SIGHTS AND HISTORICAL PLACES IN KAZAN

The Kazan Kremlin is a unique complex of historical, architectural and archeological monuments. The appearance of the first people on the hill may be traced to the 1st millennium B.C.

The Kazan Kremlin, a magnificent architectural ensemble bearing traces of many centuries of building activity, is enclosed in high, white stonewalls with characteristic loop-holes and thirteen hipped-roofed towers. The most remarkable building of the Kremlin (kermen is fortress in Tatar) is the Suyumbika Tower, seven storeys and 58 metres high. Its distinctive profile, visible from all sides, is balanced by the contours of the Spassky (Savior) Tower, which stands at the opposite end of the Kremlin.

The key monuments represent an outstanding example of a synthesis of Tatar and Russian influence on architecture, integrating different cultures (Bolgar, Golden Horde, Tatar, Italian, and Russian), as well as showing the impact of Islam and Christianity. Having been built on an ancient site, the Kazan Kremlin originates from the Muslim period of the Kazan Khanate. When it was conquered in 1552, it became the Christian bulwark of the Volga region. The Kazan Kremlin consists of an outstanding group of historic buildings dating from the 16th to the 19th centuries, integrating remains of earlier structures of the 10th to the 16th centuries. The Bolgar fortress was founded here in the 12 century. In medieval time the Kremlin ramparts were constructed of oak beams, while the buildings inside were of both wood and stone.

Towards the middle of the 16th century, about 30,000 people lived within the wall of the citadel, which then had approximately the same boundaries as today. A number of the entrances and trading quarter towers (13) have not survived; the rest were reconstructed when the Kremlin ramparts were rebuilt in stone by order of Ivan the Terrible (1556-58). The Kazan Kremlin was just as impressive in olden times.

Starting in 1556, Russian stonemasons, under the direction of the architects, Ivan Shiriay and Postnik Yakovlev (nicknamed Barma, the architect of St Basil's Cathedral on Red Square in Moscow), rebuilt the Kremlin walls and towers in the Pskov style, adding a few new towers, including the Tainitzkaya and the Spasskaya. Kazan, though a military fortress, gradually turned to a large tradecraft and administration center for the region. They erected the Annunciation Cathedral. In 1708 it became the capital of the enormous Kazan Province, occupying nearly half of the European part of Russia. From 1709 till 1917 many offices of the Kazan Province were located in the Kremlin. Eight Kremlin towers still survive today.

Spasskaya Tower – People usually enter the Kremlin though this tower, although it is also possible to enter the fortress through Tainitskaya Tower at the bottom of the hill. This is the oldest tower; along with the round Southeastern and Southwestern towers, it was built in the 1560s. Initially it had two stories, with a T-shaped and later with an elbowed-type passage, constructed thus to ease defense. In 1930, a straight passage was made, but at the same time the adjacent Spasskaya Gate Church was destroyed. In 1963, a sound and light clock was installed on top of the tower.

Tainitskaya Tower Gate was also built in the middle of the 16^th century, and in the first half of the 18^th century one more tier was added to it. According to archeologists, it was built near the Nur-Ali tower destroyed during the siege of Kazan. The tower got its current name (literally, “secret tower”) because according to legend, there used to be an underground passage where the tower now stands, through which the defenders of the fortress reached a spring on the bank of the Kazanka during Ivan the Terrible`s siege.

Suyumbike Tower is rightly considered the architectural symbol of Kazan. It is a seven-storied tower, 58 meters high, and made of red brick. In the tsarist period, the tower was crowned with a gilded spire and a two-headed eagle – the symbol of the Empire – sitting on a ball inside of which, according to the beliefs of Kazan Tatars, some important documents concerning the history of Tatars and the Khanate were hidden. During the repairs in the late nineteenth century, the spire was taken off and the ball was hit by lightning several times, and it turned out to be empty. In 1999, the tower was crowned with the Muslim crescent moon to commemorate the spiritual rebirth of Kazan. It is said that the graves of the first Kazan khans used to be alongside the tower. Annually on October 15, people gather at this place to pay homage to the defenders of Kazan who perished in 1552. Suyumbike Tower is a leaning tower, deviating from the vertical by 1.8 meters at its tip. Supposedly, it was constructed in the late seventeenth or early eighteenth century as a watchtower. Its name is tied to the legend of the Kazan tsarina Suyumbike.

"Pearl in the necklace of Kazan Kremlin" - Kul-Sharif Mosque

The main mosque of medieval Kazan was the Kul Sharif, a huge, white stone edifice with eight minarets reminiscent of the eight provinces of the Bolgar State. The mosque was decorated with Bolgar stone carvings. The mosque's eight domes represented the authority of the Seid while the crescents recognized the absolute power of Allah. Containing a magnificent and rich library, it was the center of religious education and the north outpost of Islam in that period. The mosque is named in honor of its last Imam Seid Kul Sharif, a respected religious figure, a poet and a diplomat. In 1552 during the conquest of Kazan Seid Kul Sharif was one of the defense leaders. He and all his principals were killed. After the siege of the city Kul Sharif Mosque was completely destroyed. Now it is the main Kazan mosque, arising in its full pride, glory and beauty.

