, included in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2000, is a unique architectural monument. And not only architecture - this place is covered with the memory of several eras of the thousand-year history of the Kazan land, each of which can serve us as a good historical lesson.
Kazan Kremlin - an ancient Tatar fortress
The Kazan Kremlin is proudly located on the high left bank of the Volga River in the very center of the city. The Kremlin in Kazan is the only surviving Tatar one with the original pristine fortification layout and location of architectural structures. The Kazan Kremlin is the most famous and visited by tourists.
The Kremlin in Kazan is considered the most southern point Pskov-Novgorod architectural architecture of Rus' and, at the same time, it is also the northern point of promotion of Islamic architecture in the world. Thanks to this unusual location of Kazan at the crossroads of cultures, a unique synthesis of cultures and architecture has arisen in the city, where ancient Orthodox churches peacefully and directly coexist with Muslim mosques. And it is in Kazan that a pronounced historical contact between the Volga-Bulgar and Golden Horde architecture, medieval Kazan-Tatar, Russian and Italian cultural traditions is manifested.
The Kremlin is a whole complex of monuments to the centuries-old history of the city. The latest reports about the Kremlin date back to the 12th century, it was then that former capital The Kazan Khanate became a powerful military and political center of the Volga region annexed to Rus'. Since 1708, the Kremlin housed the governing bodies of the Kazan province.
Today, the Kazan Kremlin complex of buildings is the only active center on earth for Tatar culture and state power. The palace of the governor of tsarist Russia became the residence of the president of the modern republic of Tatarstan.
The lands around the Kazan Kremlin are recognized as a museum - protected areas, which include the Kazan Kremlin settlement of the 10th-16th centuries, the ancient brick and stone Kazan Kremlin of the 16th-18th centuries, architectural buildings of the 16th-19th centuries and all the associated museums of the Kazan Kremlin.
Sasha Mitrakhovich 14.03.2016 10:13
The city is located on the left bank of the Volga, at the confluence of the Kazanka River, 800 km east of Moscow.
According to the latest archaeological data, Kazan arose at the turn of the X-XI centuries. (the most mentioned date is 1005) as a trade and defensive point on the northern outskirts of Volga Bulgaria. The name of this city is the subject of endless debate among experts. According to the most common version, it comes from the Tatar word “kazan” - cauldron, and is associated with the features of the Kazanka River, supposedly replete with pits and whirlpools. There are also suggestions that the name is associated with the Turkic tribe “Kaz” who lived in this territory or came from the Turkic personal name Hassan.
The city of Kazan had a very profitable geographical location at the junction of Europe and Asia and has long been a trade intermediary between East and West. In the XIII-XIV centuries. Kazan is the center of one of the principalities of the Golden Horde, and since 1438 it has been the capital of the Kazan Khanate.
The city was located on the high bank of the Kazanka River, 6 km from the Volga. From the northeast and southwest, Kazan was protected by inaccessible rivers: the swampy Kazanka and the muddy Bulak. From the east, from the side of the Arsky field, the city was fenced with high wooden walls with towers and a moat, the width of which reached 7 m and the depth of 15 m.
Kazan before the campaigns of Ivan the Terrible
The central part of the Kazan fortress was the Kremlin. The plan was an irregular quadrangle and was surrounded by high oak walls up to 7 m thick and about 2 km long, had 10 towers, including 4 driveways.
By the standards of that time it was a very strong fortress. In total, its fortifications consisted of about 37 towers, including 12 passage towers. The fortress was most accessible from the east and southeast. But to the east of the Arsky field there was the Arsky forest, in which, 15 km from Kazan, the Tatars built a fortification that threatened the troops attacking the city from the rear.
After the collapse of the Golden Horde, the Kazan Khanate posed a particular danger to Rus'. In 1524, Khan Safa-Girey came to power, recognizing vassal dependence on Turkey. This led to open protests by Kazan and Crimean detachments against Russian cities. The Nizhny Novgorod, Murom, Vyatka, Kostroma and Vologda lands especially suffered from the Kazan raids. In addition, armed detachments of Kazan residents interfered with Russian trade relations along the Volga and Kama with the Caspian and Central Asian countries.
