Kazan Cathedral - St. Petersburg, Russia

Every day thousands of believers and tourists from all corners of the globe visit the Kazan Cathedral, without ceasing to admire the human genius and skill of Russian architects, sculptors and artists. The history of the cathedral and the icon of Kazan Mother of God ...

In 1710, in St. Petersburg from Moscow (presumably Tsar Peter I) was brought a great Christian shrine - the icon of the Kazan Mother of God.

Initially, the relic was placed in the chapel on Posadskaya street - then the center of the new capital city.

However, after several years the dilapidated chapel was closed, and all the images were transferred to the Trinity Cathedral, which was located not far from the Peter and Paul Fortress.

History of the Cathedral

In 1737, in the presence of the Empress Anna Ioannovna, the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin was consecrated, which from now on became the place of keeping the miracle-working image. Soon, her modest style became discordant with the magnificence of the architecture of the rapidly growing capital.

The competition announced by Emperor Paul I for the creation of the Kazan Cathedral project did not yield any results.

 
As a result, in 1801 the construction was entrusted to the talented architect A.N. Voronikhin, born in 1759 in the family of serf Count Stroganov.

The erection of the temple took a full ten years, and the final cost of the project - 4.7 million rubles, huge at that time money.

Consecrated on November 15, 1811, the Kazan Cathedral became a kind of monument to the Patriotic War with Napoleon - in his left side-chapel in 1813, the funeral of Field Marshal M.I. Kutuzov, and in the temple were exhibited military trophies.

After the revolution of 1917, the church values ​​were requisitioned by the new authorities, and in November 1932 the church was completely turned into the Museum of Atheism.

Completely Kazan Cathedral was returned to believers and consecrated again on March 29, 1998. The architecture of the Kazan Cathedral is rightfully included in the treasury of not only Russian but also world architecture.

This is the first temple in Russia, erected by Russian architects, the harmony of sculpture, painting and architecture in which is not inferior to the masterpieces of European classics. The architectural style of the cathedral is rather ambiguous - sometimes it is classified as Empire, sometimes - as Russian classicism.

In accordance with the wishes of Paul I, the Kazan Cathedral adopted some features of the Roman cathedral of St. Petra. This is especially clearly emphasized by the outer colonnade that opens out onto Nevsky Prospekt.

In the projection the building looks like a four-pointed Latin cross, stretched along the west-east axis. His environment is crowned with an elegant dome.

Dimensions of the cathedral - 72.5 by 57 meters, height - 71.6 meters. When creating a dome that has a diameter of 17 meters, Voronikhin developed and applied a metal structure for the first time in the practice of world construction.

The colonnade and portico of the cathedral are 136 columns about 14 meters high. An inseparable part of the Kazan Cathedral is the set of sculptural and pictorial works by the great Russian masters of the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

Icon of Kazan Mother of God

A huge disaster was for Kazan, a fire that occurred in the summer of 1579 - it almost completely wiped the city off the face of the earth.

The icon of the Virgin was dug up on the ashes in the place indicated by the girl Matrona Onuchina, who had a dream vision.

The prayer before this icon was made by Tsar Peter I - before the Battle of Poltava in 1709. People believed in the miraculous power of the icon, and one of its lists (an ancient copy written from the original) was moved to St. Petersburg in 1710.

Today, the revived Kazan Cathedral - the center of not only the spiritual, but also the social life of St. Petersburg, the cathedral of the St. Petersburg Metropolis.

Every day thousands of believers and tourists from all corners of the globe visit the temple, without ceasing to admire the human genius and skill of Russian architects, sculptors and artists.

Address and coordinates of the cathedral

St. Petersburg, Kazanskaya Square, 2
Secretary: (812) 314-46-63 sobor.go@mail.ru Watch: (812) 314-58-56 (from 8 to 21)
Official site - Museum of the Four Cathedrals

Coordinates:
Latitude: 59 ° 56'2.48 "N (59.934023)
Longitude: 30 ° 19'29.87 "E (30.324964)

Kazan Cathedral is an active temple

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How to get there?

Nearest metro station

● Nevsky Prospekt

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Nearby points of interest

• Russian Museum
  
  
• The Cathedral of the Savior on Blood
  
  
• Nevsky Prospect
  
  
• Palace Square
  
  
• The State Hermitage Museum
  
  
• Department store
  
  
• Gostinny Dvir department store
  
  
• BC "Singer House"
  
  
• Mikhailovsky Theater
  
  
• Musical comedy theater
  
  
• The Alexandrinsky Theater
  
  
  

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