(EGROKN)
object № 1610053000(Wikipedia DB)

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

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

Andrey Kurbsky left the following description of Kazan: “and from the Kazan River the mountain is so high, even with an eye look at the cover; there is a city on it, and royal chambers and mosques are very high, bricked, where their dead kings were laid, remembering in number, five of them ... "("murovannye" - stone).

The cathedral mosque had, according to legend, 8 minarets, madrasahs and mausoleums (durbe) were located at the mosques. There is every reason to believe that the external 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 the elegant carved and ceramic inserts of decorative elements.

The tower consists of 7 tiers: the first three tiers are square in plan and have open galleries, the other 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 two-headed eagle resting on a gilded "apple" (according to the legends of the Kazan Tatars, important documents related to history and culture were concluded in the ball Tatars). The edges of all tiers are decorated with spatulas or thin brick rollers. In the lower tier of the tower there is a through passage. On the western and eastern facades, the pylons of the lower tier have 2 attached columns of the Corinthian order, crossed in the middle of the height by "typically Russian horizontal rollers". 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 with a crescent, in the 1930s the crescent was removed, in the 1990s the crescent was again erected on the tower. The tower is included in the list of forty falling 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 the monuments of history and culture. Ed. S. S. Aidarova, A. Kh. Khalikova, M. Kh. Khasanova, I. N. Aleeva" the authors tend to believe that the Palace Church "was erected on the spot where the Nur-Ali mosque stood during 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 turned from a mosque”) and is one of the hypotheses of the history of the Vvedenskaya (consecrated in the 19th century in honor of the Descent of the Holy Spirit) church.

The Vvedenskaya Church was badly damaged by fire in 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" project 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 constructive scheme and stylistic features of the former Vvedenskaya Church, the architectural analogues of which in Kazan can be considered the destroyed Vvedensky Cathedral of the Kizichesky Monastery, and the Resurrection Cathedral - the New Jerusalem Monastery ("Bishops' Dacha"), which also had covered arched galleries and a stepped scheme of volumes. The palace temple of the Descent of the Holy Spirit itself with the chapel of St. Martyr Empress Alexandra occupied only the second floor, on the first floor there was a chapel in the name of Nicholas the Wonderworker, the temple icon in which was donated in the middle of the 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 decoration.

Now here is the Museum of the History of the Statehood of the Tatar People and the Republic of Tatarstan.

Presidential palace

The Palace of the Kazan Governor is located in the northern part of the Kremlin, in the place 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 of the “house of the military governor with premises for the imperial apartments” was compiled by the famous Moscow architect K. A. Ton, the author of the project of the Grand Kremlin Palace and the Temple of Christ the Savior in Moscow. The palace consists of the main building and the circumference of services adjoining the courtyard. The construction of the palace was supervised 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 guidance 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 row of order pilasters and arched window openings. The façade is a semicircle in plan and has a passage to the courtyard of the palace. The eclectic decor of the building combines elements of Russian classicism (corinthian division, rustication of the 1st floor, general symmetry), baroque (unfastening of the entablature over the beams of columns of the main risalit, the nature of the pediments of the porticos) and Old Russian architecture (hanging weights of the twin arches of the windows of the 2nd floor, keeled zakomaras of the central risalit, the nature of the figured supports of the arched suspension 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 ASSR. Currently, it is the residence of the President of the Republic of Tatarstan.

Kul Sharif Mosque

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

The building of government offices (provincial office)

The 2-storey building of the governor's office - government offices - is located on the right side of 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 second floor was the main one, where senior officials and important visitors climbed the main staircase, and where the “audience” hall was located in front of the “judicial chamber” - the central hall with 4 windows. Adjacent to it were the "secret" and "secretary", in the remaining rooms were "principal servants". The building has a basement floor with vaulted rooms. To get to the long courtyard between the building of government offices and the eastern section of the Kremlin wall, the building has two through passages dividing the building into 3 sections. On the north side of the building adjoins the building of the former Consistory.

Cannon yard complex

The ensemble of the cannon yard consists of four buildings. One of the largest Russian factories for the manufacture 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. Recently, the Museum of Weapons - the Spirit of the Warrior was opened here.