At first, Moscow tried to resolve the “Kazan issue” using the “pressure” method. During the reign of the Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily III, a powerful stronghold was built on the border with the Kazan Khanate - the Vasilsursk fortress. After the death of Vasily III (1533), Ivan IV ascended the throne of the Moscow Principality. Seeing that the policy of negotiations was not bringing success, the Russian Tsar switched to forceful methods.
Kazan campaigns of the troops of Ivan the Terrible, conquest of the Kazan Khanate
The first Kazan campaign, organized in 1545, was more of a demonstration of military force. He strengthened the position of Moscow's supporters in the Kazan Khanate, which led to the overthrow of the power of Khan Safa-Girey. In the spring of 1546, his place was taken by Moscow's protege Shah-Ali. He did not last long in power and was soon removed by a Turkish protege. After this, raids on Russian lands became more frequent again.
The next two campaigns against the Kazan Khanate (1547-1548 and 1549-1550) did not bring success. They turned out to be poorly prepared and were carried out in unfavorable conditions. weather conditions(in winter and spring), which made it difficult to concentrate guns near Kazan and carry out siege operations.
In 1551, preparations began for a new campaign. This time it was conducted more carefully. By order of Ivan IV in the spring of 1551, 30 km west of Kazan, where the Sviyaga River flows into the Volga, a new support base was quickly built - the wooden fortress of Sviyazhsk. In the same year, the Nogai Horde was separated from the anti-Russian coalition through diplomatic means.
On June 16, 1552, the Russian Tsar left the capital and, at the head of the main military forces, set out for Kazan. On June 24, he defeated the army of the Crimean Khan Devlet-Girey that approached Tula and on July 3 continued his journey to Kazan, sending his army along two routes: the advanced and large regiments and the right-hand regiment - through Ryazan, the left-hand regiment, the guard regiment and the royal squad - via Vladimir, Murom. Siege artillery, ammunition and food supplies were sent to Sviyazhsk by water. By August 4, both columns united on the Sura River, in the area of the Boroncheev settlement. Moving further in a common column, the army arrived on August 13, 1552 in Sviyazhsk, on August 23 it approached Kazan, and on October 11 it was taken.
By evening, not a single defender remained in the city, only women and children. Prince Vorotynsky sent a message to the Tsar: “Rejoice, pious autocrat! Kazan is ours, its king is in captivity, its army has been exterminated.” On October 11, the Russian army marched back to Moscow, leaving a garrison in Kazan.
Arrangement of the Kazan Kremlin after the conquest of the Kazan Khanate
After the conquest of Kazan, the best Pskov craftsmen were sent to restore the fortifications of the Kazan Kremlin. By 1556, Pskov masons, led by famous Russian craftsmen Postnik Yakovlev and Ivan Shiryai, overhauled and partially reconstructed the Kremlin destroyed by the siege. In particular, they were built from white stone southern part Kremlin wall, Spasskaya (southern side), Preobrazhenskaya (west side), Tainitskaya (north side) and Voskresenskaya (northeast side) passage towers.
Kremlin walls in Kazan
The Kazan Kremlin did not acquire fortress walls with towers (with a total length of almost two kilometers!) overnight; their construction and modernization took many decades, although already at the beginning of the 17th century the Kremlin resembled an impregnable fortress. Postnik Yakovlev and Ivan Shiryai erected fortifications from the south and north in 1556-1562; at the turn of the 16th-17th centuries, the creation of the fortress perimeter was completed; in the 18th century the walls grew somewhat larger. The thickness of the two-tier walls reaches six meters, the height is 8-12 meters.
The rest of the wall, as before, was built from oak logs. The new walls reached a height of 8-12 m, a width of 4-5 m and had 2 tiers of battle.
The reconstruction was continued by local craftsmen, who laid out the walls in two tiers 8-12 m high. In the lower one, niche-chambers with loopholes for cannons were installed. The upper tier had a thinner wall (up to 1 m), cut with slits for shooting.
Construction work in the Kazan Kremlin continued until 1568, but only by the end of the 16th century. the remaining part of the wooden walls was completely replaced by brick or stone by local craftsmen and decorated with rounded battlements in the form of swallowtails.
Towers of the Kazan Kremlin
In total, the renovated Kazan Kremlin had 13 towers, including 5 travel towers - of different sizes and different purposes. In the nineteenth century, five of them were dismantled.
