Walls and towers of the Kazan Kremlin. The Kazan Kremlin is a dangerous slide of life. Office Buildings

The Kazan Kremlin Museum-Reserve is included in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

What to see in the Kazan Kremlin
- The very walk along the high white stone walls makes an impression, and if you climb the Preobrazhenskaya Tower to the very roof - the entire city center is at your fingertips! The only and main street of the fortress remembers the Bulgarian emirs, Golden Horde khans and Russian tsars. This is the first street in Kazan paved with cobblestones, and it still has a historical appearance today.
- On the territory of the fortress there is the famous “leaning” tower of Queen Syuyumbike.

It deviates from its axis by 2 meters. The tower was named in honor of the last Kazan queen. The legend says: Ivan the Terrible, having learned about the beauty of the queen, wanted to take her as his wife. Having received a refusal, Ivan the Terrible attacked Kazan. Wanting to save her besieged city, Syuyumbeki agreed to become his wife, but set a condition: let the chosen one build a seven-tiered tower in a week. And when the request was fulfilled, the queen threw herself down from her. In fact, Syuyumbeka’s fate was different: the 29-year-old daughter of the Nogai Murza was taken to Moscow and there she was separated from her young son.

Special offers on the territory of the Kazan Kremlin
In the Hermitage-Kazan center school trips The quest “In Search of Treasure” is offered. This is an alternative to the traditional tour of the Kazan Kremlin, a walk with riddles and competitions around the ancient fortress.
In the Museum of Islam in the Kul Sharif Mosque, you can attend a master class “The Art of Wearing a Headscarf” and learn what beauty means in Muslim terms, how Kazan Tatar women wore headdresses at the end of the 19th century, why Muslim women leave only their faces and hands exposed, what 15 There are ways to tie a scarf.

How to get to the Kazan Kremlin
The citadel can be seen in the city center from all sides. Since the 16th century, the Kremlin has stood on a hill, surrounded by a strong white stone wall. At the foot of the hill there is the Kremlyovskaya metro station, next to bus stop"Circus".

A stone Kremlin appeared on this site in the 12th century. In 1552, the troops of Ivan the Terrible captured Kazan: the old fortress, including the mosque located on its territory, was destroyed. The construction of new fortifications, which have survived to this day, began in 1556. The work was supervised by the builders of Moscow's St. Basil's Cathedral - Postnik Yakovlev and Ivan Shiryai.

In 2000 architectural complex The Kazan Kremlin was included in the List of objects World Heritage UNESCO.

Photo of the Kazan Kremlin

Historical and architectural complex

The modern complex of the Kazan Kremlin occupies an area of ​​150 thousand square meters, the length of the Kremlin walls is almost two kilometers, the width reaches three meters, and the height is more than six meters. Behind the walls of the Kazan Kremlin there are many interesting objects - like historical monuments, and modern attractions.

The tower has five tiers. The first three are tetrahedrons, the last three are octahedrons. The height of the building is about 58 meters, it is crowned with a spire. The Syuyumbike Tower is tilted to the side. The deviation from the vertical axis is almost 2 meters.

- the youngest and most luxurious building of the Kazan Kremlin. It was erected in 1996-2005 for the millennium of Kazan. Part of the building performs religious functions, part is museum - it houses the Museum of Islamic Culture.

The Kul Sharif Mosque has five floors. In plan it consists of two intersecting squares. The building is lined with white marble and covered with a blue dome. Around there are four minarets 55 meters high with the same blue endings. Stained glass windows are inserted into the windows of the mosque, and part of the building is covered with ornaments.

The monument has its own backstory. Until the 16th century, when Kazan was taken by the troops of Ivan the Terrible, there stood a mosque of the same name, named after its last imam. So the construction of a new building is not only a symbol of equality of religions in the republic, but also a tribute to history. Also on the territory of the Kremlin (in the south-eastern part) there is Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery complex

, which has its own buildings. The monastery is not active today. The main temple of the monastery was Transfiguration Cathedral

, built at the end of the 16th - beginning of the 17th century. The cathedral was blown up in the 1920s. Now all that remains of it is the ground floor. Near the wall of the cathedral there is a small cave in which miracle workers were buried. This also includes Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker . This church, built in the second half of the 16th century and rebuilt several times later, Soviet time survived. IN this moment restoration is underway. The last building included in the monastery complex is fraternal corps

, built in the second half of the 17th century.

• In addition, in the Kazan Kremlin there are: Presidential palace
• (former governor's palace)
• Bishop's House
• Cannon Yard Junker School
• (the building houses museums and an art gallery)

Manege

The pearl of the Kazan Kremlin is, built in the mid-16th century, the main Orthodox building of the Kazan Kremlin. It began construction in 1556 and was completed by 1562. The reason for construction was the capture of Kazan by Ivan the Terrible. Tradition says that the king himself even chose the site for the foundation of the cathedral. Until 1922, the temple had a bell tower, which was then blown up.

The Spasskaya Tower of the Kazan Kremlin was erected in the 16th century; it is located on the side of May 1 Square. This is the main tower of the Kremlin with the entrance gate; adjacent to it is the Church of the Savior Not Made by Hands, from which the tower got its name. The tower was completed several times, rebuilt and burned several times. In the 18th century, a clock was installed on it. After the revolution, the double-headed eagle that crowned the bathhouse was replaced by a gold star - it remains on the tower to this day.

Taynitskaya Tower

The Taynitskaya tower was erected in the 16th century on the site of the destroyed Nur-Ali tower, from which Ivan the Terrible entered the captured Kremlin. The tower got its name later: all because secret passage, which went from here to a pure source. Here it was possible to get water even when the Kremlin was under siege. The source has not survived to this day.

The Spasskaya and Tainitskaya towers were built at the same time; initially they were very similar. However, over time, due to numerous reconstructions, their appearance began to differ.

Museum-reserve

The Kazan Kremlin Museum Reserve was created in 1994; all historical buildings on the territory of the Kremlin are under its jurisdiction. They house expositions of several museums, as well as exhibition halls.

Among them, the Museum of Natural History of Tatarstan stands out, where you can see the skeletons of prehistoric animals and finds from the era when there was an ancient sea on the territory of Kazan.

The Museum of Islamic Culture located in the mosque is also interesting.

The Museum of the History of Statehood of the Tatar People and the Republic of Tatarstan is located on the territory of the Khan's court. Here you can see a coin that is about 1000 years old, ancient jewelry and other items that tell about the material culture of the people and their way of life.

Cannon Yard

The Cannon Yard complex, consisting of four buildings, dates back to the 17th century; various reconstructions were carried out until the mid-19th century. The Cannon Factory, one of the largest in the empire, operated here. After a major fire, weapons production was stopped here, the School of Military Cantonist Battalions was opened in the buildings of the Cannon Yard, and in 1866 it was replaced by the Junker Infantry School.

