White-stone Kazan Kremlin. Kazan Kremlin: a brief description and the main attractions of the Kremlin

History of the Kazan Kremlin
   A thousand years ago, Finno-Ugric tribes settled on a high hill at the confluence of rivers. After the emergence of the state of Great Tatarstan on the territory of the Great Volga Bulgaria in the 10-13 centuries, Kazan was a small fortress on the border with Russia.
   After the Mongol invasion of 1236, the Bulgarian population came from the walls of Kazan from the Volga Bulgaria ravaged by the Mongols, the city became a commercial and political center.
   Then, after the collapse of the Golden Horde, the Kremlin becomes the center of the Kazan Khanate, which lasted about 100 years, from 1438 to 1552.
   In the mid-16th century, conflicts with the Principality of Moscow escalated, and the Russian Tsar Ivan the Terrible waged war on the Kazan Khanate. In October 1552, Russian troops conquered Kazan and destroyed its kirman (fortress). To build a new Kremlin, architects from Pskov and Novgorod are invited under the leadership of Postnik Yakovlev and Ivan Shiryaev. The white stone fortress, which can be seen now, was built after the middle of the 16th century by Russian architects from white Volga stone.
   Today, the Kremlin serves as the residence of the President of the Republic of Tatarstan and represents value as the southernmost example of the Pskov architectural style in Russia.

The Kazan Kremlin Museum-Reserve is included in the UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The architectural ensemble of the Kazan Kremlin is interesting in that even today it retains the features of all the centuries that have swept over it.

What to see in the Kazan Kremlin
“The walk along the high white stone walls already impresses, and if you climb the Preobrazhenskaya tower under the very roof, the whole city center is in full view! The only and main street of the fortress remembers the Bulgarian emirs, the Golden Horde khans and the Russian tsars. This is the first street in Kazan paved with cobblestones; it still has a historical appearance today.
- On the territory of the fortress is the famous "falling" tower of Queen Suyumbike.

She deviates from her axis by 2 meters. The tower is named after the last Kazan Queen. Legend has it: Ivan the Terrible, learning about the beauty of the queen, wanted to marry her. Having been refused, Ivan the Terrible attacked Kazan. Wanting to save her besieged city, Syuyumbeki agreed to become his wife, but set the condition: let the chosen one build a seven-story tower in a week. And when the request was granted, the queen rushed down from her. In fact, the fate of Syuyumbeki was different: the 29-year-old daughter of the Nogai Murza was taken to Moscow and there was separated from her young son.

In 2005, the new Kul Sharif mosque was opened, which became the main mosque of Tatarstan. Kul Sharif - that was the name of the main priest of the Kazan Khanate, a Muslim theologian and enlightener. He died in 1552 during the capture of Kazan by Ivan the Terrible, then the cathedral mosque was burned to the ground. The cult building in the Kazan Kremlin was recreated almost five hundred years after the destruction. The main dome in shape resembles the “Kazan cap” - the crown of the Kazan khans, which was taken to Moscow after the fall of Kazan and is now exhibited in the Armory. Turkish builders erected Kul Sharif, chandeliers for it were made in the Czech Republic, granite and marble were brought from the Urals. More than two thousand square meters of mosque are covered with Persian carpets - a gift from the Iranian government. In addition to the prayer halls of the mosque, in the Kul Sharif building you can visit the museum of Islamic culture located in the basement.

- By the millennium of Kazan, a branch of the St. Petersburg Hermitage has also opened, located in the building of the former Cadet School. In the same building there are museums - the memorial museum of the Great Patriotic War, the museum of natural history, the art gallery "Khazine" ("Treasury").
- The Kremlin houses the first Orthodox cathedral in the Middle Volga - the Annunciation Cathedral, built immediately after the capture of Kazan. It was built in the middle of the 16th century by Pskov craftsmen.

Its architect, Postnik Yakovlev, was the author of the famous St. Basil's Cathedral on Red Square. According to ancient sources, the cathedral was built the day before the attack on Kazan by the soldiers of Ivan the Terrible. Over the long history, the temple has undergone many reconstructions. In May 1836, the cathedral was visited by Nicholas I. After the imperial orders, the cathedral was expanded and turned into a winter. He was visited by Peter I, Catherine II and almost all members of the imperial house, as well as Radishchev, Pushkin, Rachmaninov. More than once Fedor Chaliapin sang here in the church choir.

Special offers on the territory of the Kazan Kremlin
In the Hermitage-Kazan center, school trips are offered the quest “In search of treasure”. This is an alternative to a traditional tour of the Kazan Kremlin, a walker with riddles and contests in the ancient fortress.
In the Museum of Islam in the Kul Sharif Mosque, you can visit the art class “The Art of Wearing a Scarf” and learn what Muslim beauty means, how Kazan Tatars wore hats at the end of the 19th century, why Muslim women leave only their faces and hands open, which 15 There are ways to tie a scarf.

How to get to the Kazan Kremlin
The citadel is visible in the city center from all sides. Since the 16th century, the Kremlin has stood on a hill covered by a strong white-stone wall. At the foot of the hill is the Kremlyovskaya metro station, near the Circus bus stop.

Visiting Rules
   To enter the Kremlin, one must approach the Spasskaya Tower on May 1 square. Here you can book a tour, or buy a guide to the fortress and take a walk on your own.
   The Kremlin is open to individual visitors for free.
   The cost of the excursion to the Kazan Kremlin in Russian and Tatar languages: a group of up to 10 people - 500 rubles (each subsequent - 50 rubles).

This is the heart of Kazan, its central and oldest part. In addition to the fact that this place is unusually interesting for its history, it is nice and easy to walk, relax, and be alone with your thoughts.

Kazan is a city with more than a thousand-year history, and in the beginning it got from the Kremlin buildings. The emergence of the Kremlin, and with it Kazan itself, is considered to be the appearance of the first Bulgarian defensive structures on high hilly terrain between the tenth and eleventh centuries. The conditions for the location of the hill on which the Kremlin stood were successful in terms of nature and geography. This place was surrounded from different sides: by the Kazanka River, a system of lakes, marshy meadows and impenetrable forests and a channel with a muddy bottom.

