Location: Republic of Tatarstan
Kazan is located in Tatarstan. Capital of the Republic. The city
is located in the Middle Volga region at the confluence of the
Kazanka River with the Volga.
Kazan, with a population of
over one million people, is one of the most dynamically
developing cities in Russia. The standard of living and service
is comparable with the capitals of Moscow and St. Petersburg, it
is no coincidence that, along with
Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan is
called the "Third Capital of Russia".
Much attention in
the city is paid to the development of sports, in particular,
football, hockey and basketball, in 2013 Kazan hosted the
Universiade. By this event, the city has undergone a significant
transformation in terms of sports, hotel and transport
infrastructure. In 2018, Kazan was one of the cities that hosted
matches of the World Cup.
Kazan is interesting for its
thousand-year history, evidence of a harmonious combination of
Russian and Tatar cultures. The residents of the city are
friendly to guests, just a night on the train from Moscow, and
you can observe the amazing neighborhood of the ancient Kazan
Kremlin and mosques in the central part of the city. Interesting
Orthodox objects are located in the vicinity of Kazan - the
island-city of Sviyazhsk and the Raifa Monastery.
Kazan
is a cosmopolitan city. Almost all city inscriptions and
announcements are duplicated in Russian and Tatar (sometimes
English is added to them), in a Russian cafe you can meet a
Tatar waiter, and in a Tatar - Russian, and in principle, a
madrasah can peacefully coexist with a strip bar.
The
symbol of Kazan is Zilant, a dragon that, according to legend,
lived at the confluence of the Kazanka and the Volga. Zilant is
depicted on the coat of arms and flag of Kazan and is found as a
decorative element of Kazan fountains, lattices and buildings.
Tourist Information Center , Kremlin street, 15/25. ✉ ☎ +7 (800) 333-03-19, +7 (843) 292-30-10, +7 (843) 29-29-777. Mon–Fri 09:30–18:30, Sat 09:30–15:30, Sunday closed. Here you can get a free tourist map with the main Kazan sights and museums, as well as consult on all tourist issues, order a tour of Kazan and the sights of Tatarstan, book an overnight stay.
The city center is roughly defined by the Kazanka River from the
north, the Volga from the west, railway lines from the south, and st.
Esperanto/Vishnevsky (Sukonnaya Sloboda metro area) from the east.
Approximately in the middle of this region, the Bulak channel flows from
north to south, which flows into the Lower Kaban Lake, which is also
elongated in the latitudinal direction.
For the convenience of
the traveler, the center can be divided into Russkaya Sloboda to the
east of Bulak and Lake Kaban, and Tatarskaya Sloboda to the southwest of
them. This division has a historical basis: after the annexation of the
Tatar Khanate to Moscow, all the Tatars were evicted beyond the then
outskirts - beyond Bulak, which formed the Russian architectural
ensemble in the eastern part of the city and the Tatar ensemble in the
southwestern. The Russian part contains the Kremlin, churches and most
of the museums, while the Tatar part has about a dozen historical
mosques.
The main pedestrian street of the Russkaya Sloboda and
the whole city - Bauman - departs from the Kremlin to the south and
rests on Tukay Square (colloquially Koltso), the center of the city's
public life with many restaurants, clubs and hotels. From east to west,
Pushkin Street runs through the entire center, after pl. Tukay turning
into a street. Tatarstan.
The main street of the Tatar settlement
is st. Gabdulla Tukay, colloquially Tukaevskaya. The traveler will also
be interested in the short, but very authentic street of Kayum Nasyri.
Kremlin and Russian Sloboda
The historical center of Kazan: the
ancient Russian Kremlin with the modern Kul-Sharif mosque as a symbol of
the unity of nations, provincial Kazan, Kazan University.
Tatar
settlement
The historical district of the Tatars, in which there are
ancient Kazan mosques, and simply the most colorful part of the city.
Left-bank settlements
Former Kazan settlements, now turned into a
modern city and deprived of a fair amount of sights: no longer the
center, but not yet the outskirts.
Zarechie
Old industrial
settlements, Kazan's Sotsgorod and new districts on the right bank of
the Kazanka.
Victory Avenue
The largest, but at the same time
the least interesting area, which is almost entirely occupied by new
buildings.
By plane
Planes fly to Kazan mainly from
Moscow (Aeroflot, S7, UTair - at
least 10 flights a day),
St.
Petersburg is the only (night)
flight of the Rossiya airline. Orenburg Airlines operates daily flights
on regional routes to Kirov,
Orenburg, Samara and other cities of the
Volga region. The national airline of the Republic of Tatarstan has
recently undergone numerous changes, and by the beginning of 2015 it
stopped flights altogether.
Foreign flights: Istanbul (Turkish
Airlines), every other day Helsinki and Dubai (FlyDubai). There are
flights to the cities of Central Asia and resorts.