In 2014, the restoration of the Cannon Yard was completed; temporary exhibitions are held in the buildings and a permanent exhibition is being prepared.

Monument to the Architects

The monument to the architects of the Kazan Kremlin was opened in 2003; it is located in front of the building of the Bishop's House. The idea of ​​the composition is this: to celebrate the merits of both Russian architects, whose creations have survived to this day, and the talent of the Tatar architects who erected the Kremlin destroyed by Ivan the Terrible. Today, fragments excavated by archaeologists help us appreciate the greatness of this original building - they are specially open for viewing.

Embodying the idea of ​​friendship between peoples, the sculptures created figures of two men - one of Slavic appearance with a drawing of the Spasskaya Tower, and the second of Tatar appearance, with a drawing of the Khan's Palace. The pedestal is surrounded by Russian and Tatar national ornaments.

Excursions

In the Kremlin you can book a number of exciting excursions, which are held not only on the territory of the Kremlin itself, but also in its surroundings - Kremlevskaya Street, for example. Duration sightseeing tour around the Kremlin - about 1.5 hours, it also includes a visit to the Kul Sharif Mosque and the Annunciation Cathedral.

Scheme and map of the Kremlin

Operating mode

The Kazan Kremlin is so ancient in terms of settlement that it can be considered a historical reference point for the surrounding territories. A long time ago, not a Kremlin, but just a hill, it was surrounded by water on three sides: in the east - by a chain of lakes, in the north - by the waters of a river, in the south and southwest - by muddy water. Such a strategically advantageous location has attracted people to the hill since ancient times: the earliest archaeological finds on it belong to the Mesolithic era; from the Bronze Age, fragments of a battle ax and ceramics remained on the hill.

In the 9th-10th centuries, settled settlements appeared in the Middle Volga and along the Kazanka riverbed, caused by the appearance of Bulgarian tribes. Scientists attribute the emergence of both Kazan itself and the first fortifications of the Kremlin to that time, although there is no written evidence of this.

The oldest walls in the Kazan Kremlin are. Of course, they are no longer the same as those that were in the Tatar fortress, not the ones that were built by order of Ivan the Terrible, but they exactly repeat the configuration of the ancients. The architectural ensemble, including the tower, was formed in the Kremlin XVI-XVII, and was completed and rebuilt many times. But in its main, unique characteristic, it has remained the same: the Kremlin strikingly combines Orthodox and Muslim buildings, such as the Kul Sharif mosque and, and the buildings of the 19th century have now become the main residence of the President of Tatarstan.

The historical value of the building, witness to the main geopolitical processes and events on a vast expanse of land, as well as its cultural significance contributed to the fact that in 2000 the Kazan Kremlin was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

From far away - today

Among scientists there is no consensus when the first Bulgar fortress arose on the site of the Kremlin. Some call it the 10th century, others call it the 12th century. It is only known for certain that the Bulgars, also known as the Proto-Bulgarians, were Turkic tribes who migrated along the Danube and the Middle Volga region in the 7th century and built a fortification on a hill convenient for defense.

When the lands of the Slavs came under the control of the Golden Horde, the Kazan Kremlin became the center of the Kazan principality within its composition after the destruction of the Bulgar capital - the city of Bulgar. Until 1445, the Kremlin was the residence of the Bulgar princes, and after, when the Horde collapsed, it was the center of the Kazan Khanate until 1552. The Khanate was founded by the Horde member Ulu-Mukhammed, who captured Kazan with an army of 3,000 people and restored the system of collecting tribute from Moscow.

The Khan's fortress (Ark) was surrounded by oak walls - incredibly powerful, up to 9 meters thick. For access to the fortress, 4 passage towers were built, stone “royal chambers” (as Andrei Kurbsky wrote) and stone mosques were built inside, the main one of which had 8 minarets. Schools - madrasahs - were opened at the mosques.

The sight of the grandiose buildings amazed everyone who found themselves near the Kazan Kremlin; the walls and towers seemed impregnable. However, they could not resist during the siege by the army of Ivan the Terrible - and in 1552 the Kazan Kremlin - with its awesome oak walls and beautiful minarets - turned into ruins...

The wisdom and state foresight of Ivan the Terrible forced the tsar not to abandon the city and fortress into oblivion, but to instill his culture on this land. Almost immediately after the conquest, by decree of Ivan IV, the construction of a new Kremlin began - stone and Christian.

Defensive structures of the Kremlin - towers and walls

The total length of the walls of the Kazan Kremlin is 1,800 meters. The walls, like the towers, were built in stages. The first stage was construction in 1556-1562 under the leadership of Pskov masters, Postnik Yakovlev and Ivan Shirai, who erected St. Basil's Cathedral.

According to their plan and under their management, white stone walls and fortresses were built on the southern and northern sides. Where oak walls were preserved, they were included in the stone fencing; new wood was often brought in for the construction of towers and other structures, since there was not enough stone to short term protect the territory from external enemies.

Only in the 16th – 17th centuries was wood completely replaced by stone - this was the second stage of the Kremlin’s development. In the 18th century, at the third stage, the walls were built on.

In a census book dated 1675, clerk Alexei Nikonov names 13 towers of the Kazan Kremlin - Spasskaya travel, South-Western round, Preobrazhenskaya, Pentagonnaya, Tainitskaya, Northern Round, North-Eastern Round, Dmitrovskaya travel, Consistorskaya, . In the 19th century, 5 towers were dismantled, but today their locations are museumized and presented to tourists. All surviving towers are somewhat pushed forward relative to the walls, have 2–4 tiers, are equipped with loopholes, and are completed with rectangular battlements with a tent covering.

Presidential (Governor's) Palace

The Governor's, and now the Presidential, palace has 2 floors. The main facade in the center is decorated with rhizolite - 8 half-columns of the Corinthian order at the level of the second floor. The palace is crowned by a pediment of 3 keeled arches, in the middle arch there is the coat of arms of Tatarstan. In general, the facade is eclectic, but created according to the rules of harmony. The interior decoration, on the contrary, is designed in a single modernized classicism style.

To the west of the Governor's Palace is the palace church, connected to the palace by a passage gallery. It was built in the 17th century, and in 1859 it was consecrated in the name of the Descent of the Holy Spirit.

The Syuyumbike Tower, the architectural emblem of Kazan, also belongs to the palace complex. The tower is named after the Tatar queen, the former wife of the last 2 khans of the fortress. The tower was probably erected at the end of the 17th - beginning of the 18th century. The elegant structure has 5 tiers: 3 tetrahedrons, decreasing in width and height, carry 2 octahedrons, topped with a faceted brick pyramid tent and a crescent on an apple.