Until that time, when Russia was conquered by the Mongols, Kazan was a military settlement with developed trade, replenished with new stone structures, and when the Golden Horde had already established its possession, the Kremlin began to play the role of a kind of capital of the Kazan principality. An important role for the development of Kazan at that time was its location on the Volga, the intersection of major transit routes, as a result of which the city grew significantly. In the fifteenth century, after the collapse of the Horde, Kazan and the surrounding territories formed the Kazan Khanate, independent of any state, the center of which was the Kremlin. It was at this time in Kazan that various types of production flourished. Modern archaeologists have discovered in the Kremlin territory for the smelting of metal furnaces, the simplest equipment for tanning. Actively developed construction and architecture, science and crafts. In 1552, the capture of Tsar Ivan the Terrible by the army took place in Kazan, and the Kremlin became the administrative core of the entire Volga region conquered by Russia, and since 1708 - the main settlement of the Kazan province. After the annexation of Kazan, the Kremlin changed significantly, many buildings, defenses and towers were rebuilt, buildings of Russian architecture began to appear along with the preserved objects of the Bulgarian and Tatar-Mongolian culture. Around the middle of the nineteenth century, the Kremlin took on its appearance, which has survived to this day. Under the USSR, the Kremlin was the administrative core of the Tatar People’s Republic, and since the collapse of the Soviet Union, it has been the State Center of the Republic of Tatarstan, an architectural, architectural and historical museum-reserve, included in the UNESCO World Cultural and Natural Heritage List.

Well, let's begin our walk around the Kremlin. And the first thing the white-stone Kremlin walls meet us. Their length along the perimeter is almost two kilometers. Entrance to the territory from the side of Millennium Square, to which are adjacent, among others, the famous "flying saucer" - the State Circus of Kazan and the Kremlin metro station - is through the gates of the Transfiguration Tower. During the time of the Kazan Khanate, the Temen Tower was in its place, but to this day it has not been preserved and was rebuilt. Through the large wooden gate of the tower, tourists enter the ancient and beautiful corner of Kazan - the Kremlin. There is a small niche above the gate for the gate icon, but now it is empty there. The tower itself is white-stone, and its top is wooden. On the second floor, in the warm season, a cafe is open for tourists. Entering through the gate, we kind of climb a hill on the cobblestones, go up the Kremlin hill.

Then we meet the round corner South-West Tower, which in turbulent old times was one of the most important defensive installations in the Kremlin. And, finally, we see the main tower - Spasskaya, snow-white, stately, welcoming its guests.

Nowadays, a large arch in the wall adjacent to the tower is the main entrance to the Kremlin. The Spasskaya Tower was built in the sixteenth century by Russian architects, but during its history it was repeatedly rebuilt and restored. Initially, a church was erected on the site of the tower, in which the icon of the Savior Not Made by Hands was stored, it was a peculiar symbol of the conquest of Kazan by Ivan the Terrible. A little later the church was built on, and it turned out that it became, as it were, enclosed in the arms of the tower, which received the name Spasskaya. Since its construction, the tower burned several times, after which it was restored. For a long time the alarm bell was placed in it, the blows of which alerted people about the fire. And in the eighteenth century, a clock was installed on the tower, which was originally with fixed hands, but with a rotating dial, and today it is replaced by modern ones, which glow in the evening during the battle with a crimson color. Also in the twentieth century, the tower was crowned by a large five-pointed star, which completed the modern look of the Kremlin’s hostess.

From the main gate of the Kremlin there is a wide pavement of paving stones, on both sides of which, beautiful lanterns are placed on the sidewalks. To the right of the entrance arch a long two-story (and in some places a three-story) yellow building originates - the Complex of Public Places. Here was located the provincial chancellery, in which there were rooms for lawyers, secretaries, small employees, as well as living rooms for the family of the governor general, who was appointed to Kazan from the capital, banquet rooms for festive receptions. The office was connected to the Consistory - one of the governing bodies of the Orthodox Church. The local bishop and his close circle from among the high priests supervised church affairs. During the Soviet Union, the Consistory housed the Ministry of Health of the Autonomous Republic of Tatarstan.

The L-shaped building adjacent to the Chancellery, which is closest to the wall near the Spasskaya Tower, is the Guardhouse complex, the guardhouse building, in which until the twentieth century the premises of military commanders were located. During the Civil War, it received a different purpose: after the capture of Kazan by the White Guards, the guardhouse became the last place of imprisonment of party leaders, who were later shot near the Kremlin walls. Behind the guardhouse in the very corner of the Kremlin territory is a small Southeast tower, which was part of a complex of defensive structures. By the way, there are several similar round towers in the Kremlin, in addition to the South-East, there is also the South-West, Bezymyannaya Round Tower, Consistory, and from the North-East tower at the moment there are only fragments.

On the left side of the Spasskaya Tower is the complex of the Transfiguration Monastery. From the Transfiguration Cathedral, which was destroyed by the Bolsheviks in the beginning in the first half of the twentieth century, only some parts are now preserved. Now the building is being restored. It is planned in the future to place an archaeological museum here. The Church of St. Nicholas Ratnoy gets used to the Cathedral, which was preserved in Soviet times due to the fact that it became a teahouse in the military unit located at that time in the Kremlin. The fence, which delimits the territory of the monastery complex and the pedestrian walkway, adjoins the Brotherhood Corps, which served as housing for the monks. At different times on the territory of the monastery, burials of church servants and noble people were organized, that is, simply put, there was a cemetery here.

