THE KHAN`S COURTYARD AND THE COMPLEX OF THE GOVERNOR`S PALACE.
A street leads straight as an arrow from the Spasskaya Tower archway into the oldest and highest part of the Kazan Kremlin. It is here, on the ground of the former palace complex of the khans of Kazan, that the Govenor's palace has been situated since the middle of the 19th century. Today it serves as the official residence of the President of the Republic of Tatarstan.
In olden days, the Khan's courtyard dominated the Kazan skyline. Surrounded by several walls on different levels, the complex consisted of the monumental edifice of the Khan's palace with three tented cupolas and many adjacent pavilions, galleries and utility buildings. Here the Khan's Mosque with the Khan's tombs also stood. It is known that the Khan's courtyard also housed other tall stone mosques and mausoleums, stone baths and caravanserais. The Khan's Mosque, two white-stone mausoleums, the stone walls of the citadel, as well as wooden houses, towers and workshops can still be seen on the grounds of the Khan's palace as archaeological remains.
The Governor's Palace, which until 1917 served as the official residence of the governor-general of the Kazan province, with its imperial quarters, was built in 1845-1848 from a design by the eminent architect K. A. Ton, creator of the Church of Christ the Saviour and the Grand Kremlin Palace in Moscow.
The Suyumbike Tower and the palace church, which is connected to the Governor's Palace by a walkway gallery, also form an integral part of the entire complex. Motifs of late Russian Classicism dominate the interior decorations of the palace, just as in many other Kazan buildings of the same epoch.
THE COMPLEX OF THE CATHEDRAL OF THE ANNUNCIATION.
Close to the complex of the Governor's Palace lies the complex of the Cathedral of the Annunciation. The cathedral is the largest building in the Kazan Kremlin and the oldest of the preserved stone constructions in Kazan. It was built in 1561-1562 by the Pskov architects Postnik Yakovlev and Ivan Shiryai in the north-eastern part of the Kremlin: their architectural heritage makes the Kazan Kremlin the most south-eastern point of the spread of the Pskov-Novgorod style monuments in Russia.
The inner columns of the Cathedral of the Annunciation are round, like those of the Cathedral of Dormition in the Moscow Kremlin; trumpet vaults were used instead of the usual pendentive passages to the main cupola - a device peculiar to Oriental architecture and unique in church-building of the period. The sanctuary part of the cathedral has preserved 16th-17th century interiors; the walls in the church and the refectory are painted in oils dating from the 19th century.
The complex of the Cathedral of the Annunciation along with the Bishop's House and the Consistory gradually formed the power base of the Orthodox Church in the conquered Kazan province. The Bishop's House, built in 1829 on the site of the demolished 17th century house of the bishops of Kazan, served as the urban residence of the head of the Orthodox Church of the province.
THE CONSISTORY
The Consistory closes the complex of the Cathedral of the Annunciation from the south, its south-eastern wing adjoining the Consistory Tower. The main house is located along the main street of the Kremlin in line with the Public Offices. The eastern wall of the court building includes remains of the 12th-13th century wall of white stone.
THE FORTIFICATION COMPLEX
The historical citadel of the Kazan Kremlin is an archaeological monument that is unrivalled. The underlying strata, beginning at the threshold of the 10th and 11th centuries, range from 2 to 8 metres in thickness. In the oldest, northern part of the citadel, remains of stone and wooden public housing and utility buildings have been discovered, as well as everyday and religious artifacts belonging to the culture of the Golden Horde and the Kazan Khanate epochs.
This is an architectural complex with an extant 10th-century masonry fortification system, which is the only remaining evidence of the lost culture of the pre-Mongol and Golden Horde periods in Kazan. Foreign i coins and decorations of the 10th-11th centuries found in the Kremlin convincingly prove Kazan's thousand-year-old history as a military, governmental and commercial centre of the Middle Volga region.
THE SPASSKAYA TOWER
The main entrance to the Kremlin goes through the Spasskaya Tower with the tower church of the Vernicle. It was built by Postnik Yakovlev and Ivan Shiryai between 1556 and 1562. The church was originally intended to keep Ivan the Terrible's icon and other relics of the Russian attack on Kazan in 1552. It was once also used to hold the military standard of Prince Dmytri Donskoi, the hero of the battle of Kulikovo Pole.