Kazan
International Airport (IATA:KZN). ☎ +7 (843) 267-88-07. The airport is
located 26 kilometers southeast of the city near the village of
Stolbishchi. For ordinary passengers, one large terminal is available,
consisting of the old (1B) and new (1A) sections, and the old one is
closed. In the new section you will find the Costa Coffee coffee shop
with the most expensive triangles in the city for 135 rubles, as well as
the Il Patio restaurant on the second floor above the arrivals area. If
you walk in the direction of the old part of the airport, you can find a
couple of shops resembling station eateries, where salads and the same
triangles are much cheaper. Luggage storage: 200 rubles for the first
day and 50 rubles for each subsequent day. In a clean area (domestic
flights) there is another Costa Coffee and an American Grill restaurant.
There is free Wi-Fi throughout the terminal, although it still needs to
be found among paid networks. Polet Hotel near the terminal (+7 (843)
267-87-05, +7 (843) 254-01-12): from 1,500 rubles for a single room.
The airport can be reached by electric trains departing from the
Kazan-1 station every 2-3 hours, 30 minutes on the way, price: 30 rubles
(2015). An alternative to the train is bus 97 from Prospekt Pobedy metro
station, travel time - 40 minutes, operating time - from 05:30 to 18:00.
The declared interval of movement is 20 minutes, but in practice it
reaches 50 minutes, and the bus may not stop at the metro station at all
(it departs from the Lenin Palace of Culture in Sotsgorod). A taxi to
the city center costs 500-600 rubles when ordered by phone or via the
Internet. At the airport, of course, more expensive.
By train
2-3 direct trains run daily from Moscow to Kazan, including the branded
train "Tatarstan", which arrives in Kazan to the sound of the national
anthem. Travel time: 11-13 hours, all trains are overnight. At least a
dozen trains from Moscow in the direction of the Urals also pass through
Kazan. From St. Petersburg, the only train (branded, "Povolzhye"), on
the way for almost a day. Communication with neighboring areas is
arranged as follows:
Yoshkar-Ola - one suburban train per day, 3½
hours.
Izhevsk - suburban trains, docked at the Kizner station, twice
a day, 6.5 hours. You can also travel by long distance train.
Ulyanovsk - passing long-distance trains, 2-3 times a day, 5-6 hours on
the way.
Cheboksary - all Moscow trains stop in Kanash (you can also
get there by train), from there by buses or rare trains.
There
are no trains to Ufa. Similarly, there are no trains to almost any city
in Tatarstan, since the railway leaves Kazan to the northeast towards
Arsk, Vyatskiye Polyany and Udmurtia. You can get to Naberezhnye Chelny
by train, in order of interest, but by bus it will be much easier and at
least twice as fast.
There are two railway stations in Kazan:
Kazan-1 , st. Said-Galiyeva, 5. The old station is located in the Old
Tatar settlement almost in the center of the city. This is a complex
consisting of a very beautiful dark red pre-revolutionary building,
surrounded by a suburban train station ("transport complex") and a
building with a turret. In the old building, the original interiors and
waiting rooms, as well as a cafe-dining room and automatic storage cells
have been preserved. In the building with a turret there are ticket
offices and rest rooms, in the suburban station there are also ticket
offices, metal chairs and nothing else of interest. You can only enter
the platform through security checkpoints, which are located in at least
three places (in the old building, in the building of the suburban
station and in the pavilion between them), but in fact it is enough to
go through any of them, and then decide where you need to go .
After
reconstruction, the station square is spacious, with tiled paths and a
large underground parking lot. There is no metro here. The nearest
station is Kremlyovskaya metro station, 10 minutes walk to the
northeast, in the direction of the Kremlin. This is a good road to the
city center, although you can just go from the station along any of the
streets in the direction from the railway, and in 10 minutes you will
already be on the Bauman pedestrian street. On the way to the metro, the
Central Department Store will meet with the Bahetle supermarket, where
you can buy food. For a snack, the Good Canteen located right on the
station square or a cafe in the old station building are suitable.
Kazan-2 (Vosstanie-Passenger, Northern Station) , st. Vorovskogo, 1
( Severny vokzal metro station). The new station, located in the
Zarechye district, was opened in 2012. This is a long one-story
building, painted in the corporate colors of Russian Railways. Inside, a
shed-like setting reminiscent of makeshift airport terminals. Declared
left-luggage offices and rest rooms. Within walking distance of ground
public transport and metro station. You can eat at McDonald's (from the
station to the north) or in a cafe on Dekabristov Street.
All
commuter and long-distance trains with Kazan as their destination arrive
at the old Kazan-1 station. The Kazan-2 station is intended for transit
trains, which, in turn, do not enter the old station. In the timetables,
the station is called "Vosstanie-Passenger", and even the conductors use
this (not the most obvious for visitors) name.
By car
The
federal highway M7 "Volga" passes through Kazan, enveloping the city
from the north. Entrance from the west - along the Gorky highway through
the village. Zalesny (turn immediately after the bridge across the
Volga) to the district of Zarechye. From the east, the entrance along
Mamadyshevsky tract to the area of Sibirsky tract street and Pobeda
avenue. 820 km from Moscow, 400 km from Nizhny Novgorod, 165 km from
Cheboksary. From Yoshkar-Ola (150 km) P175 leads to the same interchange
with the M7 and the road to the city through the village. Zalesny. From
the east, the nearest major cities are Naberezhnye Chelny (230 km),
Izhevsk (400 km) and Ufa (515 km).