The next building after the Fraternal Corps is the Manege, which today is part of the Hazine museum complex along with the Cadet School. The Manege was built in 1880 and served as the venue for the exercises of the Kazan Military School. Now the Museum of Ancient Books and Manuscripts is being transferred to the building. The Junkers College itself is an elongated three-story building, in which the National Picture Gallery, a branch of the St. Petersburg Museum "Hermitage", the Museum of the Great Patriotic War, as well as the Museum of Nature of Tatarstan are formed. So museums this building is very rich.

Because of the school building, the minarets of the Kul-Sharif mosque, the modern pearl of the Kazan Kremlin, are already peeping, shining with their splendor. The most beautiful Muslim temple, built on the anniversary of the capital of Tatarstan in 2005, fits perfectly into the architecture of ancient buildings. Without exaggeration, the mosque is beautiful! Its sparkling blue towers against the background of the whiteness of the Kremlin walls have already become a kind of visiting card of Kazan. The mosque brings a certain balance of Orthodox and Muslim culture within the walls of the Kremlin, and together with the Orthodox churches it embodies the friendship of the Tatar and Russian people - the main nationalities in Tatarstan.

The mosque got its start in 1996, when a stone with a memorial sign was laid on the territory beyond the Junkers College, on which is the text of the decree on the reconstruction of the mosque, which was once located in the Kremlin in the sixteenth century. The stone is now located near the already rebuilt mosque. The Kul Sharif Mosque is richly decorated both outside - with granite and marble trim and inside - Persian carpets, carved stone and wood trim, gilding, and beautiful stained glass windows are on the floors.

The entrances to the mosque are separate for men and women, as are the prayer halls themselves. Women are given headscarves to cover their heads, and men’s skullcaps. Undesirable appearance in the mosque in shorts and T-shirts, short skirts. This, however, applies to any temple. In the mosque you can also visit the Museum of Islam, which tells about the development of Islam in the Volga region. Entrance to the museum is paid separately, entrance to the mosque itself is free.

On the territory of the Kul-Sharif complex there is also a small building, similar in color and design to a mosque, nicknamed the "skullcap". It houses the fire department. Nowadays, large Muslim events are held in the mosque and on the site near the complex, the main shrine of Islam is able to accommodate about 1.5 thousand people.

The next large complex of buildings along the course from the Cadet School and the mosque is Cannon Yard. Over its history, from the end of the seventeenth century, the complex was rebuilt many times, and now it consists of the Main (Eastern), Northern, Southern and Western buildings. At different times, there were weapons factories, foundries for the production of guns, dormitories for officers, military depots and cellars for food. On the territory of the complex there are also ruins of ancient walls and buildings, which in contrast with the strict view of the restored buildings and the brilliance of the Kul-Sharif mosque seem to send us mentally into the past.

The main building currently houses the dining room, the Armorial Hall, the Museum of the Cannon Courtyard. From far away you can see a long spire on the guard tower, with the inscription "Cannon Yard" and a golden dragon - a zilant, which is one of the iconic symbols of Kazan.

The northern building with a green roof and the flags of Tatarstan and Russia fluttering on it is reserved for the premises of the Office of the President of the Republic of Tatarstan. Behind the Cannon Courtyard there is already a beautiful view of the Kazanka River, shining in the sun in fine weather.

And the "guard" of the Kremlin borders in this section of the Taynitskaya tower, rectangular, white-stone, with a wooden roof. It was built on the site of a tower blown up by the army of Ivan the Terrible, and since it had a cache - an underground passage to the spring, which allowed the besieged to extract water, the new tower acquired a name thanks to this secret passage.

In the highest northern corner of the Kremlin is the Governor's Palace complex, which includes the Palace itself, the Palace Church, the Syuyumbike tower and the nearby ruins of ancient mausoleums and towers. Governor's Palace - The residence of the President of the Republic of Tatarstan, is the current management institution and is a beautiful two-story building of a pleasant tender green color, very beloved by the Tatars in architecture. Near the palace territory is fenced with fragments of elegant forging, large openwork gates for entry and two arches with wrought iron doors for people to pass. The Presidential standard flutters on the roof of the palace. Everything looks very elegant, but without too much pomp, it seems as if it blows here in the summer at any time of the year. On the west side of the palace is the Palace Church, the entrance to which is also the same from the second floor of the Palace on the transition. Located next to the church, the Syuyumbike tower, made of red brick, and which is the architectural emblem of Kazan, I consider one of the most notable buildings of the Kremlin. This is the so-called “falling tower”, it deviates slightly from its axis. In the course of numerous restorations, further movement of the tower is stopped.

The tower got its name after the first woman queen in the history of the Muslim world. Syuyumbike was the wife of the last two Kazan khans, and after the death of her second husband, she became regent in the infancy of her son, who was to be the heir to the throne. The tower’s arch has beautiful wrought-iron gates with the image of the sun, moon and zodiac signs.

From the Governor's Palace we go to the most beautiful temple - the Annunciation Cathedral. This is the oldest building, preserved to this day almost in its original form on the territory of the Kremlin, as well as the largest in size. Built in the sixteenth century, the Cathedral experienced fires, reconstructions, and the completion of individual parts. During the formation of Soviet power, a wonderful bell tower was destroyed. The cathedral was looted, rich interior decoration, icons, dishes, old books were made. Only a few of these have been preserved. In the nineties of the last century, a thorough restoration inside the temple began, it was painted with the best icon painters of the country, recovering bit by bit after the barbarism of the Bolsheviks. By the celebration of the millennium of Kazan, a great deal of work was completed, and the cathedral, as if straightening its shoulders after years of humiliation, shone proudly, giving others warmth and light. Now the Annunciation Cathedral is like the eldest Orthodox brother of the Kul-Sharif mosque. The same stately, snow-white, with an extraordinary beauty of a heavenly color with domes with golden stars, only preserving a centuries-old history.

The territory near the Cathedral is harmonious with the temple itself, it has a lot of greenery, small Christmas trees, flower beds, benches for rest, entwined with bushes of an arbor are located.

Here you can also see the monument by the architect of the Kazan Kremlin, one of which is a Tatar architect, and the second is Russian. This is a collective image of many famous and nameless creators of the appearance of the Kremlin. The architects were united by friendship and love for their native land, they worked side by side, built and restored.