Consistory building

The building of the spiritual department in the XIX century. In Soviet times, the building housed the Ministry of Health of the TASSR.

bishop's house

Arena

The drill arena for conducting the exercises of the Kazan Military School was built in the 1880s according to the project of 1881, made in St. Petersburg. The engineering solution of the roof of the building made it possible to cover a significant area (18 x 56 meters) with single-span truss structures. After the 2003-2006 Restoration in the building is supposed to arrange storage and reading room of 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 was a stone storehouse - a warehouse of military property at the provincial office, 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 (blown up in the 1930s);
• Bell tower with 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. Significant archaeological excavations were carried out in the 1920s. N. F. Kalinin and N. A. Bashkirov. Systematic studies 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, they did not confirm the version that the Cathedral of the Annunciation was supposedly built on the site of the main mosque of the Khanate: no archaeological foundations from the period of the Kazan Khanate were found under the cathedral.

The 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 our time, began in 1556. The work was supervised by the builders of the Moscow Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed - Postnik Yakovlev and Ivan Shiryai.

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

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 walls of the Kremlin is almost two kilometers, the width reaches three meters, and the height is more than six meters. Outside the walls of the Kazan Kremlin there are many interesting objects - both historical monuments and modern sights. - the symbol of the Kazan Kremlin. According to the official version, it was built at the end of the 17th - beginning of the 18th century as a watchtower and an entrance to the yard of the chief commandant. However, there are different opinions about the age of the tower. One of them says that it was built at the end of the 15th century and survived the ruin of Kazan by Ivan the Terrible.

The tower has five tiers. The first three are tetrahedra, the last 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 of the museum - it houses the Museum of Islamic Culture.

The Kul Sharif Mosque has five floors. The plan consists of two crossed squares. The building is faced with white marble and covered with a blue dome. Around there are four minarets 55 meters high with the same blue tops. Stained-glass windows are inserted into the windows of the mosque, the building is partially covered with ornaments.

The monument has its own background. Until the 16th century, when Kazan was taken by the troops of Ivan the Terrible, there was a mosque of the same name, named after its last imam. So the construction of a new building is not only a symbol of the equality of religions in the republic, but also a tribute to history.

Also on the territory of the Kremlin (in its southeastern part) 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 in the late 16th - early 17th century. The cathedral was blown up in the 1920s. Now only the basement remains. Near the wall of the cathedral there is a small cave in which wonderworkers were buried.

Also included is Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. This church, built in the second half of the 16th century and rebuilt several times later, survived in Soviet times. At the 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 are located:

• Presidential palace(former governor's palace)
• bishop's house
• cannon yard
• Junker School(the building houses museums and an art gallery)
• Arena

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

The Spasskaya Tower

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 an 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 more than once, rebuilt and repeatedly burned. In the 18th century, a clock was installed on it. After the revolution, the double-headed eagle that crowned the bath was replaced by a golden 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 of the secret passage that went from here to a clean source. Here it was possible to take water, even when the Kremlin kept the siege. The source has not been preserved 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

Museum Reserve "Kazan Kremlin" was established 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 the ancient sea was located on the territory of Kazan.

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

The Museum of the History of the 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, which consists of four buildings, dates back to the 17th century, various reconstructions were carried out until the middle of the 19th century. The Cannon Factory, one of the largest in the empire, worked here. After a major fire, they stopped making weapons here, the School of Battalions of Military Cantonists was opened in the buildings of the Cannon Yard, 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 architects

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

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

Tours

In the Kremlin, you can order a number of exciting excursions that are held not only on the territory of the Kremlin itself, but also in its environs - Kremlin Street, for example. The duration of the sightseeing tour of the Kremlin is about 1.5 hours, it also includes a visit to the Kul Sharif mosque and the Cathedral of the Annunciation.

Scheme and map of the Kremlin

Working mode

The Kazan Kremlin is located on the cape of a high terrace on the left bank of the Volga and the left bank of the Kazanka. The Kazan Kremlin is a complex of architectural, historical and archaeological monuments that reveal its centuries-old history: archaeological remains of the first (XII-XIII centuries), second (XIV-XV centuries) and third settlements (XV-XVI centuries); the Kremlin built of Volga limestone and brick, a number of temples and buildings of great historical, architectural and cultural value. The territory of the Kremlin is an irregular polygon in plan, repeating the outlines of the Kremlin hill, elongated from the northwest, from the Kazanka River, to the southeast, to May 1 Square (former Ivanovskaya, after the nearby John the Baptist Monastery) and the Gostiny Dvor building (now Museum of the Republic of Tatarstan). The total area of ​​the Kremlin is 1500 square meters, the circumference is 1800 m. The southern wall of the Kremlin with five towers overlooks the Millennium Square - the view of the Kremlin from this square is the most common "visiting card" of the city. The Kremlin is richly illuminated at night.

