Theatre. The Cathedral water comes from one of the hidden springs — the Cathedral's Stone spring. As such, the Cathedral is converted by The Bachelor to an isolation ward when the water supply is under suspicion.

The Cathedral is where The Inquisitor takes up residence during The Bachelor's Route starting Day 7. It is also the location where the decision must be made on the final day at 19:00.

The Marble Nest
Georgiy Kain orders to unlock the Cathedral against the Bachelor's orders. A Tragedian explains that the time in the Cathedral is frozen: the people who had spent several days there perceive it as though everything happened today. The Kains designed the building with the desire to alter, stretch and compress time, but their attempt at challenging nature turned out to be unfinished and imperfect.

The Bachelor can see Tragedians staging a mime play in front of the Cathedral. By acquiring a Heart he can trade with them which will prompt a dialogue.

There is also a camp behind the Cathedral set up by a small group of steppe people.

It is implied that Eva Yan committed suicide in the Cathedral just like she did in the Bachelor's route in Pathologic Classic HD.

Pathologic 2
"No religious significance. The Cathedral was the Kains’ attempt to probe the mystical connection between space and time, in the hope of creating a structure inside which time would behave strangely. They succeeded. The most important thing in the Cathedral is the gigantic clock. This is what makes it the key building in the game—time being one of its key driving forces."

- Pathologic 2 artbook

On Day 7 The Inquisitor arrives in town and chooses the Cathedral as her base of operations. After Day 8 Bad Grief resides in the Cathedral as well.

According to the townsfolk the Cathedral has nothing to do with religion; instead they claim that the Cathedral makes time. The Cathedral was the Kains’ attempt to probe the mystical connection between space and time, in the hope of creating a structure inside which time would behave strangely: "The Kains lay out their buildings in such a way that they change the perception and worldview of those inside them. I guess Simon wanted people feel the flow of time differently inside the Cathedral, so that's how he planned the building… But then rumors simplified the idea..."

Victor Kain says that all of the clocks in town serve as small Cathedrals. They don't measure time, but weave it. The Cathedral produces time, and the clocks distribute it. It is said that The Cathedral has been empty because time can only move on freely when there are no people around.