Cathedral of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God

Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg is among the largest temples in the city. It is located in the heart of the Northern Capital and overlooks Nevsky Prospekt and the Griboyedov Canal. Kazan Cathedral is very popular among tourists – both domestic and foreign. Such attention is primarily due to the majestic appearance, architecture and interior decoration of the temple. The main feature of the Cathedral of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God – this is the second name of the temple – is that it is very similar to St. Peter’s Cathedral in the Vatican. This similarity is often so impressive to travelers that at some point it begins to seem as if you are not in St. Petersburg, but 1000 km away from it, near the most famous shrine of the Eternal City.

.

Video:Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg

Contents

Highlights

Kazan Cathedral is an active church, which means that interest and attention to it is much broader than just a tourist attraction. For Orthodox believers this is a special place where they can visit the church service, soak up the unique energy of the temple, where literally every corner as a living but silent witness to its rich chronicle, which found a place and tragic pages. And, most importantly, it is in this cathedral that the main relic of St. Petersburg – the Kazan icon of the Mother of God is kept. And it is also a monument of Russian military glory, the status of which it acquired after the Patriotic War of 1812.

.

As we can see, religion and history, architectural heritage and the memory of the valiant defenders of the Fatherland are intertwined here. And all this monumentality, carried through the centuries, makes the temple truly unique, which the city on the Neva is proud of as its priceless asset. But to feel all its spiritualizing atmosphere, in the Kazan Cathedral of St. Petersburg must necessarily visit in person, and such an opportunity is used by very, very many.

.

History of the Kazan Cathedral

In the second half of the 18th century, Emperor Paul I Petrovich, at that time still heir to the throne, traveled through Europe. Once in Rome, he was struck by the grandeur and beauty of St. Peter’s Cathedral and how harmoniously it fit into the colonnaded square in front of it. In 1799, having already ascended the throne, the Emperor wished that the same temple was built in St. Petersburg. Not accustomed to putting his ideas in a long box, the successor of Catherine the Great immediately announced a competition for the best project of the cathedral. According to his idea, it will have to replace the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin, popularly called Kazanskaya. It was built in the 30s of the same century and had time to dilapidate. It was in it that the miracle-working icon of the Mother of God of Kazan, revered as one of the country’s main relics, was kept.”

.

Many talented architects took part in the competition. But since the main condition was that the future temple was similar to the mentioned Roman cathedral, which so liked the Emperor, from all the submitted works selected the project of Andrei Nikiforovich Voronikhin, a young but very talented architect, originating, incidentally, from the former serfs. However, by some evil irony of fate, the tsar never had the chance to see neither the progress of construction work, nor the commissioning of the building. The solemn laying of the future temple took place on August 27, 1801, three months after the murder of Paul I officers in Mikhailovsky Castle in his bedroom. By the way, the ideological inspiration and organizer of the assassination attempt was the capital’s governor-general and part-time head of the secret police PA Palen. Thus, at the ceremony of laying the foundation was present the son and heir of the Tsar who died at the hands of conspirators, the current Emperor Alexander I.

The place for the construction of the temple was allocated on an elongated from west to east plot of land at Nevsky Prospekt, which complicated the task facing the architects. In Orthodox churches, as you know, the altar always faces east, but the main facade with the entrance – in the opposite direction, that is, to the west. The existing traditions could not be violated, so it was not the main (western) facade that faced Nevsky Prospekt, but the northern (side) facade. How to get out of this situation? Voronikhin found an ingenious solution: by adding a majestic semicircular colonnade to the side facade, he visually transformed it into the main facade. The colonnade opened in the direction of the main thoroughfare of the city – Nevsky Prospekt. There were a total of 96 columns, and they were placed in four rows, at the same time becoming a reminder of the same structures, closing the square in front of St. Peter’s Cathedral in the Vatican.

.

After the defeat of the French in the Patriotic War of 1812, 27 banners of Napoleon’s defeated army were transferred to the cathedral for storage. Subsequently, the Kazan Cathedral became the repository of other trophies, namely flags and keys to many European cities and fortresses, obtained by the Russian army in the campaigns of 1813-1814. In the cathedral, or rather, at its wall, the famous military commander Mikhail Illarionovich Kutuzov, Field Marshal General of the Golenishchev-Kutuzov family, found his final resting place. It was he, a student and associate of Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov, who was commander-in-chief of the Russian army during that war and became the first full cavalier of the Order of St. George.

.