Story

The ancient history of the Kremlin

No written evidence of the emergence of the Kremlin has been preserved 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 for this.

XII-XIV centuries Bulgar fortress

The earliest archaeological finds were found in the northern part of the Kremlin, closer to Kazanka, where there was an ancient Bulgarian fortified settlement and later, within a century, the fortress of the Kazan Khanate. Researchers disagree about the dating of wooden fortifications of the most ancient period: some believe that the Bulgar trading settlement was fortified already in the 10th century, others - only in the 12th century. Regarding the nature of the fortifications, scientists also disagree, some believe that the stone walls were partially erected already in the 12th century, others believe that only in the 15th or 16th century, 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 turns into the center of the Kazan Principality 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 1240 Bulgaria , like the Russian principalities, finally turned out to be subordinate to the Golden Horde. Part of the Bulgars fled to the areas of the Kazanka River and founded Iski-Kazan, a city 45 kilometers from Kazan. In 1370, the Bulgar prince Hassan 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

A memorial sign at the foundation of the Khan's mausoleum next to the Syuyumbike tower

The Khan's citadel was surrounded by oak (possibly in some places stone) walls, up to 9 meters thick with 4 travel towers: Nur-Ali, Yelabuga, Big Gate, Tyumen Gate. Ilisty Bulak (from the Tatar “sleeve”, a channel connecting the Kazanka River and Kaban Lake) protected the fortress from the west; and on the least defended southeast side, the fortress was surrounded by deep ditches. Kurbsky left such a description of Kazan: “and from the Kazan River the mountain is so high, even with an eye look at the cover; there is a city on it and royal chambers and mosques are very high, bricked, where their dead kings were laid, remembering in number, five of them ... ”(“ bricked ”- stone). The cathedral mosque of Kul-Sharif had, according to legend, 8 minarets. There is every reason to believe that the external 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. The Tezitsky (tezik Arab. - Merchant) ditch separated the Khan's citadel from the southern part, where the building was wooden. The close khan settled here and there was a cemetery. There were madrasahs and mausoleums at the mosques.

Second half of the 16th century. Construction of the stone Kremlin by Pskov architects

tower architecture

The tower consists of 7 tiers: the first three tiers are square in plan and have open galleries, the other 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 two-headed eagle resting on a gilded "apple" (according to the legends of the Kazan Tatars, important documents related to history and culture were concluded in the ball Tatars). The edges of all tiers are decorated with spatulas or thin brick rollers. In the lower tier of the tower there is a through passage. On the western and eastern facades, the pylons of the lower tier have 2 attached columns of the Corinthian order, crossed in the middle of the height by "typically Russian horizontal rollers". 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 with a crescent, in the 1930s the crescent was removed, in the 1990s the crescent was again erected on the tower.

palace church

Palace (Vvedenskaya, consecrated since 1859 in honor of the Descent of the Holy Spirit) church

In the authoritative work “Kazan in the monuments of history and culture. Ed. S. S. Aidarova, A. Kh. Khalikova, M. Kh. Khasanova, I. N. Aleeva" the authors tend to believe that the Palace Church "was erected on the spot where the Nur-Ali mosque stood during 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 turned from a mosque”) and is one of the hypotheses of the history of the Vvedenskaya (consecrated in the 19th century in honor of the Descent of the Holy Spirit) church.

The Vvedenskaya Church was badly damaged by fire in 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" project 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 constructive scheme and stylistic features of the former Vvedenskaya 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 (“Bishops’ Dacha”), which also had covered arched galleries and a stepped scheme of volumes. The palace temple of the Descent of the Holy Spirit itself with the chapel of St. Martyr Empress Alexandra occupied only the second floor, on the first floor there was a chapel in the name of Nicholas the Wonderworker, the temple icon in which was donated in the middle of the 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 decoration.