Syuyumbike Tower is another “ Leaning Tower of Pisa" Its deviation from the axis reached 1 meter 98 centimeters. Due to the threatening tilt, the tower was strengthened at the beginning of the 20th century, in the 50s, 70s, and 80s of the 20th century, but the movement of the tower was stopped only in 1998, reversing it slightly and fixing it at 1.8 meters.

Ancient elements palace complex- fragments of mausoleums preserved from the 15th-16th centuries. In 1977, to the west of the Syuyumbike tower, 2 monumental stone mausoleums were found, in which burials were performed according to Muslim rites. Scientists were able to establish that Khan Mahmud (died in the 15th century) and Khan Muhammad-Emin (died at the beginning of the 16th century) were buried in the mausoleums. In the burial pits, wooden coffins were found, covered with perfectly dressed leather, nailed with silver nails (a classic Muslim funeral rite).

20th century - destruction and revival of the Kazan Kremlin

After the revolution, terrible destruction in its barbaric force occurred in the Kazan Kremlin. The church of the Spassky Monastery, the Church of Cyprian and Justinia, the Annunciation Bell Tower, the Spasskaya Chapel are gone, iconostases have been looted, icons have disappeared...

However, in defense ancient monument Scientists and local historians speak. In the 60s of the twentieth century, the Tatar restoration workshop was created to restore relics, and earlier - since the 30s - the Kremlin has been studied by archaeologists, continuing the work begun by their colleagues before the revolution.

In the 90s, a program was developed that determined the main paths and time frames for the restoration of the Kazan Kremlin. In 1994, the Kremlin received the status of a State Museum-Reserve, the walls, Resurrection, towers, Annunciation Cathedral, and the Governor's Palace were restored, many destroyed and dilapidated buildings were museumized and subject to conservation.

In 1995, the reconstruction of the Kul Sharif mosque began - the main eight-minaret mosque of the Khan of Kazan, destroyed by the army of Ivan the Terrible. The construction of the mosque was dictated by both historical significance and UNESCO's requirement for the Kremlin to be included in the World Heritage Site. It was supposed to maintain cultural and religious balance, become a symbol of peace and unity of two peoples and religions.

The mosque was built in 1996 – 2005 according to a project that combined the ideas and findings of different architects. Overall plan buildings - 2 squares intersected at an angle of 45 degrees - a sign of Allah's blessing. The temple received its name after the last imam, Seid Kul Sharif, who took part in the defense of the city from Russian troops. Today Kul Sharif is a memorial, religious and educational center with a Museum of Islam.

... The Kul Sharif Mosque became the final building of the Kremlin, uniting its inseparably amazing history - an accurate reflection of the history of the two peoples. As a symbol of the fusion of cultures, creative and spiritual unity, a monument to architects of all eras and nationalities was unveiled on the territory of the Kazan Kremlin. And the personification of such unity are two figures - a Tatar and a Russian.

Address: Kazan, Kremlin.

Website: www.kazan-kremlin.ru

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Ancient history

Tower Syuyumbike

Governor's Palace

Blagoveshchensky cathedral

Cannon yard complex

Consistory building

Bishop's House

Junker School

Guardhouse building

Kazan Kremlin(tat. Kazan kirmane) - the oldest part of Kazan, a complex of architectural, historical and archaeological monuments that reveal the centuries-old history of the city: archaeological remains of the first (XII-XIII centuries), second (XIV-XV centuries) and third settlements (XV-XVI centuries); white stone Kremlin, a number of temples and buildings of great historical, architectural and cultural value, official residence President of Tatarstan.

The Kremlin territory is an irregular polygon in plan, repeating the contours of the Kremlin hill, stretched from the northwest, from the Kazanka River, to the southeast, to May 1 Square. Located on the cape of a high terrace on the left bank of the Volga and the left bank of the Kazanka.

It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2000.

Story

Ancient history

No written evidence of the emergence of the Kremlin has survived to this day, but according to the official version, the city of Kazan was founded at the beginning of the 10th century. At the beginning of its existence, the Kremlin was called Kerman(tat. Kirman). There are no written sources on this matter.

XII-XIV centuries. Bulgar fortress

The earliest archaeological finds were found in the northern part of the Kremlin, closer to Kazanka, where the oldest Bulgarian fortified settlement and later, during the century, the fortress of the Kazan Khanate were located. Researchers differ regarding the dating of wooden fortifications of the ancient period: some believe that the Bulgar trading settlement was fortified already in the 10th century, others - only in the 12th century. Scientists also differ regarding the nature of the fortifications; some believe that the stone walls were partially erected already in the 12th century, others believe that only in the 15th or 16th centuries, after the reconstruction of the Kremlin by order of Ivan the Terrible by Pskov architects.

From the 2nd half of the 13th century to the 1st half of the 15th century, the Kremlin turned into the center of the Kazan principality (velayet) as part of the Golden Horde: in 1236, the Mongol hordes led by Batu invaded the Volga Bulgaria and ravaged its capital Bulgar, and in In 1240, Bulgaria, like the Russian principalities, finally found itself subordinate to the Golden Horde. Some of the Bulgars fled to the Kazanka regions and founded Iske-Kazan, a city 45 kilometers from Kazan. In 1370, the Bulgar prince Hasan laid the foundation of a fortress on the site of the modern Kazan Kremlin, which served as the residence of the Bulgar princes until 1445.

XV - first half of the XVI century. Khan's fortress

After the collapse of the Golden Horde, the Kremlin became the center of the Kazan Khanate, which existed from 1445 to 1552. In the fall of 1445, the Horde khan Ulu-Mukhammed with a detachment of 3,000 soldiers captured Kazan, executed the Bulgar prince Alimbek, thus founding the Kazan Khanate on the ruins of Volga Bulgaria, and soon resumed the Horde system of collecting tribute from the Moscow principality.

Khan's citadel ( Ark) was surrounded by oak (possibly stone in places) walls, up to 9 meters thick with 4 passage towers: Nur-Ali, Elabuga, Big and Tyumen Gates. Ilisty Bulak (from Tat. "sleeve", a channel connecting the Kazanka River and Lake Kaban) defended the fortress from the west; and on the least protected south-eastern side the fortress was fenced with deep ditches.

Andrei Kurbsky left the following description of Kazan: “And from the Kazan River the mountain is so high that you can’t even close your eyes; there is a city on it and the royal chambers and mosques are very high, walled, where their dead kings were laid, we remember the number of them, five of them ... "(“walled” - stone).