The names of other famous people are connected with the Kazan Cathedral. Thus, on November 8, 1893, the great Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, who was among the first great Russian musicians to write church music, was buried in its vaults, prompted by his own religious and artistic sentiments and a sense of reforms in this area in the last quarter of the XIX century. And earlier, back in 1773, Tsesarevich Pavel Petrovich was married here. There were also tragic moments: when in March 1913 in the cathedral celebrated the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty, there was a crush that took the lives of at least 34 people.

.

The persecution of the church under Soviet rule did not pass over the Kazan Cathedral. Its interior was very badly damaged due to the seizure of church valuables, which took place in 1922. Only silver, according to very rough estimates, was taken out of the cathedral about two tons. The unique iconostasis made of this precious metal was melted down, and it is still unknown where this silver disappeared to. A year later the temple went to the so-called Renovationists, and at the end of January 1932 it was closed. In the fall of the same year, the Kazan Cathedral was taken to the Museum of the History of Religion and Atheism. In the first half of the 1950s the interior was restored, and in the early 60s – the facades.

.

Kazan Cathedral became, as they call it, itself already at the end of Gorbachev’s perestroika. May 25, 1991 in its left side chapel resumed services, and the main chapel was consecrated only a year later. At the end of April 1994 the cross was hoisted on the dome. And the date of March 29, 1998 is forever inscribed in the annals of the cathedral as the day of its complete consecration after years of neglect. The ceremony was performed by the former Metropolitan of St. Petersburg and Ladoga Vladimir (Kotlyarov), who became from March 19, 2014 the honorary rector of the city church of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God. The status of the cathedral one of the largest temples of the Northern Capital received in 2000.

.

Features of the architecture and interior decoration

Kazan Cathedral, which has a whole row of columns but only one dome, differs from other churches in its architectural features. It resembles more the residence of the Pope than a typical Orthodox church in northern Russia. However, the grandeur, splendor, beauty, as well as originality, despite the similarity to the “Vatican brother”, it really can not take away from it.

.

Approaching the northern facade, you will see four sculptures: these are immortalized in bronze Prince Vladimir, John the Baptist, Andrew the First-Called and Alexander Nevsky. The sculptor S. Pimenov worked on the first and the last sculpture, and on the other two, respectively, I. P. Martos and V. I. Demut-Malinovsky. Italian motifs are guessed not only in the external appearance of the temple as a whole (as we have already noted, it is similar to St. Peter’s Cathedral in the Vatican), but also in the details. For example, the bronze doors on the north side of the building, cast and chased by Vasily Ekimov, are copied from the doors of the baptistery (baptismal house) in Florence. The sculptor planned to put on stone pedestals on both sides of the colonnade statues of the Archangels Michael and Gabriel, but his idea was never realized.

.

The interior of St. Petersburg’s Kazan Cathedral is more like a hall in some royal palace than a church room in the usual sense. If it were not for the rows of tall granite columns that unite the space of the hall, it would seem endless. The light pouring from the windows creates an optical deception, as if the dome of the temple is floating high up and seems to fly away into the heavenly heights. The constant attention of visitors, especially Orthodox believers and representatives of many other Christian denominations, is attracted by the icons. Their authors are V. Borovikovsky, V. K. Shebuev, A. Ivanov, O. Kiprensky, F. P. Brullov, A. E. Egorov, S. S. Shchukin and others.

.

But the greatest interest, of course, is the main shrine of the cathedral – the Kazan Icon. Its history dates back to the distant year 1579, when a terrible fire destroyed most of Kazan. Two weeks after the fire raged, according to legend, a girl named Matrona Onuchina had a dream about the Virgin Mary, who commanded her to go to the ashes and find her icon there. In the place to which the Virgin Mary pointed, almost a meter deep, there was indeed a holy image… In front of this icon later prayed to God Tsar Peter I and his army, preparing in 1709 for the Battle of Poltava. Later, in 1737, one of the copies of the miracle-working icon was transported to St. Petersburg and placed in the Church of the Nativity of the Mother of God on Nevsky Prospekt. In 1811 the Kazan icon, which, as noted at the outset, became one of the main Orthodox shrines of St. Petersburg, was placed in the new Kazan Cathedral.

.

