Description of the attraction
The Annunciation Cathedral of the Kazan Kremlin is an architectural monument of the sixteenth century. The stone cathedral was founded on the site of a wooden church in 1561. By order of Ivan the Terrible, Postnik Yakovlev and Ivan Shiryaev took up the construction. The temple was built from Volga limestone quarried on the other bank of the Volga.
The cathedral is an example of the Pskov architectural style. This is the oldest of all the preserved monuments of the Kazan Kremlin. Structurally, the temple is very similar to the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin.
The Annunciation Cathedral has been reconstructed more than once, but the original Pskov style has been preserved. The base of the central chapter is surrounded by a typical Pskov ornament. In the eighteenth century, the cathedral was rebuilt and the original helmet-shaped domes were replaced with bulbous ones. In the fire of 1815, the cathedral was badly damaged. They began to restore it two years later. The wood carving of the new iconostasis was made by a master from Moscow Bykovsky. The gilding works were carried out by the Moscow bourgeois Gabriel Lvov. Icons for him were painted by Vasily Stepanov Turin. In 1821, the temple was solemnly consecrated.
In 1842, a fire raged in Kazan again. Many city churches were on fire. The Annunciation Cathedral again needed restoration and it was done in the Byzantine style. Subsequently, the cathedral was restored more than once. The temple underwent major reconstruction in 1909. The reconstruction project was carried out by the architect F. N. Malinovsky. The floor in the altar was decorated with marble designs. The marble tiles have survived to this day. The restorers have updated the wall paintings. Steam heating and electric lighting appeared in the temple.
In 1928, the bell tower of the Annunciation Cathedral was destroyed. Now a public garden has been laid out in its place.
The main shrine of the cathedral for centuries has been the shrine with the relics of the cathedral's builder, the Kazan primate Guria.
The last restoration of the cathedral was carried out in 1995-2005. The icon-painting work was carried out by specialists of the scientific restoration department under the Ministry of Culture of Russia. The work on the restoration of the icons of the main iconostasis was carried out by a team of icon painters from Moscow under the leadership of S. R. Bragin. The restoration was completed in 2005 for the celebration of the 450th anniversary of the Kazan diocese.