Behind the Cathedral there is a beautiful panoramic view from above on the Volga, the Kremlin's surroundings, as well as a view of modern Kazan on the opposite bank of the river.

Near the small building of the Bishop’s House, located near the Cathedral, and acting as the residence of the head of the Orthodox Church of Kazan, there are historical fragments of the oldest Kremlin buildings. Everything here is conducive to spending time in peace, pondering and enjoying the beauty of the creations of human hands, mentally paying tribute to those people who have created all this splendor that we can enjoy at present. One has only to come or come here once, and then return again and again to the alluring corner called the Kazan Kremlin.

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The Kazan Kremlin is located on the promontory of the high terrace of 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 hillforts (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, stretched from the north-west, from the Kazanka River, to the southeast, to May 1 Square (former Ivanovo, along the nearby John the Baptist Monastery) and the building of the Gostiny Dvor (now RT Museum). The total area of \u200b\u200bthe Kremlin is 1,500 square meters, the circumference is 1,800 meters. The southern wall of the Kremlin with five towers overlooks Millennium Square - a view of the Kremlin from this square is the most common “visiting card” of the city. The Kremlin has a rich illumination in the dark.

History

The ancient history of the Kremlin

To this day, written evidence of the emergence of the Kremlin has not been preserved, but according to the official version, the city of Kazan was founded at the beginning of the X century. At the beginning of its existence, the Kremlin was called Kerman (tat. Kirman ) There are no written sources on this subject.

XII-XIV centuries Bulgarian fortress

The earliest archaeological finds were found in the northern part of the Kremlin, closer to Kazanka, where the ancient Bulgarian fortified settlement was located and later, for a century, the fortress of the Kazan Khanate. Researchers disagree about the dating of wooden fortifications of the ancient period: some believe that the Bulgarian trade settlement was strengthened already in the X century, others only in the XII century. Scientists also disagree about the nature of the fortifications, some believe that the stone walls were partially erected already in the XII century, others believe that only in the XV or XVI century, after the reconstruction of the Kremlin by order of Ivan the Terrible, 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 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 became 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 Bulgarian prince Hassan laid the foundation of the fortress on the site of the modern Kazan Kremlin, which served as the residence of the Bulgarian princes until 1445.

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

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

The Khan’s citadel was surrounded by oak (possibly in some places stone) walls up to 9 meters thick with 4 passage towers: Nur-Ali, Elabuga, Bolshoi Gate, Tyumen Gate. Silty Bulak (from the Tat. "Sleeve", the channel connecting the Kazanka River and Lake Kaban) defended the fortress from the west; and on the least protected southeast side the fortress was fenced with deep moats. Kurbsky left such a description of Kazan: “and the mountain is so high from the Kazan River, you should look at it with your eye; there is a hailstones on it and royal chambers and mosques zelo tall, mutated, even their dead tsar were put, with a number of memorable, five of them ... ”(“ mutated ”- stone). The Kul-Sharif Cathedral Mosque, according to tradition, had 8 minarets. 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 Bulgaria, where the smooth planes of the walls contrast with elegant carved and ceramic inserts of decor elements. Tezitsky (tezik arab. - merchant) ditch separated the Khan's citadel from the southern part, where the building was wooden. Here close khan's settlers settled and there was a cemetery. At mosques there were madrassas and mausoleums.

The second half of the XVI 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 gallery-gulbys, the remaining four are octagonal. The tower is completed by a 6-sided brick tent (58 meters high or 34 feet 6 feet deep), which until 1917 was crowned with a double-headed eagle resting on a gilded “apple” (according to the legend of Kazan Tatars, important documents related to history and culture were concluded in the ball Tatars). The faces of all tiers are decorated with shovels or thin brick rollers. In the lower tier of the tower 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, 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 hoisted again 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. Halikova, M. Kh. Khasanova, I. N. Aleeva "the authors are inclined to believe that the Palace Church" was put on the site where the Nur-Ali mosque stood during the Kazan Khanate ", however this version is based on later sources (an explication to the city plan of 1768, where the church is listed as “a church turned from a mosque”) and is one of the hypotheses of the history of the Vvedensky church (consecrated in the 19th century in honor of the Descent of the Holy Spirit) church.

The Vvedensky church was badly 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" 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 church faithfully reproduced the design scheme and stylistic features of the former Vvedensky church, the architectural counterparts of which in Kazan can be considered the destroyed Vvedensky Cathedral of the Kizichesky Monastery, and the Resurrection Cathedral - the New Jerusalem Monastery (“Bishop's 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 aisle of St. Martyr Queen Alexandra occupied only the second floor, on the ground floor there was a chapel in the name of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, a church icon in 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 watch tower 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, at the place where in ancient times the palace of the Kazan khans was located, and in the XVIII century - the commandant’s house. The building was built in the 40s. XIX century in the so-called. pseudo-Byzantine style. The project “houses of the military governor with premises for imperial apartments” was made 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 adjacent circumferential services. 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. Corinthian, 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. The building has two porches on 2 order columns with arched doorways. The first and second floors are divided by a series of order pilasters and arched window openings. The facade in the plan represents a semicircle and has passage to the courtyard of the palace. The eclectic decor of the building combines elements of Russian classicism (dividing by the Corinthian order, rustication of the 1st floor, general symmetry), baroque (unfastening of entablature over the bundles of columns of the main risalit, the nature of the pediments of the porticoes) and ancient Russian architecture (hanging weights of the paired arches of the windows of the 2nd floor, central keel-shaped zakom risalita, the nature of the curly supports of the arched suspension passage to the Palace Church). In Soviet times, the building was the Presidium of the Supreme Council and the Council of Ministers of the TASSR.