From the south, the Orenburg
tract (P239) comes to Kazan, going, as you might guess, from Orenburg
(720 km) and passing through such cities as Bugulma (320 km) and
Almetyevsk (270 km) on the road. You can drive to Ulyanovsk both along
the right bank of the Volga (Р271, 270 km) and along the left bank (Р239
and further unnumbered road to Dimitrovgrad, 340 km). Finally, to the
north, to Kirov (400 km), they usually go along the Arsky tract and then
along the P169 through Urzhum.
By bus
There are two bus
stations in Kazan:
Bus station "Capital" (Central bus station), st.
Devyataeva, 15. ☎ +7 (843) 293-04-00, +7 (843) 293-00-41. For unknown
reasons, the main bus station of Kazan is not located in the city
center, and not even near the railway station, but somewhere in the far
corner of Tatarskaya Sloboda, next to the river station, which is
unlikely to have transit passengers. From the old railway station
(Kazan-1) you can walk here in 30 minutes or take bus 53 and tram 2.
From the center to the bus station you can take bus 54, 3 and 5
trolleybuses; in addition, buses 1, 6, 31 pass through the stop. The
building of the bus station is old and uncomfortable. Unofficial buses
and minibuses usually completely ignore this bus station.
Bus
station "Southern", Orenburg per. 207 ( Metro station Prospekt Pobedy,
hereinafter aut. 37, 85, 97). ☎ +7 (843) 237-33-23. It is located very
inconveniently, on the very outskirts of the city, and is designed,
apparently, for the residents of the Universiade village. Everyone else
will have to first come to the Prospekt Pobedy metro station, and then
catch buses going to the RCH stop (Republican Clinical Hospital) and
Ferma-2, which is absolutely impossible to guess about its proximity to
the bus station. The building of the bus station is new and beautiful,
there is a cafe and a left-luggage office, free Wi-Fi is promised.
Unofficial buses and minibuses going in the direction of Chistopol do
not call at the bus station, but they can pick up or drop off passengers
at the same RCH stop.
However, the list of Kazan bus stations is
far from exhausted. Moreover, we can say that both bus stations play
only a very small role in the transport life of Tatarstan. Private buses
and minibuses depart from Kazan-1 railway station, Central Department
Store, river station, Tukay Square, Prospekt Pobedy metro station,
Sovetskaya Square, Compressor Plant. The system is completely chaotic,
there are no timetables, and bus stations serve only long-distance
interregional routes and a handful of official routes within Tatarstan.
At the same time, most of the official buses depart from the Stolichny
bus station, and then pass through the Yuzhny, but there are also those
that depart immediately from the Yuzhny, bypassing the Stolichny. The
Kazan authorities promised to build new bus stations and streamline bus
routes by 2013, but it is already clear that this will not happen.
Of the interregional routes, the most common buses (official, from
the bus station) to Kirov (19-20 hours), Yoshkar-Ola (2½ hours),
Cheboksary (4 hours) and Ulyanovsk (4½ hours) - they all run 5-6 times a
day . Buses to Naberezhnye Chelny, Almetyevsk, Bugulma and other cities
of Tatarstan are mostly unofficial.
On the ship
River station,
st. Devyataeva, 1 ( Ploshchad Tukaya metro station, then tb. 20 and 21,
aut. 1 and 54, m/t85). ☎ +7 (843) 233-08-18. The river station is
located in Novo-Tatarskaya Sloboda. Built in the 1950s, the building was
reconstructed for the millennium of Kazan, resulting in a sparkling
glass paneling, but the interior was never repaired, so the river
station has recently been closed. Its functions are performed by a small
building of a suburban station, located to the right of the main river
station, when viewed from the station square. Inside the ticket office
serving both ships and buses departing from the forecourt to Almetyevsk.
Near the station there are a couple of barbeque cafes of the most
unattractive kind. In the summer there is regular navigation from Kazan
to Bolgar, pleasure trips to Sviyazhsk and commuter traffic to the other
side of the Volga, to Upper Uslon. Cruise ships on the Volga also call
in Kazan, many cruises start or end in Kazan. In winter, when the Volga
is covered with ice, hovercraft come into play - with the help of this
rather exotic transport, you can regularly go to Verkhny Uslon, and on
weekends also to Sviyazhsk.
Kazan has a developed transport infrastructure. Public transport of
the city is represented by the Kazan metro, tram, trolleybus, bus and
intracity rail transport. Also, a taxi is available for residents and
guests of the city, but you should refrain from trips offered by taxi
drivers directly at the stations, in these cases the prices are 2-3
times higher than the average for the city. The normal price for a taxi
- landing is 60 rubles and 14 rubles / km on order, you can order from
anywhere in the city.
Kazan Metro
The Kazan Metro was opened
in 2005 and currently has 1 line and 11 stations. The interval of
movement is 5-9 minutes. Metro fares are paid with smart tokens,
contactless smart cards and transport cards. The Kazan metro is
recognized as one of the safest in the CIS. All stations are provided
with ramps for disabled people to get down to the metro, and there is an
elevator only at Prospekt Pobedy station. The metro operates from 6:00
to 23:00. List of stations:
"Yashlek (Youth)", "Northern
Station", "Aviastroitelnaya" - three stations that were opened on May 9,
2013 for the Universiade 2013 (which took place in July).