The main and most famous of the Kazan Kremlin towers, Spasskaya, is located in the south. It received its name from the Spasskaya Church adjacent to it, built to store the traveling icon of the Savior Not Made by Hands, which belonged to Ivan the Terrible. Under Nicholas I, the temple became a “military” temple; it was assigned to the Kazan garrison.
The Spasskaya Tower was built by Postnik Yakovlev and Ivan Shiryai in the traditions of Pskov fortification architecture. Initially the tower consisted of two tetrahedral tiers with travel gates. After the fire of 1694, the Spasskaya Tower was supplemented with two octagonal tiers with a hipped roof, and it acquired its current “classical” appearance. The lower of the new tiers was a “sentry”; in the upper one, with arched openings, an alarm bell was placed.
Kazan province and Pugachev’s peasant war
In 1708, by order of Peter I, Kazan became the capital of the Kazan province (from 1781 to 1796 - governorship), maintaining this status for more than 200 years (until 1920).
During the period of the Peasant War, under the leadership of E. Pugachev, a 20,000-strong army of rebels, having crossed the Kama and captured the Izhevsk and Botkin factories, moved to Kazan.
The tsarist troops sent by the Kazan governor against the rebels were defeated, and a significant part of them went over to Pugachev’s side.
On July 12, 1774, Pugachev led his troops to attack Kazan. The detachments deployed against them were quickly crushed and retreated to the fortress. The city fell into the hands of the rebels. The fall of Kazan made a huge impression on the government, the nobles were in panic, and working people even in Moscow itself were ready to go over to Pugachev’s side.
Kazan Kremlin today
Today, stone fortress walls and individual towers have been preserved in the Kazan Kremlin. The total length of the surviving walls is 1800 m.
Of the numerous towers of the fortress, only 8 have survived. Of these, Spasskaya deserves the greatest interest travel tower(Tatar name - Khan, or Archa), which stands on the site of the main gate (presumably Archa kapkasy, or Khan kapkasy) of the ancient Kazan Kremlin. At the end of the 18th century. a musical clock with a rotating dial was installed on the tower. In 1963, an electric clock was installed on the tower on three sides of an octagon, a bell with an automatic strike that chimes the time every hour. On the spire of the tower there is a gilded star with a diameter of 2.7 m.
Address: Kremlevskaya, 2
Telephone: +7 843 567-80-01
Opening hours of the Kazan Kremlin
- You can freely enter the Kremlin territory from 8:00 to 22:00.
- Museums operate according to their own schedules, usually from 10:00 to 18:00.
- On Fridays, most Kremlin museums are open longer - until 21:00.
- Monday and Wednesday are days off for most museums.
It is better to check the current schedule on the official website of the Kazan Kremlin.
Entrance to the Kremlin territory through the gates of the Spasskaya Tower is free.
Location of the Kazan Kremlin on the map of Russia:
Sasha Mitrakhovich 17.12.2016 10:46 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 Great Volga Bulgaria state on the territory of modern Tatarstan in the 10th-13th centuries, Kazan was a small fortress on the border with Russia.
After the Mongol invasion of 1236, the Bulgarian population from Volga Bulgaria, devastated by the Mongols, came to the walls of Kazan, the city became a trade and political center.
Then, after the collapse of the Golden Horde, the Kremlin became the center of the Kazan Khanate, which existed for about 100 years, from 1438 to 1552.
In the middle of the 16th century, conflicts with the Moscow principality escalated, and the Russian Tsar Ivan the Terrible went to war against the Kazan Khanate. In October 1552, Russian troops conquered Kazan and destroyed its kirman (fortress). Architects from Pskov and Novgorod are invited to build a new Kremlin under the leadership of Postnik Yakovlev and Ivan Shiryaev. The white stone fortress that can be seen now was built after the mid-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 is valuable as the southernmost example of Pskov architectural style in Russia.
The Kazan Kremlin Museum-Reserve is included in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
The architectural ensemble of the Kazan Kremlin is interesting because even today it retains the features of all the centuries that have passed over it.What to see in the Kazan Kremlin
- The very walk along the high white stone walls makes an impression, and if you climb the Preobrazhenskaya Tower to the very roof - the entire city center is at your fingertips! The only and main street of the fortress remembers the Bulgarian emirs, Golden Horde khans and Russian tsars. This is the first street in Kazan paved with cobblestones, and it still has a historical appearance today.