Office Building (Provincial Chancellery)

The 2-storey building of the governor’s board - public places - is located on the right side of the main Kremlin street and Spasskaya tower. The project was drawn up by V.I. Kaftyrev, who was sent by the Senate to Kazan in 1767 to detail the master plan of the city, developed by the commission of St. Petersburg and Moscow after the big fire in Kazan in 1765. The main floor was the second, where senior officials and important visitors climbed the main staircase, and where the “audience” hall was located in front of the “courtroom” - the central hall with 4 windows. Adjacent to it were the "secret" and "secretarial", in the rest of the rooms sat "orderly servants." The building has a basement with vaulted rooms. For access to the long courtyard between the office building and the eastern span of the Kremlin wall, the building has two through passageways dividing the building into 3 sections. On the north side, the building of the former Consistory adjoins the building.

Blagoveshchensky cathedral

Annunciation Cathedral and bell tower at the beginning of the XX century

Built in the 16th century by Pskov architects Ivan Shiry and Postnik Yakovlev. The white-stone cross-domed cathedral in terms of plan was originally almost 2 times smaller than the modern church, 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 aisle 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, which went around the central cuboid volume of the cathedral.

In the XVIII and XIX century, a number of alterations radically changed the appearance of the cathedral, especially the view from the west. In 1736, helmet-shaped domes were replaced by bulbous ones, and the central dome was completed in the form of the so-called “bathhouse” in the Ukrainian Baroque style. Near the cathedral stood the Church of the Nativity of Christ, built in 1694 under the Metropolitan of Kazan Marcellus. By 1821, the Church of the Nativity of Christ was dilapidated and the technical commission proposed to build a new warm temple 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) 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 original harmonious appearance. Since then, the exterior of the cathedral has not changed, except for the destruction of the porch of the cathedral, designed by F. Petondi, demolished after the revolution, and destroyed by the communists in 1928, the magnificent 5-tier bell tower of the 17th century, which kept the largest bell in Kazan. Its weight was 1500 pounds (about 24570 kg).

Ensemble of the Transfiguration Monastery

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

Founded in the 16th century Barsanuphius. The fraternal corps in the northern part of the monastery has been preserved; a brick fence on the eastern side of the monastery, reconstructed in the forms of the XIX century, the Church of St. Nicholas Ratnoy (which served as a teahouse in the military unit located here in Soviet times); basement of the Transfiguration Cathedral, 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.

On a high hill, located on the left bank of the Kazanka River, stands the symbol and main attraction of Kazan, its heart and soul - the Kazan Kremlin, which is a historical, architectural and archaeological monument. During the capture of the city in 1551, many structures and walls of the Kazan Kremlin were destroyed, so new ones were erected in their place. Today, centuries have been mixed on its territory: buildings of the 20th century are located next to the buildings of the 10th century. Since 2000, the entire ensemble has been protected by UNESCO. The area of \u200b\u200bthe Kazan Kremlin is 150 thousand square meters, and the total length of the walls, whose width is about 3 meters, is more than 2 km. The height of the walls of the Kazan Kremlin exceeds 6 m. A distinctive feature of the Kremlin is a unique combination of cultural and historical monuments of the Orthodox and Muslim religions.

Annunciation Cathedral of the Kazan Kremlin.

The real pearl of the complex is the existing (since 2005) Annunciation Cathedral, erected by Pskov craftsmen in the middle of the 16th century. During its existence, the temple was rebuilt and reconstructed several times. Unfortunately, in 1922 the bell tower was irretrievably lost. At the same time, many of the values \u200b\u200bstored in the temple (icons, manuscripts, old printed books, gold embroidery) disappeared without a trace. Some exhibits were preserved through the efforts of art critic P. Dulsky and Professor I. Stratonov. Today, the saved rarities are included in the collection of the Museum of the Republic of Tatarstan.

Towers of the Kazan Kremlin.

The Kazan Kremlin is famous for its watchtowers. 13 towers were erected at once, of which only eight have survived at the moment. Taynitskaya and Spasskaya towers are the most famous, which are both gates. They were built in the 16th century.

Spasskaya tower of the Kazan Kremlin.

Adjacent to the Church of the Savior Not Made by Hands, the Spasskaya Tower of the Kazan Kremlin burned several times, it was restored, and two centuries later its appearance was supplemented by the clock installed on it.

Tainitskaya tower of the Kazan Kremlin.

Tainitskaya tower got its name due to a secret passage leading to a spring with spring water. Unfortunately, it has not survived to our time.

Syuyumbike tower of the Kazan Kremlin.

Visitors are attracted by the Suyumbike watch tower, built at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries. It can be called the Kazan "Leaning Tower of Pisa." The deviation of the structure from the vertical is about 2 m. Due to the restoration work and the strengthening of the foundation, its decline was stopped.

Mausoleum of the Kazan khans.

You can not ignore the Mausoleum of the Kazan khans, located near Syuyumbike. It was discovered during sewer work quite by accident. This is the last refuge of two Kazan khans. The mausoleum was covered with a glass dome to provide access to it in any weather.

Mosque of the Kazan Kremlin.

In honor of the celebration of the millennium of Kazan, the Kul-Sharif mosque was erected on the territory of the Kremlin, admiring its grandeur and unique beauty. In the evening, thanks to the spectacular lighting, everything here takes on an unforgettable look. The construction of a mosque near Orthodox churches symbolizes the community of two religions.

Governor's Palace, built in the 19th century, attracts tourists with its architecture. Today it serves as a representation of the head of the Republic of Tatarstan.

Museums of the Kazan Kremlin.

There are several museums on the territory of the Kazan Kremlin:

Museum of the History of the Tatar People and the Republic of Tatarstan, located in the Vvedensky Church.
Complex "Cannon Yard".
Cadet School, with the Hermitage department, the Great Patriotic War Museum, an art exhibition and the Museum of Natural History.
Museum of Islamic Culture, which is located on the ground floor of the mosque.

Transfiguration Monastery.

The Kazan Kremlin complex also includes the Transfiguration Monastery, founded in 1556. In the first years of Soviet power, most of its buildings were blown up. Today restoration and restoration work is being carried out.