"Goat
Freedom". The station opened in 2010. Two rows of columns, metal
cladding. A rare case when the name of the station was chosen through
discussion with the residents of the city.
"Kremlin". Opened as part
of the first section of the metro from it to Gorki. A single-vaulted
station with an interesting design stylized as Kremlin architecture:
lamps on the platform in the form of towers, mosaics on the walls and
ceiling with folklore motifs.
Tukay Square. A very interestingly
designed station with one row of columns in the middle of the platform,
national ornaments on the floor and columns, as well as a large number
of mosaic panels on the walls based on the literary works of Tukay.
"Sloboda Liberty". It is also a beautiful station, three-span (that is,
with two rows of columns) and decorated with the theme of old Kazan.
"Ametyevo". Located on the bridge, with transparent walls. Two rows of
columns. The southern exit from the station leads to areas of high-rise
buildings, and the northern exit leads to individual areas, which, when
the station was opened, gave rise to a joke that on the signs one should
write “Exit to the city” on the one hand, and “Exit to the village” on
the other.
"Gorki". Single vault station with minimalist design.
"Victory Avenue". The station opened in 2008. Also luxurious design -
two rows of dark red columns, a special central vault, as if leaning on
them, the same red wall cladding.
"Dubravnaya". Opened in 2018.
After the opening of three stations in 2013, which connected the
Kazan-2 station (Vosstanie-Passenger station) with the city center, the
metro has become probably the fastest and most convenient mode of
transport in the city. However, it is worth noting that the main railway
station (Kazan-Passazhirskaya), where, in addition to trains, the
Aeroexpress from Kazan airport will also arrive, has a significant
distance from the nearest metro station (Kremlyovskaya), which is
inconvenient, and the metro did not solve this problem.
Kazan
tram
Tram traffic was opened at the end of the 19th century instead
of the Kazan horse-drawn tram. Number of routes 6. Most of the routes
originate from the railway station Kazan-Passenger; route No. 5, opened
in the fall of 2012, connected the station with the Solnechny Gorod
residential complex and, in fact, marked the launch of the first part of
the Kazan high-speed tram, which will run along the so-called Big Kazan
Ring.
Kazan trolleybus
Kazan bus
It does not differ in a
high level of comfort, but often there is no alternative to it, so you
have to endure. The bus fleet after the 2007 reform mainly consists of
semi-low-floor and low-floor buses of domestic and foreign production.
Many drivers use the gas-brake style of driving, so hold onto the
handrails as tightly as possible.
Kazan is one of the most interesting cities in Russia, as it combines
both Russian traditions dating back to the 16th century and Tatar
culture, one of the most developed national cultures of the Russian
Federation.
The oldest landmark of Kazan is the Kremlin, which
preserved walls and towers of the 16th century and later, the
Annunciation Cathedral of the 16th century is one of the best examples
of the style, as well as the leaning Syuyumbike tower, which is
associated with various legends. Several museums were housed in civilian
buildings on the territory of the Kremlin, and between them and the
wall, the largest mosque in Tatarstan, Kul-Sharif, was built already in
2005, without damaging the Kremlin. Around the Kremlin are the remains
of the provincial Kazan, one of the largest cultural and industrial
centers of the Russian Empire. This includes Kazan University with its
historical buildings and museums, and churches, the most beautiful of
which is the Baroque Peter and Paul Cathedral with exterior painting,
and simply pre-revolutionary buildings, which, however, were fairly
thinned out by the millennium of Kazan, which was scheduled for 2005.
Tatarskaya Sloboda is probably the world's largest collection of
historical Tatar mosques, of which there are a couple of dozen. Tatar
mosques are very different in architecture even from Turkish ones, not
to mention Central Asian and Middle Eastern ones - in fact, this is a
house with a minaret standing next to it or on the roof. The oldest
Tatar mosques were built in the 18th century, which is younger than the
mosques in Bulgar and Kasimov, but the whole area makes an authentic
impression and is very different from the Russian settlement.
There are several dozen museums in Kazan, and many of them are quite
noticeable at the all-Russian level - for example, the Museum of Fine
Arts is one of the ten best in Russia and has enough rooms to show
interesting expositions from the collection, the Historical Museum is
dedicated to the history of the Volga region, which is very interesting
in itself. itself, and many museums of Kazan University are older than
the specialized ones in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Most of the
sights are located in the Kremlin and Russkaya Sloboda, as well as
Tatarskaya Sloboda. They are easy to walk. Sightseeing in other areas
may require some transport planning.
Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral (Петропавловский собор)
Kazan Virgin Monastery (Казанский Богородицкий монастырь)
Zilantov Assumption Monastery (Зилантов Успенский монастырь)
1 Spirit of the Warrior, Kazan, Kremlin, Sheinkman
passage, 16/1. ☎ +7 (927) 249-80-08. 10:00-18:00. 250 ₽. A unique museum
of weapons, which presents an exhibition of archaeological finds related
to the weapons and military culture of the ancient and medieval peoples
of Russia from the Bronze Age to the era of the Golden Horde.