- On the territory of the fortress there is the famous “leaning” tower of Queen Syuyumbike.
It deviates from its axis by 2 meters. The tower was named in honor of the last Kazan queen. The legend says: Ivan the Terrible, having learned about the beauty of the queen, wanted to take her as his wife. Having received a refusal, Ivan the Terrible attacked Kazan. Wanting to save her besieged city, Syuyumbeki agreed to become his wife, but set a condition: let the chosen one build a seven-tiered tower in a week. And when the request was fulfilled, the queen threw herself down. In fact, Syuyumbeka’s fate was different: the 29-year-old daughter of the Nogai Murza was taken to Moscow and there she was separated from her young son.
In 2005, the new Kul Sharif mosque opened, becoming the main mosque of Tatarstan. Kul Sharif was the name of the chief priest of the Kazan Khanate, a Muslim theologian and educator. He died in 1552 during the capture of Kazan by Ivan the Terrible, and at the same time the cathedral mosque was burned to the ground. The iconic building in the Kazan Kremlin was recreated almost five hundred years after its destruction. The main dome is shaped like a “Kazan hat” - the crown of the Kazan khans, which was taken to Moscow after the fall of Kazan and is now on display in the Armory Chamber. Kul Sharif was built by Turkish builders, the chandeliers for it were made in the Czech Republic, granite and marble were brought from the Urals. More than two thousand square meters of the 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” was also opened, located in the building of the former Junker School. In the same building there are museums - the Great Patriotic War Museum-Memorial, the Museum of Natural History, art gallery"Khazine" ("Treasury").
- The first one is located in the Kremlin orthodox cathedral in the Middle Volga region - 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 its long history, the temple has gone through many reconstructions. In May 1836, the cathedral was visited by Nicholas I. After imperial orders, the cathedral was expanded and turned into a winter cathedral. He was visited by Peter I, Catherine II and almost all members of the imperial house, as well as Radishchev, Pushkin, Rachmaninov. Fyodor Chaliapin sang in the church choir here more than once.
Special offers on the territory of the Kazan Kremlin
At the Hermitage-Kazan center, school excursions are offered the quest “In Search of Treasure.” This is an alternative to the traditional tour of the Kazan Kremlin, a walk with riddles and competitions around the ancient fortress.
In the Museum of Islam in the Kul Sharif Mosque, you can attend a master class “The Art of Wearing a Headscarf” and learn what beauty means in Muslim terms, how Kazan Tatar women wore headdresses at the end of the 19th century, why Muslim women leave only their faces and hands exposed, what 15 There are ways to tie a scarf.
How to get to the Kazan Kremlin
The citadel can be seen in the city center from all sides. Since the 16th century, the Kremlin has stood on a hill, surrounded by a strong white stone wall. At the foot of the hill there is the Kremlyovskaya metro station, next to bus stop"Circus".
Visiting rules
To enter the Kremlin, you need to go to the Spasskaya Tower on May 1 Square. Here you can book a tour, or buy a guide to the fortress and walk around on your own.
The Kremlin is open to individual visitors free of charge.
The cost of an excursion to the Kazan Kremlin in Russian and Tatar languages: group of up to 10 people - 500 rubles (each subsequent - 50 rubles).
A stone Kremlin appeared on this site in the 12th century. In 1552, the troops of Ivan the Terrible captured Kazan: old fortress, including the mosque located on its territory, was destroyed. The construction of new fortifications, which have survived to this day, began in 1556. The work was supervised by the builders of Moscow's St. Basil's Cathedral - Postnik Yakovlev and Ivan Shiryai.
In 2000, 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 Kremlin walls is almost two kilometers, the width reaches three meters, and the height is more than six meters. Behind the walls of the Kazan Kremlin there are many interesting objects - like historical monuments, and modern attractions. - symbol of the Kazan Kremlin. By official version, it was built at the end of the 17th - beginning of the 18th century as a watchtower and entrance to the courtyard 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 devastation of Kazan by Ivan the Terrible.
