Kazan Cathedral is one the biggest Orthodox churches of St. Petersburg. For a long time the Cathedral had been a home for one of the most
valuable icons - the icon of Our Lady of Kazan, obtained by Ivan the Terrible after the victory over Kazan.
At the end of the 18th century Paul I ordered to rebuild the small
church of the Nativity of Our Lady into a huge Cathedral. The architect A. Voronikhin was promoted
by Duke Stroganov for the completion
of Paul's ideas.
Paul I wanted a new cathedral to look like St. Peter's Cathedral in Vatican. The plan of
Voronikhin was not completed and the construction of the
Cathedral was finished only after Paul's death in 1811, and the Cathedral became a symbol
of victory over Napoleon in the war of 1812. In 1813 the famous Russian filed-marshal M. I. Kutuzov was buried
in the cathedral. In 1837 in honour of the 25th anniversary of the victory the monuments of M. Kutuzov and Barclay-de-Tolley
were erected in fronto of the cathedral.
After the October revolution of 1917 the Cathedral was
closed and in the 1930's it became a museum of religion and atheism containing a unique
collection of icons and church plates. The Cathedral was opened
for services only in 1991 and in 1998 it was again consecrated.
In 2001 the museum was moved from the Cathedral to a different building.
Nowadays it is impossible to imagine Nevsky avenue without Kazan Cathedral.
You can find a tour to Kazan Cathedral in our selection of St. Petersburg tours and St. Petersburg excursions.
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