2 Zaitsev Gallery , st. Burkhan Shakhidi, 7, Kazan, Rep. Tatarstan,
420111 ((3rd floor)). ☎ +7 9270391938. 10:00 to 20:00. from 100r to
400r. Private art gallery and workshop of Kazan artist Slava Zaitsev.
3 Amusement park - Kyrlay, st. Unilateral Grivka, 1a.
☎ +7 (843) 562-47-62. Park "Kyrlay" (formerly "Shurale") is located on
the Kremlin dam. There are many attractions here, including a Ferris
wheel from which you can see the whole of Kazan.
4 Victory Park,
Yamasheva Ave. / st. Bondarenko. The park includes a memorial to the
Heroes of the Great Patriotic War, a 42-meter-high Victory stele and an
exhibition of armored vehicles and aircraft, all in very good condition.
Next to the park is the MALL "Park House". The nearest metro station is
"Kozya Sloboda".
There are 11 cinemas in Kazan (as of September 2011),
10 of them are multiplexes, more than 50 cinema halls in total. The
cinema "Mir" shows festival films, a series of short films. In the
center there are 3 multiplexes for 6 halls in the shopping center
"Koltso" and on the Bauman shopping center "Rodina" - 5 halls and in the
shopping center "Suvar Plaza" 6 halls, the cinema "Grand Cinema".
Near Gorky Park there is a cinema "Korston" with 6 halls, the price
category is medium and above average. Near Gorky Park and near the
Chekhov market, the Mir cinema - 1 hall (Dostoevsky 30, Mir cinema
stop), prices are below the average for the city, they show both
mainstream, blockbusters and festival films, meetings with creative
people are held. The cinema is on the balance sheet of the city.
In many cinemas in Kazan, author's, festival films are shown, but not
always with a large number of screenings, the multiplex "Kinomechta" (as
of January 2015) can boast of this most of all, after the cinema "Mir".
In the multiplex "Kinomechta" discounts for students in the first half
of the week.
Motherland, st. Bauman, 44, building 8
(Kremlyovskaya metro station). ☎ +7 (843) 567-10-72.
RLX Cinema, st.
Spartakovskaya, 2, building 1. ☎ +7 (843) 526-56-66.
Korston, st.
Nikolay Ershov, 1, GTRK Korston Hotel & Mall Kazan. ☎ +7 (843)
279-31-21.
Karo Film, st. Petersburg, 1. ☎ +7 (843) 238-20-20. SEC
Koltso, floor 3
Grand cinema, st. Spartakovskaya, 6. ☎ +7 (843)
526-53-33. Suvar Plaza shopping center
Mir, Dostoevsky, 30. ☎ +7
(843) 238-25-24. edit
3D Port cinema, st. Amirkhana, 1b, RK RIVIERA.
☎ +7 (843) 526-56-66.
Kinomax, Ibragimova avenue, 56, TRK "Tandem",
3rd floor (Metro station Kozya Sloboda). ☎ +7 (843) 518-92-66.
Film festivals
In the cinema "Rodina" and "Grand Cinema" (as well as
the cinema "Mir"), the annual international festival of Muslim cinema
(formerly known as the "Golden Minbar") takes place in the first half of
September.
In total, there are 9 theaters in Kazan, 3 of them are
academic. Most of the theaters are located in the central, Vakhitovsky
district.
Kamal Theatre, Tatarstan street, 1. ✉ ☎ +7 (843)
293-03-74. Performances in the theater are in Tatar with simultaneous
translation into Russian and English.
Kachalovsky Theater (Kazan
Academic Russian Bolshoi Drama Theater named after V.I. Kachalov),
Bauman Street, 48. ☎ +7 (843) 292-34-83, +7 (843) 292-54-81. One of the
oldest theaters in Russia, founded over 200 years ago. The repertoire
includes the best works of Russian and world classics, as well as
contemporary authors. The theater has a main and a small stage.
Tatar
Opera and Ballet Theater named after Musa Jalil, Freedom Square, 2. ☎ +7
(843) 231-57-10. The repertoire includes masterpieces of world and
Russian classics, as well as the best works of Tatarstan composers. The
theater is also famous for its annual international festivals: in
February, the F.I. Chaliapin, and in May - the festival of classical
ballet named after Rudolf Nureyev.
Tatar State Puppet Theater
"Ekiyat" , Peterburgskaya street, 57 (entrance from Sukonnaya street). ✉
☎ +7 (843) 237-70-09. The repertoire includes more than 40 performances
based on fairy tales of the peoples of the world. Performances are in
Russian and Tatar. The new building of the theater impresses with its
unusual, fabulous architecture.
Kazan Aquapark "RIVIERA", st. Fatykh Amirkhan, 1. ☎ +7
(843) 526-57-57. 50 attractions, including 5 swimming pools, 10 water
slides suitable for both children and adults, 3 especially extreme
attractions, a separate children's area and a SPA area. The aqua bar,
which is located right in the pool, deserves special attention in the
water park. In addition to the aqua bar, the water park has a bistro, a
lobby bar, a sushi bar and an Amazon restaurant.