The tower has five tiers. The first three are tetrahedrons, the last three are octahedrons. The height of the building is about 58 meters, it is crowned with a spire. The Syuyumbike Tower is tilted to the side. The deviation from the vertical axis is almost 2 meters. - the youngest and most luxurious building of the Kazan Kremlin. It was erected in 1996-2005 for the millennium of Kazan. Part of the building performs religious functions, part is museum - it houses the Museum of Islamic Culture.
The Kul Sharif Mosque has five floors. In plan it consists of two intersecting squares. The building is lined with white marble and covered with a blue dome. Around there are four minarets 55 meters high with the same blue endings. Stained glass windows are inserted into the windows of the mosque, and part of the building is covered with ornaments.
The monument has its own backstory. Until the 16th century, when Kazan was taken by the troops of Ivan the Terrible, there stood a mosque of the same name, named after its last imam. So the construction of a new building is not only a symbol of equality of religions in the republic, but also a tribute to history.
Also on the territory of the Kremlin (in the south-eastern part) there is Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery complex, which has its own buildings. The monastery is not active today.
The main temple of the monastery was Transfiguration Cathedral , built at the end of the 16th - beginning of the 17th century. The cathedral was blown up in the 1920s. Now all that remains of it is the ground floor. Near the wall of the cathedral there is a small cave in which miracle workers were buried.
This also includes Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. This church, built in the second half of the 16th century and rebuilt several times later, survived during Soviet times. IN 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 there are:
- Presidential Palace(former governor's palace)
- Bishop's House
- Cannon Yard
- Junker School(the building houses museums and an art gallery)
- Manege
The pearl of the Kazan Kremlin is, built in the mid-16th century, the main Orthodox building of the Kazan Kremlin. It began construction in 1556 and was completed by 1562. The reason for construction was the capture of Kazan by Ivan the Terrible. Tradition says that the king himself even chose the site for the foundation of the cathedral. Until 1922, the temple had a bell tower, which was then blown up.
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 main tower Kremlin with the entrance gate, adjacent to it is the Church of the Savior Not Made by Hands, from which the tower received its name. The tower was completed several times, rebuilt and burned several times. In the 18th century, a clock was installed on it. After the revolution, the double-headed eagle that crowned the bathhouse was replaced by a 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 received its name later: all because of the secret passage that led from here to a clean source. Here it was possible to get water even when the Kremlin was under siege. The source has not survived to this day.
The Spasskaya and Tainitskaya towers were built at the same time; initially they were very similar. However, over time, due to numerous reconstructions, their appearance began to differ.
Museum-reserve
The Kazan Kremlin Museum Reserve was created in 1994; all historical buildings on the territory of the Kremlin are under its jurisdiction. They house expositions of several museums, as well as exhibition halls.
Among them, the Museum of Natural History of Tatarstan stands out, where you can see the skeletons of prehistoric animals and finds from the era when there was an ancient sea on the territory of Kazan.
The Museum of Islamic Culture located in the mosque is also interesting.
The Museum of the History of Statehood of the Tatar People and the Republic of Tatarstan is located on the territory of the Khan's court. Here you can see a coin that is about 1000 years old, ancient jewelry and other items that tell about the material culture of the people and their way of life.
Cannon Yard
The Cannon Yard complex, consisting of four buildings, dates back to the 17th century; various reconstructions were carried out until the mid-19th century. The Cannon Factory, one of the largest in the empire, operated here. After a major fire, weapons production was stopped here, the School of Military Cantonist Battalions was opened in the buildings of the Cannon Yard, and in 1866 it was replaced by the Junker Infantry School.
In 2014, the restoration of the Cannon Yard was completed; temporary exhibitions are held in the buildings and a permanent exhibition is being prepared.
Monument to the Architects
The monument to the architects of the Kazan Kremlin was opened in 2003; it is located in front of the building of the Bishop's House. The idea of the composition is this: to celebrate the merits of both Russian architects, whose creations have survived to this day, and the talent of the Tatar architects who erected the Kremlin destroyed by Ivan the Terrible. Today, fragments excavated by archaeologists help us appreciate the greatness of this original building - they are specially open for viewing.
Embodying the idea of friendship between peoples, the sculptures created figures of two men - one of Slavic appearance with a drawing of the Spasskaya Tower, and the second of Tatar appearance, with a drawing of the Khan's Palace. The pedestal is surrounded by Russian and Tatar national ornaments.