Ancient history

Tower Syuyumbike

Governor's Palace

Blagoveshchensky cathedral

Cannon Yard Complex

Consistory building

Bishop's house

Junkers College

Guardhouse building

Kazan Kremlin (tat. Kazan kirmәne, Qazan kirmäne) - 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 hillforts (XV-XVI centuries); the white stone Kremlin, a number of temples and buildings of great historical, architectural and cultural value, the official residence of the President of Tatarstan.

The territory of the Kremlin is an irregular polygon in plan, repeating the outlines of the Kremlin hill, stretched from the north-west, from the Kazanka River, to the southeast, to the 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 is a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2000.

History

Ancient history

XII-XIV centuries. Bulgarian fortress

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 (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 became subordinate to the Golden Horde. Part of the Bulgars fled to the areas of Kazanka and founded Iske-Kazan, a city 45 kilometers from Kazan. In 1370, the Bulgarian prince Hassan laid the foundation of the fortress on the site of the modern Kazan Kremlin, which served as the residence of the Bulgarian princes until 1445.

XV - the 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 lasted from 1445 to 1552. In the fall of 1445, the Horde Khan Ulu-Muhammed with a detachment of 3,000 soldiers captured Kazan, executed the Bulgarian prince Alimbek, thus establishing the Kazan Khanate on the ruins of the Volga Bulgaria, and soon resumed the Horde tribute collection system from the Moscow principality.

Khan's Citadel ( Ark) was surrounded by oak (possibly in some places stone) walls, up to 9 meters thick with 4 passage towers: Nur-Ali, Elabuga, Bolshoi and Tyumen Gate. Mud Mud (from Tat. "sleeve", the channel connecting the Kazanka River and Lake Kaban) defended the fortress from the west; and on the least protected southeast side the fortress was fenced with deep moats.

Andrei Kurbsky left such a description of Kazan: “And the mountain is so high from the Kazan River; there is a hail on it, and royal chambers and mosques zelo tall, mutilated, even though their dead tsar were put down, with a memory we remember, five of them ... ” ("Mutated" - stone).

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

Tezitsky (Arabic namesake - merchant) a moat separated the Khan's citadel from the southern part, where the building was wooden. Here close khan's settlers settled and there was a cemetery.

The second half of the XVI century. The construction of the stone Kremlin

After the siege of Kazan by Ivan the Terrible in 1552, the fortress lay in ruins. To build a new white-stone Kremlin, the king called on the Pskov architects Postnik Yakovlev and Ivan Shiryai (builders of St. Basil’s Cathedral), as the chronicle tells “The city walls were broken and burnt, the Tsar was edified,” for which the Pskov elders “yes, with them the church and city master Postnik Yakovlev and the Pskov masons Ivash Shirya and my comrades, to spring in Kazan, the new city of Kazan to be done, tidy up two hundred people of Pskov masons, stonemasons and how much man will be more attractive ”. The fortress was significantly expanded, 6 towers (out of 13) were built of stone (five were travel), but in the 16th century only wooden walls (with a total length of 1,800 meters) were replaced by stone walls and most of the Kremlin’s walls and towers were built of oak. Only at the beginning of the 17th century did the final replacement of the wooden fortifications of the Kazan Kremlin with stone ones take place.

Together with the erection of the walls, the Pskov masters built the first Orthodox churches of the Kazan Kremlin: the Annunciation Cathedral, the Church of Kiprian and Justina, the Church of Dmitry Solunsky at the Dmitrievskaya Tower, the Spasskaya (in honor of the Icon of the Holy Face Icon) church at the Spasskaya Tower, and also two monasteries - the Trinity-Sergievsky with wooden Trinity and Sergiev churches and Spaso-Preobrazhensky, with a stone church of St. Nicholas Ratnoy and stone, of carved limestone, basement of a wooden (in the 16th century) Cathedral of the Transfiguration.

For a long time (more than one and a half centuries), the Kazan Kremlin preserved five stone buildings of the Khan's time (Khan's mosque, Khan's palace and mausoleums) used as storage rooms for storing weapons and ammunition, but over time they were demolished due to dilapidation. The Englishman D. Fletcher left remarkable memories of Russian Kremlin in the 16th century: “the four fortresses - Smolenskaya, 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 Oruj-bek, sent to Tsar Boris Godunov (who later converted to Christianity in Spain and hereinafter referred to as Don Juan Persian): “We arrived in a very large 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 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. ”

XVII 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 the 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. Kazan province was formed in 1708, which was reflected in the architectural appearance of the Kremlin; over the next centuries, the Governor's palace, public buildings, the cadet school, a new bishop's house, the building of the spiritual consistory were erected in it, the Annunciation Cathedral was significantly reconstructed.

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

Since 1774, the architect V. I. Kaftyrev began to implement the highly approved regular urban development plan of Kazan, which provided for the construction of an ensemble of public places in the Kremlin. The complex development of the squares and streets adjacent to the Kremlin has begun. It became its starting point - wide streets radially departed from it.

XIX century

In 1800, the publisher and enlightener Maxim Nevzorov left a description of the main fortress of the vast Kazan province: “It contains the Cathedral of the Annunciation Church, the Transfiguration of the Savior 2nd class male monastery, the Church of Cyprian and Justina, the bishop's house with a spiritual consistory, public places and connected to they are the governor-general’s house with all its services, the artillery arsenal, the guardhouse, the old command house, the man’s casemates, the old wooden provisions and salt stores. ” During the Napoleonic invasion, a factory for the manufacture and repair of guns operated on the territory of the Kazan Kremlin. Towards the end of the 19th century, the Kremlin’s internal architectural complex itself and the modern city ensemble surrounding it took shape.