Be prepared for
queues on the slides, on weekends there are a lot of people who come to
the water park even from neighboring republics.
Baryoniks, st. Mazita
Gafuri, 46. ☎ +7 (843) 570-09-00. 15 attractions, 6 swimming pools, as
well as a jacuzzi, sauna, solarium, cafeteria. Also in the Kazan water
park there are many entertainments for children: swimming pools,
children's water slides, experienced instructors. The water park itself
is located in the large entertainment complex "Kaleidoscope".
Kazan Arena.
Central Stadium.
Bahetle. Chain store with a rich selection of Tatar
cuisine. There is also horse meat (in all possible forms), and
semi-finished products, and, of course, pastries. Although the price
level is slightly above average, Bakhetle is sure to please the eye of
any buyer who is tired of the monotonous Pyaterochka, Ashanov and Lenta,
and Tatar cuisine is excellent even in the form of semi-finished
products and pies packed in cellophane.
Tatpodarok.ru, Prospect
Khusain Yamashev, 71A, shopping mall "Bakhetle", 2nd floor (souvenirs
and gifts). ☎ +7(843)524-71-79. 10:00-22:00. National souvenirs of
Tatarstan, Kazan, Russia: magnets, plates, key rings, dolls, hats -
skullcaps and much more. Gifts, souvenirs and interior items.
Kazan, like Tatarstan as a whole, is famous for sweets
(chak-chak, talkysh-keleve) and national pastries - belyash, gubadiya,
echpochmak (which literally sounds like a “triangle”).
You can
eat quite cheaply in the Good Dining Room, in the very center on the
street. Bauman 21. Opposite the railway station - Yakhina 13, as well as
Dekabristov 83, and 2 more addresses of the network. Vegetarian cuisine
is available and, in turn, Dobraya Dining Room promotes vegetarianism.
In Kazan, there is a fruit-eating shop "Fruit World", (Yamasheva
63a) which tries to buy fruits of seasonal cultivation and without
chemicals. processing. Fruit eaters and everyone who is “in the know”
are given a significant discount, you just need to remind the sellers
about this. There is a delivery in the city. Meetings of fruit eaters
are held regularly.
Chain cafes and restaurants
Good canteen
Old Barn
Katyk
Tavern "Old Barn". Sun–Thursday 11:00–1:00,
Fri–Sat 11:00–2:00. Hot dishes: 200–300 rubles (2013). A network cafe
that does not have a pronounced specificity. The menu has a bit of Tatar
cuisine and a standard set of kebabs, pancakes, sausages and other
familiar food. Some variety is given by the branded beer "Old Barn" and
rare household items hung on the walls. The restaurant also positions
itself as a sports bar, which does not have the best effect on the
atmosphere during football matches.
Average cost
Confectionery:
Tortlar, Fatykh Amirkhan Avenue, 105. ✉ ☎ +7 (843)
214-90-99. 09:00-21:00. Cakes.
Jam Bar, st. Profsoyuznaya, 34. Approximate contingent
- 17 and older, different music every evening, average prices in the
bar, admission is mostly free.
Barsuk, st. Chernyshevsky, 27 ( Subway
station: Kremlyovskaya). ✉ ☎ +7 (843) 250-66-99. 22:00-6:00. Men's club.
Gentelmen's club, Fatykh Amirkhan Avenue, 1B. ✉ ☎ +7 (967) 3-666-111.
22:00-6:00. Gentelmen's club.
There are many different hotels in Kazan. Prices are
more humane than in other million-plus cities, that is, for 3000-4500
rubles you can safely settle in almost any three- or four-star hotel in
the center and enjoy life. There are much fewer decent hotels offering
double rooms for 2000-3000 rubles, but finding them is also not a
problem: basically it is Ibis and several places near the railway
station, as well as the Regina hotel chain, reviews are different. The
price of 2000 rubles and below certainly means economy class, complaints
are possible. The only exception is, perhaps, the Volga Hotel, near the
railway station, whose cheap rooms are in constant demand among budget
travelers. Lots of hostels and mini hotels. The tourist direction is
developing and there are now more than 20 hostels in Kazan. There are
also those that offer multi-bed rooms from 300 rubles. The quality is
different. Up to 1400 for a 2-bed room, however, as a rule, with private
facilities on the floor.
It is best to look for economy class
hotels in the Staro-Tatarskaya Sloboda, although they also happen in the
center. Expensive hotels, on the contrary, are grouped around Tukay
Square. There is usually no point in going to the outskirts for hotels:
there is not that much choice, and the road to the center will take a
lot of time.
In addition to Beeline, Megafon and MTS, you can use inexpensive cellular communications from Tele 2 (the former Rostelecom, NSS, Tatinkom), as well as Smarts (it also runs a virtual mobile provider "Fly" that supports the 4G network and occupies 5% of the market). The Yota 4G network is working and actively developing.
The situation in terms of security is standard for large Russian cities. Not crowded late in the evening, sometimes there are suspicious companies near bars located far from the center - Zhilploshchadka (Zhilka) district, Kirovsky district. The city is calm. The crime situation is low in all parts of the city. You can move freely in all areas.
