My People and Places Portfolio and Blog
Kazan is the modern day capital of the Russian Republic of Tatarstan and lies about 450 miles to the east of Moscow where the Volga and Kazanka Rivers meet. Kazan was formed in the early 15th century but became the capital of the Tatar Khanate that emerged from the Golden Horde although it said the the Volga Bulgars also had a settlement on this site for a few hundred years by then. Ivan the terrible tried three times to conquer Kazan before he succeeded in 1552, at this point the native Tatars that survived the siege were encouraged to become Christian in order to maintain their positions, or thrust into obscurity and possibly even killed.
These days Kazan is mainly made up of a mixture of the Sunni Islam Tatar people, and the Orthodox Russian people with a mixture of Churches and Mosques scattered around the city. But it is in the Kazan Kremlin where you see both of these types of religious building brought together almost side by side with the relatively new Qolsharif Mosque and the Annunciation Cathedral.
The Qolsharif Mosque is a modern construction that was started in 1996 and was inaugurated in 2005 and is built on the site of the original Mosque that was destroyed when Ivan the terrible successfully invaded in 1552.
The Annunciation cathedral is worth a look around inside, and on this visit we had a guide who actually explained the make-up of a typical Russian Orthodox Church, how the icons are laid out, and why, it was fascinating.
Although the photo about was taken using a wide angled lens which distorts slightly, the Soyembika Tower to the left of the shot is actually one of the worlds few leaning towers. As our guide excitedly explained the legend surrounding the the construction of the tower and its purpose is as interesting, if not more so than the rest of the buildings in the Kremlin. The story goes that the last Queen of Tatarstan, Soyembika had refused to marry Ivan the Terrible on two occasions, hence the attempted invasions. On the third attempt Ivan the terrible succeeded in invading Kazan, and still the Queen was refusing to marry him, but to stop further bloodshed the queen relented on one condition, that he have a building built taller than any other in Kazan, and that he do it in 7 days. Ivan had the tower built adding a new section/storey every day until it was completed on the seventh day, Soyembika climbed to the top of the tower apparently to check he had succeeded then threw herself from the top of the tower to the ground below.
Kazan is a mix of old architecture that has been well preserved and renovated (probably for the *ahem* ‘Millenium celebrations’ in 2005), and some really run down buildings that are either in the process of being renovated, or being allowed to become derelict to the point of falling down. The people though are very nice, they were polite, courteous, and welcoming and seemingly didn’t care that you were obviously foreign (in some other places we have visited in Russia the people have sometimes been very inquisitive about why foreigners want to visit there).
On the whole it was well worth a visit, a weekend is probably enough time, but be sure to go to the other old areas of the city that have mosques scattered around, we only got a short look at this part of the city and would like to see more of it.
I am trying out using a gallery slideshow below instead of the usual gallery, if you can’t see it go here to see the gallery as a webpage.
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