According to legend, the cathedral mosque had 8 minarets; at the mosques there were madrassas and mausoleums (durbe). There is every reason to believe that the appearance of the mosques was similar to the stone buildings of the same time in Kasimov and Bulgar, where the smooth planes of the walls contrast with elegant carved and ceramic inserts of decorative elements.

Tezitsky (Arab. tezik - merchant) a ditch separated the khan's citadel from the southern part, where the buildings were wooden. The khan's close associates settled here and there was a cemetery.

Second half of the 16th century. Construction of a stone Kremlin

After the siege of Kazan by Ivan the Terrible in 1552, the fortress lay in ruins. For the construction of a new white stone Kremlin the tsar called upon the Pskov architects Postnik Yakovlev and Ivan Shirai (the builders of St. Basil's Cathedral), as the chronicle narrates “The sovereign commanded the broken and burnt city walls to edify,” for which purpose the Pskov elders “and with them the church and city master Postnik Yakovlev and the Pskov masons Ivashka Shirya and his comrades for spring in Kazan new town Do Kazan, recruit two hundred people from Pskov masons, wall workers and scrapers, as many as fit people will be.”. The fortress was significantly expanded, 6 towers (out of 13) were built of stone (five were travelable), but in the 16th century it was possible to replace only a third of the wooden walls (total length 1800 meters) with stone ones and most of the walls and towers of the Kremlin were built of oak. Only at the beginning of the 17th century did the final replacement of the wooden defensive structures of the Kazan Kremlin with stone ones take place.

Along with the construction of the walls, Pskov craftsmen also built the first Orthodox churches Kazan Kremlin: Annunciation Cathedral, the Church of Cyprian and Justina, the Church of Dmitry of Thessaloniki at the Dmitrievskaya Tower, the Spasskaya (in honor of the icon of the Image Not Made by Hands) church at the Spasskaya Tower, as well as two monasteries - Trinity-Sergius with wooden Trinity and Sergius churches and Spaso-Preobrazhensky, With stone temple St. Nicholas the Ratny and the stone, hewn limestone, basement of the wooden (in the 16th century) Transfiguration Cathedral.

For a long time (more than a century and a half), five stone buildings from the khan’s time (the khan’s mosque, the khan’s palace and mausoleums) were preserved in the Kazan Kremlin, used as storage facilities for storing weapons and ammunition, but over time they were dismantled due to disrepair. The Englishman D. Fletcher left remarkable memories of Russian Kremlins in the 16th century: “four fortresses - Smolensk, Pskov, Kazan and Astrakhan - were built very well and can withstand any siege... they are considered impregnable.” An interesting testimony of the Kremlin and the city at the turn of the century was left in 1599 by the secretary of the Persian embassy, ​​Orudzh-bek (who later converted to Christianity in Spain and was later known as Don Juan of Persia), sent to Tsar Boris Godunov: "We arrived at a very Big city, belonging to the Russian Tsar. It is called Kazan and has more than fifty thousand Christian inhabitants. There are many churches in the city and there are so many large bells in them that it is impossible to fall asleep on the eve of the holiday. ... All the houses of this city are wooden, but there is a large and strong fortress with stone walls; it contains a very significant number of warriors who hold posts at night - just like in Spain, Italy and Flanders.”

17th century

After the fire of 1672, brick construction began in the Kremlin; a number of towers, including Spasskaya, were significantly rebuilt by Moscow (judging by stylistic criteria) architects.

XVIII century

Due to the expansion of the Russian state, the Kazan Kremlin lost its military function, but strengthened as the administrative and cultural center of the Volga region. In 1708, the Kazan province was formed, which was reflected in the architectural appearance of the Kremlin; over the following centuries, the Governor's Palace, government buildings, a cadet school, a new bishop's house, the building of a spiritual consistory were erected there, and the Annunciation Cathedral was significantly reconstructed.

The Pugachev uprising of 1773-1775 again turned the Kazan Kremlin into a fortress, which the rebels shelled with cannons for two days. On July 14, 1774, the troops of Emelyan Pugachev were forced to retreat from Kazan. Nevertheless, Emelyan Pugachev still visited the Kazan Kremlin - he was kept there in one of the casemates before being sent to execution in Moscow.

Since 1774, the architect V.I. Kaftyrev began to implement the highest approved regular plan for the urban development of Kazan, which provided for the construction of an ensemble of Government places in the Kremlin. Comprehensive development of the squares and streets adjacent to the Kremlin began. It became its starting point - wide streets radiated from it.

19th century

In 1800, the publisher and educator Maxim Nevzorov left a description of the main fortress of the vast Kazan province: “It contains the cathedral Church of the Annunciation, the 2nd class Spaso-Preobrazhensky monastery, the Church of Cyprian and Justina, the bishop’s house with a spiritual consistory, government offices and connected to They include the governor-general’s house with all the services, the artillery workshop, the guardhouse, the old commandant’s house, well casemates, old wooden provisions and salt stores.” During the Napoleonic invasion, a factory for the manufacture and repair of cannons operated on the territory of the Kazan Kremlin. TO end of the 19th century century, both the internal architectural complex of the Kremlin itself and the modern urban ensemble surrounding it took shape.

XX century

After the revolution of 1917, in the 1920-1930s, during the period of struggle against religion, the bell tower and cathedral church of the Spassky Monastery, the bell tower of the Annunciation Cathedral, the Church of Cyprian and Justinia, the Spasskaya Chapel at the Spasskaya Tower were destroyed, the iconostases, revered icons and relics of Kremlin churches. During the Soviet period, the archaeological study of the Kremlin continued (since 1917: N. Borozdin, N. Kalinin, since 1976 - A.X. Khalikov), begun in the 19th century by Kazan University professor N.P. Zagoskin, P.A. Ponomarev and other Kazan local historians. In the 1960s, the Tatar restoration workshop was formed. With the formation of the Republic of Tatarstan in 1992, the Kazan Kremlin became the residence of the President of the Republic of Tatarstan.

In 1993-1994, the “Main directions for the reconstruction and development of the Kazan Kremlin complex” were developed. On January 22, 1994, by decree of the President of the Republic of Tatarstan, the State Historical, Architectural and Art Museum-Reserve “Kazan Kremlin” was created, marking the beginning of a systematic scientific study and restoration of the Kremlin complex. Most of the defensive walls were restored, as well as three towers - Preobrazhenskaya, Tainitskaya, Voskresenskaya. The bases of four previously collapsed and dismantled towers were studied by archaeologists, after which they were conserved and museumified. Also, several objects of the 15th-16th centuries in the ancient part of the Kremlin were subjected to conservation and museumification: the archaeological remains of one of the representative buildings from the complex of the Khan’s court, the Khan’s mosque, the tomb of the Kazan khans. The construction of a mausoleum was begun for the reburial of the remains of the khans recovered during the excavations. During the excavations, the graveyard of the Trinity Monastery, the necropolis and the “cave” of the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery were also discovered, where the burials of locally revered Kazan saints were preserved under a layer of asphalt and rubble (after the explosion of the Transfiguration Cathedral in 1930). By strengthening the foundations, it was possible to stop the fall of the Syuyumbike tower (with a deviation from the axis of almost 2 meters). At this time, the Governor's Palace was completely restored (with the revival of the palace enfilade layout and the front square in front of the main facade) and the Palace Church.