Excursions
In the Kremlin you can order a number exciting excursions, which are held not only on the territory of the Kremlin itself, but also in its surroundings - 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 Annunciation Cathedral.
Scheme and map of the Kremlin
Operating mode
Today, architectural monuments of different eras and cultures coexist here. In 2000, the Kazan Kremlin was included in the List world heritage UNESCO.
The history of Kazan begins with the ancient fortifications of the Bulgar tribes, built on the high bank of the Kazanka River at the turn of the 10th–11th centuries. The Kremlin hill, surrounded on three sides by water, was well suited for the construction of a fortress.
The Kremlin during the Mongol-Tatar yoke
The stone Kremlin was erected in the 12th century to defend the northern borders of Volga Bulgaria. By the middle of the 13th century, the Mongol hordes led by Khan Batu had significantly advanced into Eastern Europe. The dominance of the Golden Horde was established over Russia and Crimea. Pala and Bulgaria. It became a province of the Mongol Empire. After the destruction of the former capital, the city of Bulgar, the new one was moved to Kazan. The local Kremlin became the residence of the rulers. And the city was named New Bulgar. But among local residents the name didn't stick. The former name returned, and the Golden Horde principality began to be called the Kazan ulus.
After the collapse of the Golden Horde in 1438, Genghisid Ulug-Muhammad founded the independent Kazan Khanate. Work began to strengthen the capital, the stone walls of the Kremlin were strengthened so much that, according to Russian chroniclers, they became “impregnable by military forces.” Built on the territory khan's palace and several mosques, including the stone Nur-Ali and the wooden Khan. Subsequently, the Khan's Mosque received the name of Seyid Kul-Sharif, who in 1552 led the defense of the Kazan Kremlin from the invasion of the troops of Ivan the Terrible.
Kazan as part of Russia
Not a single khan's building has survived to this day. When in the middle of the 16th century the Kazan Kremlin became a Russian fortress, orthodox churches were built on the sites of “centres of infidelity”, in other words - on the ruins of Muslim buildings. Even the famous Syuyumbike tower, which until the 19th century was erroneously attributed to the Khan’s time, was erected much later, already in the Russian period, “the proof of this is the architecture, especially the pilaster, unknown to the Tatars, and the place for the image.”
After the conquest of Kazan, Ivan the Terrible sent Pskov architects to the city. They began building the Kremlin. At first, the main part of the structures - towers and temples - was built from wood. It is believed that the small church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, erected around 1558, was the first to be built from stone. The main cathedral of the Annunciation appeared four years later, the Church of Cyprian and Justina - in 1596 on the site of a wooden church.
In the first half of the 19th century, during the reign of Nicholas I, a decision was made to create an imperial residence in the Kazan Kremlin, where the governor plays the role of the royal governor. In this regard, a special role is given to the construction of a governor's palace with premises for imperial apartments on the territory of the Kazan Kremlin. The palace was designed with the participation of the architect Konstantin Ton, who planned to create a smaller copy of the Grand Kremlin Palace in Kazan. Nicholas I personally supervised the progress of construction. The resulting building is a striking example of the so-called Russian-Byzantine style.
Kazan Kremlin today
Over the thousand-year history, the appearance of the Kazan Kremlin has changed several times, but deep underground the masonry of ancient fortresses, mosques and burials has been preserved. Now on its territory there are several museums dedicated not only to the fortress itself, but also to the history of the Tatar people, Islamic culture and the nature of Tatarstan. There is also a museum-memorial of the Great Patriotic War, in memory of the 350 thousand Tatarstan citizens who did not return from the front.
“In order to preserve historical continuity,” in 1995 it was decided to recreate the main shrine of the Kazan Khanate - the Kul-Sharif mosque.
And in 2003, in the park near the Annunciation Cathedral, a symbolic sculpture “The Architects of the Kazan Kremlin” was unveiled - Russian and Tatar architects look at the fruits of their labors. After all, unique architectural ensemble was created by the efforts of both peoples. However, the unique Kremlin complex is not only a place of pilgrimage for tourists, but also an administrative center. On the territory of the Kremlin, in the former building of the Governor's Palace, today the official residence of the President of the Republic of Tatarstan is located.