Governor's Palace

Presidential (formerly Governor's) Palace

The Palace of the Kazan Governor is located in the northern part of the Kremlin, in the place 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 of the “house of the military governor with premises for the imperial apartments” was compiled by the famous Moscow architect A. K. Ton, the author of the project of the Grand Kremlin Palace and the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. The palace consists of the main building and the circumference of services adjoining the courtyard. The construction of the palace was supervised 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 guidance of the architect M. P. Korinfsky, one of the architects of the Kazan Imperial University complex. The center of the main façade is a risalit completed by a front with three keeled arches. The building has two porches on 2 order columns with arched doorways. The first and second floors are divided by a row of order pilasters and arched window openings. The façade is a semicircle in plan and has a passage to the courtyard of the palace. The eclectic decor of the building combines elements of Russian classicism (corinthian division, rustication of the 1st floor, general symmetry), baroque (unfastening of the entablature over the beams of columns of the main risalit, the nature of the pediments of the porticos) and Old Russian architecture (hanging weights of the twin arches of the windows of the 2nd floor, keeled zakomaras of the central risalit, the nature of the figured supports of the arched suspension passage to the Palace Church). In Soviet times, the building housed the Presidium of the Supreme Council and the Council of Ministers of the TASSR.

The building of government offices (provincial office)

The 2-storey building of the governor's office - government offices - is located on the right side of 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 second floor was the main one, where senior officials and important visitors climbed the main staircase, and where the “audience” hall was located in front of the “judicial chamber” - the central hall with 4 windows. Adjacent to it were the "secret" and "secretary", in the remaining rooms were "principal servants". The building has a basement floor with vaulted rooms. For access to the long courtyard between the building of government offices and the eastern section of the Kremlin wall, the building has two through passages dividing the building into 3 sections. On the north side of the building adjoins the building of the former Consistory.

Blagoveshchensky cathedral

Cathedral of the Annunciation and the bell tower at the beginning of the 20th century

Built in the 16th century by Pskov architects Ivan Shiryai and Postnik Yakovlev. The white-stone cross-domed cathedral was originally almost 2 times smaller than the modern temple, which expanded as a result of several reconstructions. The arch rests on 6 round pillars, as 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 aisles were added to the temple: the northern one in the name of St. Peter and Fevronia of Murom and southern in the name of St. princes Boris and Gleb, connected by a porch, which went around the central cuboid volume of the cathedral.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, a number of alterations radically changed the appearance of the cathedral, especially the view from the west side. In 1736, the helmet-shaped domes were replaced with onion ones, and the central dome was completed in the form of the so-called "bath" in the Ukrainian Baroque style. Next to the cathedral stood the Church of the Nativity, built in 1694 under Metropolitan Markell of Kazan. By 1821, the Church of the Nativity of Christ was very dilapidated and the technical commission proposed to build a new warm church in its place. Emperor Nicholas I, who visited Kazan in 1836, proposed to build 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) Foma 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 original harmonious appearance. Since then, the exterior of the cathedral has not changed, except for the destruction of the porch of the cathedral, built according to the project of F. Petondi, demolished after the revolution, and the magnificent 5-tier bell tower of the 17th century, which kept the largest bell of Kazan, destroyed by the communists in 1928. Its weight was 1500 pounds (about 24570 kg).

Ensemble of the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery

Transfiguration Cathedral of the Spassky Monastery at the beginning of the 20th century

Founded in the 16th century by St. Barsanuphius. The fraternal building has been preserved in the northern part of the monastery; a brick fence on the eastern side of the monastery, the temple of St. Nicholas the Ratny reconstructed in the forms of the 19th century (which served as a teahouse in the military unit located here in Soviet times); basement of the Cathedral of the Transfiguration blown up in the 1930s; the foundation of the monastery bell tower destroyed after 1917 with the church of St. Barbarians in the lower tier.

Consistory building

The building of the spiritual department in the XIX century. In Soviet times, the building housed the Ministry of Health of the TASSR.

There are so many interesting and memorable places in our country that a lifetime is not enough to see them all. Today we will go to Tatarstan. The attraction that the capital of the republic is proud of is the Kazan Kremlin, the oldest part of the city, a unique complex of historical, archaeological and architectural monuments that reveal the centuries-old history of the Tatar people, the ancient city and the republic as a whole.

The entire territory of the complex today is a museum-reserve, which has been under the protection of UNESCO since 2000. The Kazan Kremlin (Tatarstan) is the main attraction of the republic. On a vast territory, Tatar and Russian cultural traditions are harmoniously combined.

After Kazan was taken by the troops of Ivan the Terrible, most of the Kremlin buildings were damaged, and almost all mosques were destroyed. The tsar ordered the construction of a white-stone Kremlin here, and for this purpose architects were sent from Pskov to build the Moscow Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed. The fortress was significantly expanded, and the wooden fortifications were replaced with stone ones in the first half of the 17th century.

