Description of the attraction
The Peter and Paul Cathedral of Kazan was built in the Russian Baroque style. This is the tallest church in the city. The height of the cathedral is 52 meters.
The temple was built on the site of a wooden church that has stood on this site since 1565. In 1722, on his way to a military campaign, Kazan was visited by Peter I. He stopped at the Kazan merchant Mikhlyaev, who owned a cloth manufactory and was a well-known benefactor. The two-story brick house of Mikhlyaev was located next to that very wooden Peter and Paul Church.
Peter I stayed in the city for 4 days. On May 30, in Kazan, Peter celebrated his fiftieth birthday. In memory of this, Ivan Afanasyevich Mikhlyaev decided to build the Peter and Paul Cathedral of an unprecedented height and luxurious finish for that time. The construction lasted 4 years, but due to an error in the calculations, one night the vault of the church collapsed. Having learned about the failure, Peter sent builders from Moscow. It is possible that Florentine architects also participated in the construction of the temple.
In 1726 the temple was consecrated. Since then, this church has been the spiritual symbol of Kazan. At different times it was visited by many famous people, including emperors and empresses, A. S. Pushkin. Alexandre Dumas and A. Humboldt described the cathedral in their writings. Fyodor Ivanovich Chaliapin sang in the choir of the Peter and Paul Cathedral during his Kazan youth.
The temple is built on a dais. This gives it a stately appearance. The architectural ensemble consists of a cathedral, a 49-meter bell tower, a clergyman's house and Mikhlyaev's house. Throughout its history, the ensemble has been burned and restored many times. The cathedral was badly damaged by fires in 1742, 1749, 1815. In 1774 the cathedral was plundered by the Pugachevites.
After 1917, the temple was transferred to the Central Museum of the TASSR to accommodate the exposition of the anti-religious museum and lecture hall. In 1939, the Partarchiv was placed. In 1964, the temple was converted into a planetarium. In 1967, restoration workshops were located.
In the late 1980s, the Peter and Paul Cathedral was returned to the Church. After a major restoration in 1989, the temple was consecrated. The Peter and Paul Cathedral is a cathedral church. It is one of the centers of the modern spiritual life of the city. In 1997 and 2005, Patriarch Alexy II served here.