Four buildings included in the Cannon Yard complex were also restored. The Cathedral of the Annunciation has been restored in the complex of the Bishop's Court. In 1995, work began on recreating the legendary Kul Sharif mosque and restoring the interiors: uncovering frescoes, recreating the iconostasis of the Annunciation Cathedral. Under the cathedral, the underground church of “All Saints” with the necropolis of the Kazan bishops was cleared, and the cell of the Kazan High Hierarch Gury, adjacent to the cathedral from the south, was restored. The mosque complex was originally planned as a religious, cultural, educational and memorial center, so the Museum of Islam was located in the lower floor of the building.

On November 30, 2000, at the session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, it was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. The Kazan Kremlin has absorbed the achievements of Tatar and Russian urban planning art; in memory of this, a monument to Russian and Tatar architects was erected in the Kremlin in the park near the Annunciation Cathedral.

Architectural ensemble of the Kazan Kremlin

Towers and buildings of the Kazan Kremlin:

Walls and towers

After the completion of the construction of walls and towers by Pskov architects, the Kremlin had 13 towers, of which 5 were travel towers, 7 were round and 1 was pentagonal in plan. Due to dilapidation in the 19th century, the North, East, Pentagonal and one unnamed western tower were dismantled. During reconstruction in the 1st half of the 18th century, the Spasskaya and Tainitskaya towers were built with additional brick tiers; the Preobrazhenskaya, Consistorskaya and the second nameless Western towers also acquired brick completions. In the 19th century, the Dmitrovskaya Tower was dismantled, a passage arch appeared in its place, and the Resurrection Tower lost its gate church. The spindles between the towers initially ended with straight battlements, covered with a hewn roof, and by the 17th-18th centuries. took on the appearance of a battle wall with arched decorations - “swallow tails” on its facade. The walls and towers were laid using lime mortar.

• Spasskaya Tower. Built in the 2nd floor. 16th century Pskov architects Ivan Shiryai and Postnik Yakovlev. On the inner, northern side of the fortress, the Spasskaya Tower was adjacent to the gateway Spasskaya Church, which by now had become one with the tower. Her typically Pskov style architectural elements The facade faces the main street of the Kremlin. At the end of the 17th century, instead of the 3rd tier, the tower was built on with two 8-sided brick tiers with a brick tent, receiving its current appearance, familiar to Kazan residents. Until 1917, the tower was crowned with the double-headed coat of arms of the Russian state, in the upper tier in the 18th century a clock “with ringing” was installed and even earlier a large alarm bell was moved from a small belfry (now lost, located on the wall on the left side of the tower). In front of the tower until the middle of the 19th century there was a moat with a stone bridge.
• Southwest Tower It was built simultaneously with the Spasskaya Tower by Pskov craftsmen and is a classic example of the Pskov style of defensive structures.
• Preobrazhenskaya Tower. The tower received its name from the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery of the Kremlin, which it fenced off from the north-west. Despite the fact that the Preobrazhenskaya Tower was also built by the Pskov architects Postnik and Barma, it may have been significantly rebuilt later, as it has strong traces of the architectural influence of Moscow defensive architecture. The territory from the Preobrazhenskaya Tower to the Spasskaya passage was added to the old Khan's fortress by Pskov craftsmen.
• Polyhedral (pentahedral) tower also built by Pskov architects. The skeleton has been preserved.
• Unnamed round tower- a brick building, presumably erected by Moscow architects in the 17th century.
• North-West Tower. The skeleton has been preserved.
• Taynitskaya Tower- erected in its present form in the 1550s by Postnik Yakovlev, it was named after a secret source from which water could be taken during a siege (there were similar “secret” springs at the Vodovzvodnaya, corner Arsenalnaya and Zamoskvoretskaya (Beklemisheva) towers of the Moscow Kremlin). The entrance to the tower is made in the shape of a “knee”, which increased the defense capability of the Kremlin. At the site of the Taynitskaya tower, during the time of the Khanate, there was the Nur Ali tower, in the Russian transcription of Muraleev. It was through the Muraleev Tower that the 22-year-old Tsar Ivan the Terrible entered the conquered city.
• North round tower. The skeleton has been preserved. Built by Moscow architects in the 17th century. Dismantled after Pugachev's siege of Kazan.
• Resurrection Tower built in brick, presumably (according to stylistic criteria) by Moscow architects in the 1670s. The travel card has a cubic shape.
• Northeast round tower dismantled after Pugachev's assault.
• Dmitrievskaya travel tower dismantled after Pugachev's assault. The tower got its name from the church of St. Great Martyr Demetrius of Thessalonica.
• Consistory Tower built in brick by Moscow architects in the 17th century, it received its name in the 18th century from the Spiritual Consistory located next to the tower in the Kremlin. You can climb the tower and walk along the wall - towards the South-East tower. Near the tower, archaeological excavations revealed the so-called. Tezitsky (tezik Arabic - merchant) ditch, which went from the Consistor Tower to Preobrazhenskaya, the famous archaeologist N. Kalinin and a number of scientists considered the Tezitsky ditch to be the southern border of the Khan's fortress.
• South-East round tower- a striking example of Pskov architecture of the 16th century.

Tower Syuyumbike

Scientists disagree on the dating of the construction of the tower. In the authoritative work “Kazan in historical and cultural monuments. Ed. S. S. Aidarova, A. Kh. Khalikov, M. Kh. Khasanova, I. N. Aleev” the tower approximately dates back to 1645-1650. Proponents of the hypothesis that the tower appeared after 1552 as a sentinel tower point to the similarity of the Syuyumbike tower with the Borovitskaya tower of the Moscow Kremlin. The famous Kazan local historian, professor of the Kazan Imperial University N.P. Zagoskin in the 19th century considered the question of dating the tower open and was inclined to the version of its origin in the Khan period. Perhaps the tower was built during the reign of Khan Shah Ali, who established good relations with the Moscow prince. It has been suggested that the Moscow prince could have sent craftsmen who built the Moscow Kremlin to build the tower to Kazan, which could ultimately affect the similarity of the Syuyumbike tower with the Borovitskaya tower.