There are several versions and legends about the origin of the name of Kazan. Most often they appeal to the version of a boiled cauldron: the sorcerer advised the Bulgars to build a city where a cauldron with water dug into the ground would boil without any fire. As a result, a similar place was found on the shore of Lake Kaban. This is where the name of the city of Kazan came from - cauldron in Tatar means "cauldron". Other versions associate the name of the city with the landscape, the Tatar words kaen ("birch") or kaz ("goose"), prince Hassan and other variants. According to I. G. Dobrodomov: “<…> the reconstructed Alanian-Burtas name Khadzang, associated with the location of the city at a steep bend in the Volga channel, was the primary one. On Chuvash soil, it turned into Khuzan, and in Russian usage, into Kazan.
According to the official version adopted today,
the city was founded more than 1000 years ago. The estimated date of
the urban settlement on the site of Kazan is 1004–1005 years. The
reason for this dating is found during excavations in the Kazan
Kremlin Czech coin, dated by the Board of St. Wenceslaus
(presumably, coinage 929–930 years) and the earliest Czech coin, the
remains of masonry and wooden city fence, handicrafts and utensils
(Hungarian type lining, women's beads, etc.), as well as other
artifacts with less obvious dating. According to official
statements, experts from 20 cities of Russia and 22 countries of the
world were involved in the study of findings related to the age of
Kazan.
Kazan was a border post between Volga Bulgaria and two
Finnish tribes-Mari and Udmurt. Another vexatious question is where
the citadel was built originally. Archaeological explorations have
produced evidence of urban settlement in three parts of the modern
city: in the Kremlin; in Bişbalta at the site of the modern Zilantaw
monastery; and near the Qaban lake. The oldest of these seems to be
the Kremlin.
After the Mongols ravaged the Bolğar and Bilär
territories in the 13th century, the surviving Bulgars recovered in
numbers and a small number of Kipchaks were assimilated from which
they adopted their language (the so-called Bulgarism), or Kipchaks
and Bulgars mixed to create a modern Kazan-Tatar population. Some
Tatars also went to Lithuania, brought by Vytautas the great. Kazan
became the center of the Principality, which was dependent on The
Golden Horde. In the XIII—XIV centuries, Kazan was growing, becoming
an important trade and political center within The Golden Horde. The
growth of the city was also promoted by the successful geographical
location at the intersection of major trade routes connecting East
and West. During the same period, the minting of currency began with
the indication of the place of minting—"Bulgar al-Jadid", that is, a
New Bulgar.
In 1438, the Bulgar fortress Kazan (ISKE-Kazan)
was captured by the ousted Golden Horde Khan Ulugh Muhammad, who
killed the local Prince Swan and moved the fortress to a modern
place (according to Russian Chronicles). The city became the capital
of the Kazan Khanate. The city Bazaar, Taş Ayaq (stone foot) has
become the most important shopping center in the region, especially
for furniture. Handicraft production also flourished, as the city
gained a reputation for its leather and gold products, as well as
the wealth of its palaces and mosques. Kazan had trade relations
with Moscow, Crimea, Turkey and other regions.
As a result of the Siege of Kazan in 1552, Tsar
Ivan the Terrible conquered the city and massacred the majority of
the population. During the subsequent governorship of Alexander
Gorbatyi-Shuisky, most of the Kazan's Tatar residents were forcibly
Christianized or deported, the Kerashen Tatars. Mosques and palaces
were ruined. The surviving Tatar population was moved to a place 50
kilometers (31 mi) away from the city and this place was forcibly
settled by Russian farmers and soldiers. Tatars in the Russian
service were settled in the Tatar Bistäse settlement near the city's
wall. Later Tatar merchants and handicraft masters also settled
there. During this period, Kazan was largely destroyed as a result
of several great fires. After one of them in 1579, the icon Our Lady
of Kazan was discovered in the city.
In the early 17th
century, at the beginning of the Time of Troubles in Russia, the
Tsardom of Kazan declared independence under the leadership of
voyvoda Nikanor Shulgin with the help of the Russian population, but
this independence was suppressed by Kuzma Minin in 1612.
In 1708, the Tsardom of Kazan was abolished, and
Kazan became the seat of Kazan Governorate. After Peter the Great's
visit, the city became a center of shipbuilding for the Caspian
fleet. The major Russian poet Gavrila Derzhavin was born in Kazan in
1743, the son of a poor country squire of Tatar ancestry though
himself having a thoroughly Russian identity.
Before the
building of modern dams, low-lying areas were regularly flooded in
April and May. Kazan suffered major fires in 1595, 1672, 1694, 1742,
1749, 1757 1744, 1815 and 1842. Kazan was largely destroyed in 1774
as a result of the Pugachev revolt (1774–1776), an uprising by
border troops and peasants led by the Don Cossack ataman (Captain)
Yemelyan Pugachev, but the city, formerly largely of timber
construction, was soon afterwards rebuilt, using stone and according
to a grid pattern plan, during the reign of Catherine the Great.
Catherine also decreed that mosques could again be built in Kazan,
the first being Marjani Mosque.