XX century

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

In 1993-1994, "The main directions of 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 Kazan Kremlin State Historical, Architectural and Art Museum-Reserve was created, which laid the foundation for 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 foundations of the four previously collapsed and dismantled towers were studied by archaeologists, after which their conservation and museumification was carried out. Also, several objects of the XV-XVI centuries in the ancient part of the Kremlin underwent conservation with museumification: archaeological remains of one of the representative buildings from the complex of the Khan’s courtyard, Khan’s mosque, the tomb of the Kazan khans. The construction of a mausoleum for the reburial of the remains of khans recovered during excavations was begun. During the excavations, a graveyard of the Trinity Monastery, a necropolis and a “cave” of the Transfiguration Monastery were also discovered, where burials of locally revered Kazan saints were preserved under the thickness of asphalt and rubble (after the explosion of the Transfiguration Cathedral in 1930). With the help of strengthening the foundations, it was possible to stop the fall of the Syuyumbike tower (with a deviation of almost 2 meters from the axis). At this time, the governor's palace (with the revival of the palace enfilade layout and the front square in front of the main facade) and the Palace Church were completely restored.

Four buildings that are part of the Cannon Courtyard complex have also been restored. The Cathedral of the Annunciation Cathedral was restored in the complex of the Bishop's Court. In 1995, work began on the reconstruction of the legendary Kul Sharif mosque and the restoration of interiors: the discovery of frescoes, the reconstruction of the iconostasis of the Cathedral of the Annunciation Cathedral. Under the cathedral, the underground temple of All Saints with the necropolis of the Kazan bishops was cleared, the cell of the chief priest of Kazan Guria, adjacent to the cathedral from the south, was restored. The mosque complex was originally planned as a cult, cultural, educational and memorial center, so the Museum of Islam was placed on the lower floor of the building.

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

The architectural ensemble of the Kazan Kremlin

Towers and buildings of the Kazan Kremlin:

Walls and Towers

After the construction of walls and towers by Pskov architects was completed, the Kremlin had 13 towers, of which 5 were travel, 7 round and 1 pentagonal in plan. Due to decay in the 19th century, the North, East, Pentagonal and one nameless western towers were dismantled. During the reconstruction in the 1st half of the 18th century, the Spasskaya and Taynitskaya towers were added with additional brick tiers, and the Preobrazhenskaya, Consistor, and second nameless Western towers also acquired brick completion. In the XIX century, the Dmitrov Tower was dismantled, a travel arch appeared in its place, and the Resurrection Tower lost the gate church. The shakes between the towers initially ended with straight teeth covered with a hewn roof, and by the 17-18th century. acquired the appearance of a battle wall with arched decorations - “dovetail” on its facade. The walls and towers were laid on a mortar.

The Spasskaya Tower. Built in 2 floors. XVI century Pskov architects Ivan Shiryom and Postnik Yakovlev. On the inner, northern side of the fortress, the Spasskaya Church adjoined the Spasskaya Tower, which so far has become one with the tower. Its typically Pskov-style architectural facade faces the main street of the Kremlin. At the end of the 17th century, instead of the 3rd tier, the tower was built up with two 8-sided brick tiers with a brick tent, having received its present, familiar look to Kazan. Until 1917, the tower was crowned with a two-headed coat of arms of the Russian state, in the upper tier in the XVIII century a clock “with a chime” 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). Before the tower until the middle of the XIX 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.
Transfiguration tower. The tower got its name from the Transfiguration Monastery of the Kremlin, which it enclosed from the north-west. Despite the fact that the Transfiguration 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 Transfiguration tower to the Spasskaya pass was added to the old Khan's fortress by Pskov craftsmen.
Polyhedral (pentahedral) tower also built by Pskov architects. The skeleton has been preserved.
Nameless Round Tower - brick built, supposedly erected by Moscow architects in the XVII century.
Northwest tower. The skeleton has been preserved.
Tainitskaya tower - erected in its present form in the 1550s by Postnik Yakovlev, it was named after a hidden source from which water could be taken during the siege (similar “secret” sources were at the Vodovzvodnaya, the corner Arsenalnaya and Zamoskvoretskaya (Beklemisheva) towers of the Moscow Kremlin). The entrance to the tower was made in the form of a “knee”, which increased the defenses of the Kremlin. At the time of the Khanate’s tower, the Nur Ali tower was located in the Russian transcription of Muraleev. It was through the Muralei 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 the Pugachev siege of Kazan.
Resurrection Tower built in brick, presumably (according to stylistic criteria), by Moscow architects in the 1670s. Travel, has a cubic shape.
Northeast Round Tower disassembled after the Pugachev assault.
Dmitrievskaya travel tower disassembled after the Pugachev assault. The tower got its name from the church of St. Great Martyr Demetrius of Solunsky.
Consistory Tower It was built in brick by Moscow architects in the 17th century; it got its name in the 18th century from the Spiritual Consistory, which was located next to the tower in the Kremlin. You can climb the tower and walk along the strand of the wall - towards the Southeast Tower. Near the tower archaeological excavations revealed the so-called. the tezitsky (tezik arab. - merchant) moat, going from the Consistory Tower to Preobrazhenskaya, the famous archaeologist N. Kalinin and a number of scientists considered the tezitsky moat the southern border of the khan's fortress.
Southeast Round Tower - A vivid example of Pskov architecture of the 16th century.

Tower Syuyumbike

Scientists differ in the dating of the tower construction. In the authoritative work “Kazan in the monuments of history and culture. Ed. S. S. Aidarova, A. Kh. Khalikov, M. Kh. Khasanova, I. N. Aleeva "the tower is tentatively dated from 1645-1650. Proponents of the hypothesis of the emergence of the tower after 1552 as a sentinel point to the similarity of the Syuyumbike tower with the Borovitskaya tower of the Moscow Kremlin. The famous Kazan local historian, professor of Kazan Imperial University N.P. Zagoskin in the 19th century considered the issue of dating the tower open and was inclined to the version of its occurrence 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 is speculated that the Moscow prince could send the masters who built the Moscow Kremlin to build the tower in Kazan, which could ultimately affect the similarity of the Syuyumbike tower with the Borovitskaya tower.