Tower architecture

The tower consists of 7 tiers: the first three tiers are square in plan and have open galleries, the remaining four are octagonal. The tower is completed by a 6-sided brick tent (height 58 meters or 34 fathoms 6 feet), which until 1917 was crowned with a double-headed eagle resting on a gilded “apple” (according to the legends of the Kazan Tatars, important documents related to history and culture were enclosed in the ball Tatars). The edges of all tiers are decorated with blades or thin brick ridges. There is a through passage in the lower tier of the tower. On the western and eastern facades, the pylons of the lower tier each have 2 attached columns of the Corinthian order, crossed in the middle of the height by “typically Russian horizontal ridges.” The walls are brick, the mortar is lime, the foundation rests on oak piles. From 1917 to the 1930s, the Russian coat of arms was replaced by a crescent; in the 1930s, the crescent was removed; in the 1990s, the crescent was re-installed on the tower. The tower is included in the list of the forty leaning towers of the world. Its deviation from the vertical is 2 meters. The deviation occurred due to subsidence of the foundation in one part. To date, the fall of the tower has been stopped.

Palace (Vvedenskaya) Church

In the authoritative work “Kazan in historical and cultural monuments. Ed. S. S. Aidarova, A. Kh. Khalikova, M. Kh. Khasanova, I. N. Aleeva,” the authors are inclined to the version that the Palace Church “was erected on the site where the Nur-Ali mosque stood during the period of the Kazan Khanate,” however this version is based on later sources (explications to the city plan of 1768, where the temple is indicated as “a church facing from a mosque”) and is one of the hypotheses for the history of the Vvedenskaya Church (consecrated in the 19th century in honor of the Descent of the Holy Spirit).

The Vvedenskaya Church was severely damaged by the fire of 1815 and stood in ruins for a long time. By order of Nicholas I, who visited Kazan in 1836, the church was restored according to the “highest” design approved in 1852 as a palace at the Governor’s Palace. In 1859, the church was consecrated in honor of the Descent of the Holy Spirit. The new temple accurately reproduced the design scheme and stylistic features of the former Vvedensky Church, the architectural analogues of which in Kazan can be considered the destroyed Vvedensky Cathedral of the Kizichesky Monastery, and the Resurrection Cathedral of the New Jerusalem Monastery (“Bishop’s Dacha”), which also had covered arched galleries and a stepped volume scheme. The palace temple of the Descent of the Holy Spirit itself with the chapel of St. The martyr Queen Alexandra occupied only the second floor; on the first floor there was a chapel in the name of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, the temple icon to which was donated in the mid-19th century by Anna Davydovna Boratynskaya.

The alternation of 4 and 8-sided volumes, the stepped structure of the church itself, is consonant with the stepped architecture of the Syuyumbike tower, surpassing the watchtower in the richness of its decoration.

Nowadays there is a Museum of the history of statehood of the Tatar people and the Republic of Tatarstan.

Governor's Palace

The Palace of the Kazan Governor is located in the northern part of the Kremlin, on the site where in ancient times there was the palace of the Kazan khans, and in the 18th century - the chief commandant's house. The building was built in the 40s. XIX century in the so-called pseudo-Byzantine style. The project for the “house of the military governor with premises for imperial apartments” was drawn up by the famous Moscow architect K. A. Ton, author of the Bolshoi project Kremlin Palace and the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. The palace consists of a main building and a circle of services adjacent to the courtyard. The construction of the palace was led by the architect A. I. Peske, sent from St. Petersburg, who rebuilt Kazan after the city fire of 1842. The interior decoration was carried out under the direction of the architect M. P. Korinfsky, one of the architects of the Kazan Imperial University complex. The center of the main facade is a risalit, completed by a front with three keeled arches, possibly similar to the architecture of the Khan's palace. The building has two porches on 2 order columns with arched doorways. The first and second floors are divided by a number of order pilasters and arched window openings. The facade is a semicircle in plan and has a passage to the palace courtyard. The eclectic decor of the building combines elements of Russian classicism (partitioning with the Corinthian order, rustication of the 1st floor, general symmetry), baroque (bracing of the entablature above the beams of columns of the main projection, the character of the pediments of the porticoes) and ancient Russian architecture (hanging weights of the paired arches of the windows of the 2nd floor, keel-shaped zakomaras of the central risalit, the nature of the figured supports of the arched suspended passage to the Palace Church).

During the Soviet period, the building housed the Presidium of the Supreme Council and the Council of Ministers of the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. Currently it is the residence of the President of the Republic of Tatarstan.

Kul Sharif Mosque - the main juma mosque of the Republic of Tatarstan and Kazan (since 2005); located on the territory of the Kazan Kremlin.

Construction of the temple began in 1996 as a recreation of the legendary multi-minaret mosque of the capital of the Kazan Khanate, the center of religious education and the development of sciences in the Middle Volga region of the 16th century. The mosque was destroyed in October 1552 during the storming of Kazan by the troops of Ivan the Terrible. Named in honor of its last imam, Seid Kul-Sharif, one of the leaders of the defense of Kazan.

The 36 m high dome is decorated with shapes associated with the image and decorative details of the “Kazan Cap”. The height of each of the four main minarets is 58 meters. The architectural and artistic solution to the external appearance of the mosque was achieved through the development of semantic elements that bring the architecture of the mosque closer to local traditions. Constructed of white marble and granite, the dome and minarets are turquoise.

Blagoveshchensky cathedral

Built in the 16th century by Pskov architects Ivan Shiryai and Postnik Yakovlev. The white-stone, cross-domed cathedral was originally almost half the size of the modern church, which was expanded as a result of several reconstructions. The vault rests on 6 round pillars, like in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. The domes of the cathedral in the 16th century were helmet-shaped. At the end of the 16th century, side chapels were added to the temple: the northern one in the name of St. Peter and Fevronia of Murom and the south in the name of St. Princes Boris and Gleb, connected by a porch that went around the central cubic volume of the cathedral.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, a series of alterations radically changed the appearance of the cathedral, especially the view from the west. In 1736, the helmet-shaped domes were replaced with bulbous ones, and the central dome was completed in the form of a so-called “bath” in the Ukrainian Baroque style. Next to the cathedral stood the Church of the Nativity of Christ, built in 1694 under Metropolitan Markell of Kazan. By 1821, the Church of the Nativity of Christ had become very dilapidated and the technical commission proposed building a new warm church in its place. Emperor Nicholas I, who visited Kazan in 1836, proposed building a new warm refectory of the Annunciation Cathedral on the site of the Nativity Church, expanding the cathedral to the west. According to the project of the Kazan provincial architect (1834-1844) Thomas Petondi (1794-1874), the cathedral was expanded to the west, north and south, for which the one-story refectory and the old porch of the 18th century were demolished. This reconstruction made the cathedral more convenient for prayer, but greatly changed its originally harmonious appearance. Since then, the exterior of the cathedral has not changed, except for the destruction of the cathedral porch built according to Petondi’s design, which was demolished after the revolution, and the destruction in 1928 of the magnificent 5-tier bell tower of the 17th century, which housed the largest bell of pre-revolutionary Kazan. Its weight was 1,500 pounds (about 24,570 kg).

Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery

Founded in the 16th century by St. Barsanuphius. During the period of the Kazan Khanate, on the territory that was at that time outside the walls of the fortress, on the site where the ruins of the museum complex of the Spassky Monastery are currently located, there was a cemetery. This territory continued to serve as a necropolis in subsequent centuries: “on the ancient monastery necropolis during the XV-XX centuries. at least a thousand people were laid to rest (including burials from the period of the Kazan Khanate). So it is both multi-layered (up to 6-8 levels) and multinational.”

The fraternal building in the northern part of the monastery has been preserved; a brick fence on the eastern side of the monastery, the Church of St. Nicholas the Ratnoy, reconstructed in 19th-century forms (which served as a teahouse in the military unit located here during Soviet times); the basement of the Transfiguration Cathedral, which was blown up in the 1930s; the foundation of the monastery bell tower with the church of St., destroyed after 1917. Barbarians in the lower tier, the foundation of the Church of St. Cyprian and Justinia.

Public offices building (provincial office)

The 2-storey building of the governor's office - public places - is located at right side the main Kremlin street and the Spasskaya Tower. The project was drawn up by V.I. Kaftyrev, who was sent by the Senate to Kazan in 1767 to detail the general plan of the city, developed by the commission of St. Petersburg and Moscow after the great fire in Kazan in 1765. The main floor was the second floor, where high officials and important visitors climbed the main staircase, and where the “audience” hall was located in front of the “trial chamber” - a central hall with 4 windows. Adjoining it were the “secret” and “secretary” rooms; in the remaining rooms there were “official servants”. The building has a basement with vaulted rooms. For access to the long courtyard between the public offices building and the eastern entrance Kremlin wall, the building has two through passages dividing the building into 3 sections. The former Consistory building adjoins the building on the north side.

Cannon yard complex

The cannon yard ensemble consists of four buildings. One of the largest factories in Russia for the production and repair of artillery pieces was located here. The Kazan Cannon Factory contributed to the victory of Russian weapons in the War of 1812. After the fire of 1815, the factory ceased to exist.

Consistory building

The building of the ecclesiastical department in the 19th century. During Soviet times, the building housed the Ministry of Health of the TASSR.

Bishop's House

From the establishment of the Kazan diocese in 1555 until the revolution of 1917, the residence of the Orthodox bishops who ruled the Kazan diocese (which coincided in territory with the Kazan province and previously with the “Kazan kingdom”) was in the Kazan Kremlin. The bishop's house is a typical administrative building of the 19th century. The central and side projections face the eastern wall. After Pugachev’s siege of the Kremlin and fires, the bishop’s house was uninhabitable for many years and needed serious restoration. At the direction of Emperor Nicholas I, who visited Kazan in 1836, funds were allocated for the restoration of the Bishop's House, and already in 1841, Archbishop of Kazan and Sviyazhsk Vladimir (Uzhinsky) moved from the country residence of the Kazan bishops - the Resurrection New Jerusalem Monastery - to the Kremlin.

Junker School

On the left side of the main Kremlin street there is a building built in the mid-19th century for a cadet school on the site where, before its abolition in the 18th century, there was the Trinity Monastery (founded in the 16th century), and later in the 18th-19th centuries - an arsenal and an artillery yard, where in 1812-15 there was one of the largest cannon factories in Russia, new cannons and parts for them were manufactured, and damaged ones brought from the army were repaired. The building was built by architect P. G. Pyatnitsky (architect of the Kazan University buildings) “in the style of late Russian classicism,” as evidenced by the clear symmetrical layout, high, bright classrooms on the sides of the central corridor, the strict exterior of the building and facade finishing elements: profiled platbands and rustication on the first floor. Main entrance accented by a hanging metal pediment.

The building now houses the National Art Gallery"Khazine" and branch State Museum Hermitage (St. Petersburg).

Manege

The drill arena for conducting exercises at the Kazan Military School was built in the 1880s according to the 1881 project carried out in St. Petersburg. The engineering solution for the roof of the building made it possible to cover a significant area (18 x 56 meters) with single-span rafter structures. After carried out in 2003-2006. During the restoration, it is planned to create a storage and reading room in the building for the Museum of Ancient Books and Manuscripts.

Guardhouse building

It is located in the southeast corner, to the right of the main entrance of the Spasskaya Tower. The building was built in the 19th century on the site where, since the 18th century, there had been a stone workshop - a warehouse for military equipment at the provincial chancellery, which stood nearby. The architecture of the building is extremely ascetic.

Lost buildings and structures of the Kazan Kremlin

• The 17th century bell tower of the Annunciation Cathedral (destroyed in 1928, had 5 tiers and served as a storage place for the largest bell of pre-revolutionary Kazan),
• Transfiguration Cathedral (bombed in the 1930s);
• Bell tower with the Church of St. Barbarians in the lower tier (destroyed after 1917),
• Church of St. Cyprian and Justinia.

Archaeological research of the Kazan Kremlin

The basis for archaeological research was laid in the 19th century by Kazan local historians, professor of KSU (now KFU) N.P. Zagoskin and P.A. Ponomarev, who explored the pit on the site of the Junker School building under construction. Significant archaeological excavations were carried out in the 1920s. N. F. Kalinin and N. A. Bashkirov. Systematic research conducted since 1971 under the leadership of L. S. Shavokhin and A. Kh. Khalikov made it possible to determine the stratigraphy of cultural deposits. In the 1990s, a number of archaeological studies were carried out, in particular, which did not confirm the version that the Annunciation Cathedral was allegedly built on the site of the main mosque of the Khanate: no archaeological foundations from the period of the Kazan Khanate were identified under the cathedral.

Organizations operating in the Kazan Kremlin

• Office of the President of the Republic of Tatarstan
• Arbitration Court of the Republic of Tatarstan
• Museum of Islamic Culture
• Museum of Natural History of the Republic of Tatarstan
• Museum of the History of Statehood of the Republic of Tatarstan and the Tatar People
• Center "Hermitage-Kazan" - Branch of the State Hermitage Museum (St. Petersburg)
• National Art Gallery "Hazine"
• WWII Memorial Museum
• Central Election Commission of the Republic of Tatarstan
• Institute of History named after. Sh. Marjani AS RT
• Public Chamber of the Republic of Tatarstan
• Council of Municipal Formations of the Republic of Tatarstan
• Post office No. 14

The best way to get to know the city of Kazan is to explore Kazan on foot!!!