In the 18th century, the Kazan Kremlin (Tatarstan) lost its military function and became the cultural and administrative center of the Volga region. In subsequent centuries, the construction of the Governor's Palace, the cadet school, the bishop's house, the spiritual consistory, and the building of government offices were carried out here. In addition, the Annunciation Cathedral was reconstructed.

After the October Revolution (1917), the bell tower of the Annunciation Cathedral, the temple of the Spassky Monastery, the chapel at the Spassky Tower and other unique objects were destroyed in the Kazan Kremlin. In the nineties of the XX century, the Kazan Kremlin (Tatarstan) became the residence of the President of the Republic. At this time, large-scale restoration work began.

Since 1995, work began on the construction of the Kul-Sharif mosque. Today it is one of the largest in Europe. The Kazan Kremlin (Tatarstan) is a one-of-a-kind vivid example of the synthesis of Russian and Tatar architectural style. It is also the northernmost point of distribution of Islamic culture in the world.

Today, many tourists from around the world visit Tatarstan. The attraction of the republic, which is of the greatest interest, is the Kazan Kremlin. It should be noted that in order to inspect all its structures, it will take at least two days, and a sightseeing tour lasts only an hour and a half. But, since we are not limited in time, we will get acquainted with the sights of the Kremlin in more detail.

Kremlin buildings

The Kazan Kremlin (Tatarstan) is a museum-reserve covering an area of ​​13.45 hectares. The perimeter of the walls is about 1.8 thousand meters. On this vast territory there are the Museum-Memorial of the Great Patriotic War, the Museum of Islam, the Hermitage-Kazan Center, the Museum of the History of Tatarstan and other institutions.

The Spasskaya Tower

This tower houses the Front Gates to the Kremlin. The architects Shiryai and Yakovlev built the tower in 1556. The height of this building is 47 meters. The tetrahedral base has a straight arched opening. The octahedral tier has arched openings on each side and is a belfry where the alarm bell is located.

On top is a brick cone, which is crowned with a five-pointed star. Another octagonal cone contains a striking clock. They glorified the Kazan Kremlin (Tatarstan). The interesting device of the first clock, which was installed in the 18th century, interested many foreign craftsmen who produce such mechanisms. This was explained by the fact that the clock was arranged very unusually - a dial rotated around the fixed hands.

They were changed to a traditional analogue in 1780. The clock, which is located on the walls of the Spasskaya Tower today, was installed in 1963. It is noteworthy that with the beginning of the chiming clock, the snow-white walls gradually turn into a rich crimson color.

Presences

The project of the provincial office was developed by the architect from Moscow V. I. Kaftyriev. The building appeared in the Kremlin at the end of the 18th century. There were offices (for receptions) and living rooms for the governor's family. The second floor was reserved for a luxurious throne room with choirs for the orchestra. In the place where the Sovereign's Court was located in the 15th-17th centuries, a guardhouse was built in the middle of the 19th century.

Today, the premises of the former office house the Department of External Relations of the President of Tatarstan, the Central Election Commission and the Arbitration Court.

Transfiguration Monastery

The Kazan Kremlin, the description of which can be seen in almost all advertising brochures of the city, is famous for another object. The monastery complex is located in the southeast of the Kremlin territory. In the center of it are the remains of the Transfiguration Cathedral, destroyed in the twenties of the XX century. At the foot of the main wall of the cathedral, you can see a small cave, which since 1596 was the burial place of the Kazan wonderworkers.

The fraternal building borders on the fence of the monastery. Monastic cells were built here in 1670. Much later, a gallery and a treasury house were erected. The Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, as well as the chambers of the archimandrite, are located at the western wall of the complex. The church building was reconstructed according to the project of A. Schmidt in 1815. Interestingly, during the reconstruction, the basement of the 16th century was preserved in its original form.

Junker School

On the territory of the Kremlin there is an arena, which was built according to the project built earlier in St. Petersburg. This building was intended for military training. Today it houses the Institute of Literature and Art. Ibragimov. Behind the arena is the school building. It was created by the architect Pyatnitsky as a barracks for cantonists.

The building was handed over to the military department in 1861, later a cadet school was opened in it.

Kul Sharif Mosque

In the courtyard of the school is the most beautiful mosque in the city. Four minarets soared fifty-seven meters into the sky. The capacity of this grandiose building is 1500 people. The minarets are painted turquoise, which gives the structure a surprisingly light appearance. In addition to the mosque, the complex includes a huge open library-museum, a publishing center and the office of the imam.