It belongs to the type of the central dome mosque with many minarets. The basis of its arrangements is laid on the combinatory symbol of the Moslem Community "Bismilla" in the shape of 2 squares displaced at an angle of 45 degrees and laid one on the other. According to this project, the high central dome with broken facets of the curved upper part was erected. It is surmounted by the dome on the muezzin platform and accentuated with 8 vertical lines (4 tall minarets and 4 pinnacles). The hall is lit by high Gothic and tulip-shaped windows. The motifs and elements of Tatar decorative art were widely used in the Mosque's styling.

The Blagoveshchensky Cathedral in the Kremlin was built in 1562 by Pskov master architect Postnik Yakovlev, the distinguished architect of the world-renowned St. Basil’s Cathedral on Red Square in Moscow.

The cathedral was built in place of the wooden church that had been constructed in three days in October 1552, immediately after the capture of Kazan. In 1552, it became a cathedral of the newly founded Kazan.

The National Museum of the Republic of Tatarstan (ulitsa Kremlyovskaya, 2) started functioning as the City Museum in 1895. Its exposition was originally based on the collection of regional historian and collector A.F. Likhachyov. The building that now houses the museum was built in 1803, in place of the old Guest Court (Gostiny dvor), built in 1770 and burned down in 1797. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a lively city fair operated both inside and outside the building. The Guest Court is rather large, and its weighty and grounded look earned it the nickname Hippopotamus (Begemot). The name is memorialized by the bar “Begemot”, at the corner of the building opening onto ulitsa Chernyshevskovo. The bar became legendary in the 1970s, and today it provides quick and inexpensive meals. On the ulitsa Kremlyovskaya side, the first floor of the museum contains several souvenir shops.

Opposite the museum, the Kazan City Hall operates in the former building of the City Civil Service (ul. Kremlyovskaya, 1), dating to the beginning of the nineteenth century.

At ul. Kremlyovskaya, 4, the former building of the Orthodox Divinity Seminary, constructed 1734-1741 in the Russian baroque style (after a fire, it was reconstructed in 1858 in the late Russian Classicist style, losing its ornamental columns) now holds the Kazan State University Geology Faculty and geological museum.

Tatarskaya sloboda

If you stand at the end of ulitsa Baumana and face Hotel Tatarstan, turn right on ulitsa Pushkina, then cross the bridge separating the Bulak Canal and Lake Kaban, you’ll find yourself in the Tatarskaya Sloboda (Starotatarskaya Sloboda), a particular region, settled by Tatars after the capture of Kazan by Ivan the Terrible. After the Empress Ekaterina II`s visit to Kazan in 1767, the region started to build stone mosques and medressahs (Muslim educational institutions). Homes in the settlement were usually built around a courtyard, with a gated street entrance. The style and adornment of the gates reflected the owner’s status. Building facades were typically painted in bright colors. A Tatar domicile was split into a men’s half and a women’s half, which was closed to other men. In 1992, the architectural preservation district Tatarskaya Sloboda was established. The settlement is nominally divided into a trade region, near the Sennyi Bazaar (Hay Bazaar), a residential region near Yunusov Square, and the industrial region around the former factories of Petsold, the Krestovnikovs, and others.

Now the Tatarskaya Sloboda still preserves its unmatched charm – take a walk down the street along Lake Kaban or walk around ulitsa Tukaevskaya, home to some of the remaining old private residences.

Lake Kaban

Lake Kaban, located in the very center of Kazan, is the subject of a great many legends. The legends hold that the khans` treasures were thrown to the bottom of the Kaban during its capture. Supposedly, in the early twentieth century, a foreign company came to the city duma (legislative body) with a proposal to clean out the lake’s silt, receiving in return everything found in the lake during its cleaning. The proposal was declined. Although nothing’s been found so far, you can always find a fisherman, who swears that he happened to catch his hook on a barrel or chest, but it was too heavy and it fell back to the bottom.

Another legend holds that the great snake Azhdakha from the Zilantov hill hid in the lake and occasionally takes revenge on the Kazan residents who forced him from the hill by pulling unwary swimmers into lake.

In ancient times, the Kazan khan’s fields and gardens were located around the lake.

Now Lake Kaban has sporting bases for rowing, canoeing, crew, and paddle boating. Millennium Park stands on its bank, with its monuments to the history of Kazan. The lake in the center of the city is in fact called the Near Kaban; there are also lakes Middle and Far Kaban. On the banks of the Middle Kaban is the former Kazan Tank Academy.