THE KAZAN KREMLIN
The Kazan Kremlin remains a unique architectural and historical monument, and rightly takes its place alongside the most remarkable world heritage objects. The uniqueness of the Kazan Kremlin consists of several distinctive and inimitable features. Since its very beginning, the Kazan Kremlin has undergone various changes, yet it has always played a central role in the region. Before the 10th century, during its pre-urban period, it was an unfortified settlement, a humble precursor of the city which would later blossom into Kazan.
The Kremlin retained its position of importance after the fall of Kazan to the Russians and was converted into the administrative and military centre of the annexed Middle Volga region (1552-1708). The Kremlin zone forms an irregular polygon, elongated from north to south because of the site's topography. Since ancient times, the citadel has crowned the crest of an elevated terrace, which rises to a maximum of 28 metres, on the left bank of the Kazanka river. Such a location made the Kremlin all but impregnable. Even in later years, the Kazan citadel, which was built to the highest standards of its time, kept its reputation as one of the finest in Russia. The fortification complex of the Kazan Kremlin includes 16th to 18th century walls and towers as I well as the archaeological remains of defences dating back to the 10th and 16th centuries. The length of the external perimeter is 1,800 metres. The extant walls and other fortifications reflected the continuity of architectural traditions and were built in several stages. From 1708 onwards, it became the centre of the first, and, from the second half of the 18th century, the second Kazan district of the Russian empire.
It is here that the official residency of the President of Tatarstan and his administration are situated and, in keeping with established tradition, the Kazan Kremlin remains the location of various ministries and state bodies.
THE KAZAN STATE UNIVERSITY
Kazan State University was established in 1804 and for a lot of years remained Russia's easternmost higher education establishment. Kazan University scholars have made a great contribution in the development of natural sciences as well as humanities. The University is continuing its important work in education and research.
The oldest building of the University, with three classical portals along its white facade, was built in 1822 and included the old building of the First Boys' Gymnasium and the private residence of Prince Tenichev given to the University at the time of its foundation.
Kazan University Library has one of the world's most important bibliographical collections, containing 15000 manuscripts and more than 3000 rare books. To these were later added the unique collections of old books and manuscripts of the Solovetsky Monastery. The most valuable books and manuscripts are kept in the special depository of the Library. These include Arabic manuscripts of philosophers and scholars Kholladzha ibn Mansur and Avicenna (11-th century) and Ashshakhrestani (12-th century), a manuscript copy of the Pentateuch, the first Russian printed book "The Apostle" (1564), the "Books of Kingdoms" by Francisco Skorin (1518) and the "Code of Tsar Alexis Mikhailovich" (1649). The Library also has a rare collection of 18-th-century books, and first editions of works by Pushkin, Griboyedov, Gogol, Nasyri and Tukay.
THE SUYUMBIKE TOWER
The Suyumbike Tower in the complex of the Governor's Palace is the historical pearl and the architectural symbol of Kazan. Its name is linked to the last queen of the Kazan Khanate Suyumbike, the wife of the two last khans of Kazan. It is 58 metres high, has seven tiers and is built of red brick. The three lower tetrahedrons go up in steps and are bordered by open terraces. The first tier has an archway, therefore the tower served as the passageway to the inner court of the commandant's house, which came to supplant the old 'khan's court'. Two octahedrons built upon the tetrahedrons are covered with a tented roof with a lantern watchtower topped by a spire. Brick vaults cover the rooms in the upper tetrahedron and the first octahedron. Interestingly, the Suyumbike is one of the world's leaning towers - currently its inclination is 1.8 meters.
It is well known that Ivan the Terrible's order to reconstruct the Kazan Kremlin was carried out from 1552 on, by the Pskov masons Postnik Yakovlev and Ivan Shiryai. It was through their efforts that the Kremlin acquired stone masonry executed in the old Russian style and which remains intact today. It is remarkable, however, that simultaneously with the building of the walls and towers of the Kazan Kremlin, the same Russian architects built in Moscow's Red Square the church of the 'Protection-on-the-Ditch' (Pokrova-na-rvu), otherwise known as the temple of Vasily Blazhennyi. The clear influence of the Oriental tradition embodied in the architectural design of this church has made some historians.