In general, all important historical events in our country, in one way or another, were associated with the Kazan Cathedral. So, MI Kutuzov left for the active army units only after he performed a solemn prayer service in the temple. And it was here in June 1813 that the ashes of the great commander were delivered, which, as noted above, was buried here. On the parade square there are two bronze monuments: Field Marshal Kutuzov and Mikhail Bogdanovich Barclay de Tolly – Russian commander, Minister of War of the Russian Empire in 1810-1812, Field Marshal and the second (after Kutuzov) full Knight of the Order of St. George. Both monuments are organically integrated into the architectural and sculptural ensemble of the Kazan Cathedral of the Mother of God. They were cast according to the models of sculptor B.I. Orlovsky. The generals are depicted in full height, on their shoulders – cloaks. And this is where the similarity ends: Kutuzov is depicted giving a signal to his troops to attack, and Barclay de Tolly as if standing in anticipation.

.

It is impossible not to mention the facades of the Kazan Cathedral, faced with Pudost stone – lime tuff with a small volume mass, mined near the village of Pudost, Gatchina district, Leningrad region, which is frost-resistant and porous and easy to work. This stone, by the way, has very unusual properties that other finishing materials do not have: it changes color depending on the lighting and weather, becoming gray or yellowish-gray. Initially the facades were decorated with reliefs made by F. K. Gordeev, I. P. Martos, I. P. Prokofiev, V. I. Demut-Malinovsky, S. S. Pimenov. Two pedestals installed on the sides of the famous colonnade have survived to our days. Earlier on them were installed plaster statues of angels, which stood until 1824. They were to be replaced by bronze analogs, but this never happened.

.

The northern gate of the majestic temple is also made of bronze – they were cast on the model of the “paradise doors” baptistery in the city of Florence (XV century). As for the columns of the Corinthian order – they are made of pink Finnish granite, and the capitals are decorated with gilding – there are 56 of them inside the cathedral. In the past the interior was decorated with many bas-reliefs, but by our time only two have survived. Let us name them: “Taken into custody” (by J. D. Raschett) and “Bearing the Cross” by F. F. Shchedrin. And what about the others? They were removed as early as 1814, the reasons are unknown. In 1899-1900 in front of the Kazan Cathedral a public garden was laid out, which became a kind of addition or, if you like, a finishing touch to its original and recognizable all over the world appearance.

.

Divine services in the Kazan Cathedral

After the October Revolution of 1917, the new authorities tried to do everything to make one of the leading temples of the city on the Neva lose its former not only historical and military, but also religious significance. In addition to opening the Museum of the History of Religion, the cross was removed from the dome, and the icon of the Mother of God of Kazan was transferred to the Cathedral of St. Prince Vladimir, or the Prince Vladimir Cathedral. It returned to its former place only in 1991. Then, as already mentioned, the temple was reopened for divine services. A little later on the dome again installed a golden cross, solemnly shone as a symbol of the triumph of the forces of good over the forces of evil.

.

In 2003, to commemorate the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg, in the workshops of the shipbuilding Baltic Shipyard craftsmen cast for the temple four-ton bell, the height of which was more than two meters, which became the largest among its “brethren”. Nowadays the Kazan Cathedral often hosts services with the participation of the highest officials of the Russian Orthodox Church. Stations of the Cross in honor of the patron saint of the Northern Capital, Prince Alexander Nevsky, have become a good tradition. They are held annually on September 12, the route runs from the Kazan Cathedral along Nevsky Prospekt and further to the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.

.

Both believers and tourists note that, entering the temple, they have a sense of calm and peace, all the cares and worries seem to remain behind its threshold. Many are sure that the influence of the holy walls, for a long period of existence of the cathedral absorbed the energy of different times and sincere, coming from the heart prayers of the faithful.

.

For the information of tourists: despite the fact that the Kazan Cathedral – acting, it continues to be one of the main business cards of St. Petersburg, and excursions to this landmark no one canceled. In its building there is a special corner where you can sign up for a tour guide. In addition, everyone can buy here icons, candles, bottles for consecrated water and memorable souvenirs. And, of course, you can touch the famous icon of the Mother of God of Kazan. True, you will have to be patient to wait for your turn – pilgrims to her in our time has not become less.

.

Opening hours

Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg is open daily from 7:00 to 20:00, that is, until the end of the evening service. Entrance is free.

.

Official website: www.kazansky-spb.ru.

.

How to get there

St. Petersburg’s Kazan Cathedral is located at Nevsky Prospekt, house #25.

.

The cathedral is located directly opposite the exit from the subway, the nearest subway stations are “Nevsky Prospekt” and “Gostiny Dvor”.

.