A rounded small beautiful building with a turquoise dome, located south of the mosque, is a fire station, which is stylistically connected with the architectural complex. Kul Sharif was re-established in 2005. Funds for its construction were donated by the townspeople, as well as enterprises of the capital.

Blagoveshchensky cathedral

This is the oldest stone building in Kazan, which has survived to this day. It was consecrated in 1562. The architecture of the cathedral traces the trends of Pskov, Vladimir, Ukrainian and Moscow architecture. Helmet-shaped domes, located on the side domes, were replaced in 1736 with bulbous ones. The central dome is made in the Ukrainian baroque style.

In the main basement of the temple, a museum of Orthodoxy of the Volga region was created. A little further is the house of the bishop, which was built in 1829 on the site where the palace of the Kazan bishops used to be. The consistory completes the ensemble. This building was rebuilt from the bishop's stables.

Artillery Yard

Behind the mosque and the school is the Cannon Yard, or rather, its southern building. This is the oldest structure of the complex - it was built at the very beginning of the 17th century. An artillery factory began operating here in the 19th century. And last year there was a restoration. The creation of the exposition of the Museum of the Cannon Yard began.

Nowadays, permanent exhibitions, demonstrations of fashion collections, chamber performances are held on the territory of the complex. Near the southern building you can see a fragment of a brick building on a stone foundation. According to the depth of occurrence, this object belongs to the Khan's era of the Kremlin. In those days, houses were built here.

Governor's Palace

It was built in 1848 for the governor of Kazan with royal chambers for especially honored guests. The work was supervised by K. A. Ton, who is known for his amazing work. This is the Cathedral of Christ and the Bolshoi in Moscow. The Khan's palace ensemble used to be on this site.

The second floor of the palace is connected with the palace church by a passage. It was called Vvedenskaya, it was built in the 17th century. Inside the church, today the Museum of the History of Statehood operates, and the president of Tatarstan and his family live in the governor's palace.

Tower Syuyumbike

This is the symbol of Kazan. The tower was named after the Tatar queen. As the legend says, Ivan the Terrible, having learned about the beauty of Syuyumbika, sent messengers to Kazan with an offer to the beautiful girl to become the Moscow queen. But the envoys brought a refusal from the proud beauty. The enraged tsar captured Kazan. The girl was forced to agree to the proposal of Ivan the Terrible, but she put forward a condition: that in seven days there should be a tower in the city that would eclipse all existing minarets in height.

Ivan the Terrible fulfilled the desire of his beloved. During the festive feast, Syuyumbike said that she wanted to take a goodbye look at her native city from the height of the newly built tower. Climbing to the top platform, she rushed down.

Outwardly, this building is very reminiscent of the Moscow Kremlin. Unfortunately, there is no exact data on the time of creation of this attraction.

The tower consists of five tiers, which are decreasing in size. The last levels are octahedrons, which are crowned by a tent in the form of an octagonal truncated pyramid and a spire with a crescent. From the spire to the ground, the height of the structure is 58 meters. In the last century, three reconstructions took place here, as it was recorded. Today, the deviation from the vertical of the spire is 1.98 meters.

Taynitskaya tower

Below Syuyumbike are the Tainitsky entrance gates. This name was given to them in honor of the dungeon that leads to the source. During the siege of the city, it was used by local residents. Previously, the tower was called Nur-Ali. Russian residents of the city called her Muraleeva. It was blown up during the capture of the Kremlin. It was through these gates that Ivan IV entered the city.

The tower was restored, but the architectural decoration was made in the 17th century. Now on the upper tier there is a cafe "Muraleevy Vorota".

Kazan Kremlin: tours, prices, opening hours

The excursion department of the Kremlin invites guests of the city and local residents to take a walk around the museum-reserve, accompanied by professional staff. Tours are conducted in Tatar, Russian, German, English, Turkish, Italian and French.

The entrance through the Spasskaya Tower is open daily. The entrance to the Kazan Kremlin (Tatarstan) is also carried out through the Tainitskaya Tower. Opening hours: in summer - from 8:00 to 22:00, and in winter - until 18:00.

The cost of the tour for a group of six people is 1360 rubles. From a group of more than six people - 210 rubles per adult.

How to get there?

The Kazan Kremlin (Tatarstan), whose address is Kremlevskaya, 2, is located on the left bank of the Volga. You can get here by buses No. 6, 29, 37, 47, trolleybuses No. 4, 10, 1 and 18. Stop "TsUM", "St. Bauman" or by metro - stop "Kremlevskaya".