Description of the attraction
The main (Eastern) building of the Cannon Yard of the Kazan Kremlin was built in the first half of the 18th century. It was rebuilt in 1836 and at the beginning of the 20th century. Immediately after construction, the building housed a foundry and an arsenal. During archaeological excavations, a foundry was discovered in the building, in which cannons were cast. Later, the building was transferred to the Junker School for the residence of the officers. In the first half of the 20th century, the building served as a dining room for the Kazan military garrison. The restoration of the building was carried out in 1997-2004.
Two-story projections (there are three of them) are connected by wings into one floor. At the base of the building there is a rusticated basement. There are blades on the walls between the windows. Arched windows with countercash. The building is covered with the Gambrel roof. Dormer windows - lucerns with ears open onto the roof. The risalits have decorations at the edges: rusticated pilasters with capitals and bases. There is a decorative panel above and below the windows. The windows are framed with platbands. A profiled cornice runs under the roof. The roof has a pyramidal shape and is fenced with a balustrade. In the center of the façade there is a gable of profiled cornices supported by pilasters with capitals. In the center of the roof there is a tower - a brick sentry, representing an octogon, decorated with blades between arched windows located on each edge. The guardhouse has an octagonal helmet-shaped roof, on which there are four lucarnes. The tower is crowned with a spire with a vase-shaped bottom with images of the symbols of the Cannon Yard - these are crossed cannons and hills of cannonballs. The octahedral spire embraces four acanthus leaves from below. The spire ends with pins with Latin letters denoting the parts of the world. At the end of the spire there is a weather vane with a carved inscription "Cannon yard", the base of the weather vane wraps around Zilant - the symbol of Kazan.