Tower architecture

Palace (Vvedenskaya) church

The Vvedensky church was badly 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" 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 church faithfully reproduced the design scheme and stylistic features of the former Vvedensky church, the architectural counterparts of which in Kazan can be considered the destroyed Vvedensky Cathedral of the Kizic Monastery, and the Resurrection Cathedral of the New Jerusalem Monastery (“Bishop's 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 aisle of St. Martyr Queen Alexandra occupied only the second floor, on the ground floor there was a chapel in the name of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, a church icon in which was donated in the mid-19th century by Anna Davydovna Boratynskaya.

Now here is the 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, at the place where in ancient times the palace of the Kazan khans was located, and in the XVIII century - the 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 imperial apartments” was made by the famous Moscow architect K. A. 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 adjacent circumferential services. 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. Corinthian, 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 series of order pilasters and arched window openings. The facade in the plan represents a semicircle and has passage to the courtyard of the palace. The eclectic decor of the building combines elements of Russian classicism (dividing by the Corinthian order, rustication of the 1st floor, general symmetry), baroque (unfastening of entablature over the bundles of columns of the main risalit, the nature of the pediments of the porticoes) and ancient Russian architecture (hanging weights of the paired arches of the windows of the 2nd floor, central keel-shaped zakom risalita, the nature of the curly supports of the arched suspension passage to the Palace Church).

In the Soviet period, the building was the Presidium of the Supreme Council and the Council of Ministers of the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. It is currently 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.

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

The 36 m high dome is decorated with forms associated with the image and decorative details of the Kazan hat. 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. Built of white marble and granite, a dome and turquoise minarets.

Blagoveshchensky cathedral

Built in the 16th century by Pskov architects Ivan Shiry and Postnik Yakovlev. The white-stone cross-domed cathedral in terms of plan was originally almost half the size of the modern church, 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 church: the northern aisle 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, which enveloped the central cuboid volume of the cathedral.

In the XVIII and XIX century, a number of alterations radically changed the appearance of the cathedral, especially the view from the west. In 1736, helmet-shaped domes were replaced by bulbous ones, and the central dome was completed in the form of the so-called “bathhouse” in the Ukrainian Baroque style. Near the cathedral stood the Church of the Nativity of Christ, built in 1694 under the Metropolitan of Kazan Marcellus. By 1821, the Church of the Nativity of Christ was dilapidated and the technical commission proposed to build a new warm temple 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) 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 porch of the cathedral, designed by Petondi, demolished after the revolution, and destroyed in 1928 by the magnificent 5-tier bell tower of the 17th century, which kept the largest bell of pre-revolutionary Kazan. Its weight was 1,500 pounds (about 24,570 kg).

Transfiguration Monastery

Founded in the 16th century Barsanuphius. During the period of the Kazan Khanate, a cemetery was located on the territory that was outside the walls of the fortress at the place where the ruins of the museum complex of the Spassky Monastery are currently located. This territory continued to serve as a necropolis in the following centuries: “on the ancient monastery necropolis during the XV-XX centuries. no less than a thousand people (including burials of the period of the Kazan Khanate) rested. So it is multilayer (up to 6-8 levels), and multinational. ".

The fraternal corps in the northern part of the monastery has been preserved; a brick fence on the eastern side of the monastery, reconstructed in the forms of the XIX century, the Church of St. Nicholas Ratnoy (which served as a teahouse in the military unit located here in Soviet times); basement of the Transfiguration Cathedral, 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.

Office Building (Provincial Chancellery)

Cannon Yard Complex

The ensemble of the cannon yard consists of four buildings. It housed one of the largest Russian factories for the manufacture and repair of artillery guns. Kazan cannon factory contributed to the victory of Russian weapons in the war of 1812. After the fire of 1815, the plant ceased to exist.

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

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 earlier the “Kazan kingdom”) was located in the Kazan Kremlin. The bishop's house is a typical administrative building of the 19th century. Central and lateral risalits face the eastern wall. After the Pugachev siege of the Kremlin and fires, the bishop’s house was unsuitable for living 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 the Archbishop of Kazan and Sviyazhsky Vladimir (Uzhinsky) moved from the suburban residence of the Kazan bishops - the Resurrection New Jerusalem Monastery - to the Kremlin.

Junkers College

On the left side of the main Kremlin street there is a building built in the middle of the 19th century for the cadet school on the site where the Trinity Monastery (founded in the 16th century) was located before the abolition in the 18th century, and later in the XVIII-XIX centuries there was an arsenal and artillery yard, where in 1812-15 one of the largest cannon factories in Russia was located, new guns 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 Kazan University buildings) “in the style of late Russian classicism”, as indicated by a clear symmetrical layout, high bright study rooms on the sides of the central corridor, a strict exterior of the building and facade elements: profiled platbands and rustication on the first floor. The main entrance is accented by a hinged metal pediment.

Now the building houses the Khazine National Picture Gallery and a branch of the State Hermitage Museum (St. Petersburg).

Manege

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 rafter structures. After conducted in 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 spot where, from the 18th century, there was a stone Zeikhauz - a warehouse of military property attached to 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 the storage site for the largest bell of pre-revolutionary Kazan)
Transfiguration Cathedral (blown up in the 1930s);
The 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 of archaeological research was laid in the 19th century by Kazan regional historians, professor of KSU (now KFU) N.P. Zagoskin and P.A. Ponomarev, who studied the foundation pit on the site of the building of the Junkers School. 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 research was 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 of the period of the Kazan Khanate were revealed under the cathedral.

Organizations operating in the Kazan Kremlin

Office of the President of the Republic of Tatarstan
RT Arbitration Court
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 Museum of the Hermitage (St. Petersburg)
National Art Gallery "Khazine"
WWII Memorial Museum
CEC RT
Institute of History Sh. Mardzhani AN RT
Public Chamber of the Republic of Tatarstan
Council of Municipalities of the Republic of Tatarstan
Post office number 14