I’ll tell you about our impressions of the center of Kazan and a walk around it. Pedestrian routes One can compile a great variety of sights of Kazan. In this article I will talk about one of them: Kazan embankment – ​​Freedom Square – Bogoroditsky Monastery.

To plan the route, I used a map of the main attractions of Kazan. My route around the city today is highlighted in blue.

Kazan embankment.

We started exploring Kazan on foot at the walls of the Kazan Kremlin, where the new Kazan embankment begins.

The length of the Kazan embankment is only about two kilometers, but what a kilometer! On the embankment you can ride a bicycle, scooter, roller skate, play sports, sit in a cafe, or just take a walk.

The walking area has existed here for a long time, but only in 2013 did a global reconstruction of the embankment begin, which ended in 2015.
Before walking along the Kazan embankment, I climbed the Kremlin dam. Kremlin Dam connects the banks of the Kazanka River and is a continuation of one of the most important streets of Kazan - Dekabristov streets. The name of the street comes from the 19th century. The imagination immediately pictures a chain of prison convoys with convicted Decembrists sitting in them. While the name of the street changed first to Oktyabrskaya, then to Poperechno-Kizicheskaya, the people gave it their own name - “Bolshaya”, most likely based on its significance for the city. By the way, the first trolleybus in Kazan passed along this street in 1948.

On the Kremlin dam there is a small Observation deck, from where His Majesty opens in all its glory - .

On the other side of the Kazanka there is a new one Wedding Palace “Kazan”, built in the shape of a cauldron (large cauldron).

And, of course, views of the Kazan embankment. The Kazan embankment has its own name, chosen by voting on the Internet from hundreds of proposals - “Kremlinskaya”. And also local residents They call it “a corner of Europe in the city center.”

The emergence of a large walking area – “Kremlin Embankment” – is to some extent due to the colossal construction under the walls of the Kremlin. As a result of which in 2010 the following appeared near the Kremlin: Palace Square with a large parking lot, the Palace of Farmers and an elite residential complex " Palace Embankment».

It's time to take a walk along the embankment and take a closer look at these objects.

Palace of Farmers, Kazan.

Construction of the Farmers' Palace began in 2008, and already in 2010 the Ministry of Agriculture and Food of the Republic of Tatarstan moved into the building. The building is immediately given popular names: “Palace of Landowners” and “Palace of Collective Farmers”. The palace is becoming one of the main attractions of modern Kazan and the main one in terms of criticism and discussion. Some compare it with the great works of European masters (external resemblance to the Austrian Hofburg), while others consider it the height of bad taste. Impressions vary so much that you can hear: “The most monstrous building in the world, “Gaudi’s nightmare,” or something like “The most striking building of recent years.”

Every year on August 30 (since 2011) on Republic Day, the final concert of the Kazan Autumn festival takes place near the palace, thanks to which Kazan saw and heard Hvorostovsky, Alanya, Gramenya and Kazarnovskaya. Traditionally, the concert ends with fireworks.

Palace embankment, Kazan.

Meet the most expensive residential complex in Kazan, “Palace Embankment”. I read on Avito offers from the summer of 2017: a two-room apartment of 120 meters is being sold for 50 million rubles.

And this, as you understand, is not the limit. Until recently, a 300-meter apartment was sold in the complex at a price of as much as 120 million rubles.

Here you can only sigh and wonder where people get such capital from, and also admire the trimmed squirrels and the beauty of the Kazan embankment.

Millennium Bridge, Kazan.

The closer we came to the end of the Kazan embankment, the closer the city’s tallest cable-stayed bridge, the Millennium Bridge, became. This bridge cannot be confused with any bridge on earth. The distinctive element is the huge letter M, a sixteen-story building tall. The length of the bridge is as much as one and a half kilometers.
It is not difficult to guess that the bridge was built for the millennium of Kazan. During the construction process, the bridge was used for one-way traffic for some time, so Kazan residents nicknamed it linoleum (L - half of M).

National Cultural Center, Kazan.

Kazanskaya embankment makes its final turn and leads us to the national cultural center Kazan. The building, apart from its size (an outlay from Soviet times), externally, in my opinion, does not represent anything remarkable. The size of the building becomes clear when you find out that it was built in the 80s of the 20th century, as a branch of the Lenin Museum in Kazan. The architects apparently proceeded from the principle: the more Lenin did for the country, the larger the complex should be. Things were big, but no one guaranteed that they would be beautiful.
In 1991, the Lenin Museum was disbanded and several museums were created in the premises: national culture, millennium of Kazan, art gallery. In addition, the building is used as the Kazan Philharmonic, where various concerts are held.
Pay attention to the huge stele erected in honor of the 6th anniversary of Tatarstan’s independence. According to the plan, this is a woman from Tatar myths, a woman who turned into a bird and could fly, a symbol of freedom. Kazan residents did not ignore this monument in their names, calling it simply “Batman”.

An interesting view opens from the site of the complex. Here you can see New Kazan on the other side of the Kazanka, and the Millennium Bridge, the Kazan Arena stadium, the Kazan embankment, luxury houses townspeople and oil workers' village.

And we continue our walk and go out to Sultan Galiev Square. There is a real brain explosion here, a variety of temporary styles. Elite residential complexes are adjacent to Supreme Court, Inspectorate, Bureau, FSB Directorate and Councils of the Republic.

Freedom Square, Kazan.

One of the main squares of Kazan. During Soviet times, demonstrations, rallies and holidays were celebrated here. Until 1924, the square was called “Teatralnaya” due to the presence of the Main Theater, which has not survived to this day. But now there is a grandiose structure on the square - Tatar Academic State Opera and Ballet Theater named after Musa Jalil.

Opera and Ballet Theatre, Kazan.

The most interesting thing is inside. All guidebooks unanimously recommend visiting one of the best theaters in Russia. Best time for visiting – February and May. During these months, the theater hosts two international festivals: the Chaliapin Opera Festival and the Nureyev Classical Ballet Festival. It is better to purchase tickets in advance.

The square contains many important for Tatarstan government agencies And architectural monuments. In addition to the above-mentioned Opera and Ballet Theater, the building of the Cabinet of Ministers and the State Council of the Republic of Tatarstan is grandiose.

Nearby is a serious Soviet-era building with a savings bank on the ground floor and the words “Peace to the World” on the roof.

Big concert hall named after Saidashev invites guests to numerous concerts.