At the beginning of the 19th century Kazan State
University and printing press were founded by Alexander I. It became
an important center for Oriental Studies in Russia. The Qur'an was
first printed in Kazan in 1801. Kazan became an industrial center
and peasants migrated there to join its industrial workforce. In
1875, a horse tramway appeared; 1899 saw the installation of a
tramway. After the Russian Revolution of 1905, Tatars were allowed
to revive Kazan as a Tatar cultural center. The first Tatar theater
and the first Tatar newspaper appeared.
Soviet period
In
1917, Kazan became one of the revolution centers. In 1918, Kazan was
the capital of the Idel-Ural State, which was suppressed by the
Bolshevist government. In the Kazan Operation of August 1918, it was
briefly occupied by Czechoslovak Legions. In 1920, Kazan became the
center of Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. In the 1920s
and 1930s, most of the city's mosques and churches were destroyed,
as occurred elsewhere in the USSR.[citation needed] After the Treaty
of Rapallo (1922) until 1933, the German and the Russian army
operated together the Kama tank school in Kazan.
During World
War II, many industrial plants and factories to the west were
relocated in Kazan, making the city a center of the military
industry, producing tanks and planes. After the war Kazan
consolidated as an industrial and scientific center. In 1979, the
city's population reached one million.
Modern period
In
the late 1980s and in the 1990s, after the dissolution of the Soviet
Union, Kazan again became the center of Tatar culture and identity,
and separatist tendencies intensified. With the return of
capitalism, Kazan became one of the most important centers of the
Russian Federation. The city went from 10th to 8th position in
population ranking of Russian cities. In the early 2000s, the city
earned the right to host both the 2013 Summer Universiade and 2018
FIFA World Cup.
Kazan is located on the left bank of the Volga River,
at the confluence of the Kazanka River, 820 km east of Moscow. Thanks to
its advantageous geographical location, Kazan has long been a trade
intermediary between East and West. Geographic coordinates: 55°47.45′ s.
sh. 49°6.87′ E (coordinates of the so-called "zero kilometer").
Kazan is located in the MSK time zone (Moscow time). The offset of the
applicable time from UTC is +3:00. In accordance with the applied time
and geographic longitude, the average solar noon in Kazan occurs at
11:44.
The length of the city from north to south is 29 km,
from west to east - 31 km. The city in the western, central and
southwestern parts faces the Kuibyshev reservoir for about 15 km. In
Kazan, there is one bridge across the Volga - at the extreme western
border of the city. The Kazanka River flows from northeast to west
through the middle of the city and divides Kazan into two parts
comparable in territory - the historical one to the south of the river
and the newer beyond the river to the north. The two parts of the city
are connected by five dams and bridges, as well as a subway line.
The relief of the city is flat and hilly. In the central part of the
city there are low-lying plains Zabulache, Predkabanye, Zakabanye, the
elevated plain Arskoye Pole and separate hills stand out - the Kremlin
(Kremlin-University), Marusovsky, Fedoseevsky, First Mountain, Second
Mountain, Ametyevo, Novo-Tatarskaya Sloboda, and others. In the
direction to the southeast and east, the territory of the city as a
whole gradually rises, and large residential areas of Gorki, Azino, as
well as Nagorny, Derbyshki are located at isoheights of 20-40 meters and
higher than part of the historical center, southwestern regions and
Zarechye. Zilantova Gora stands out in the District, as well as hills of
settlements in the north of the city. In different places there are
ravines and similar local elongated depressions in the terrain.
The territory of the city is characterized by a very significant
proportion of water surfaces. A strip of a part of the Volga water area
more than 2 km wide (along the western border of the city), as well as a
predominantly shallow end and a new mouth of the Kazanka River about 1
km wide (completely inside the city) were formed when the Kuibyshev
reservoir appeared in the middle of the 20th century instead of many
times narrower natural rivers. Also, the number of water surfaces of the
city includes: starting in the city center and going south, a system of
three large lakes Kaban - Lower (Near), Sredny, Upper (Far), smaller
lakes on the periphery of Lebyazhye, Glubokoe, Golubye, etc., small
reservoirs in different places (including unusual ones in the middle of
the quarters of the multi-storey massif Novoe Savinovo), man-made lakes
Izumrudnoye, Komsomolskoye, Bulak canal in the city center, small rivers
Knox, Dry River, and others on the periphery. A small old woman remained
from the former mouth of the Kazanka River. In the water area of the
Volga there are small islands Marquis and others. In the southeastern
and eastern parts of the Zarechye, near the Kazanka River, there are
swampy, insignificant, unstable islands and floodplain meadows. Along
the banks of the Volga and Kazanka in a number of places there are
hydroprotection dams. The levels of the Volga and Kazanka in the city
sometimes fluctuate up to several meters depending on the time of year
and some individual years in general, and are very much dependent on the
activity of the Volga hydroelectric power station (actually determined
by it). In particular, in the summer of 2010, a record decrease in the
water level of the reservoir from the average values for half a century
greatly exposed the banks of the Volga and temporarily narrowed the end
and mouth of the Kazanka almost to natural widths.
The climate of Kazan is temperate continental, severe frosts and scorching heat are rare and not typical for the city. The most frequent winds are south and west, with calm on average 13 days a year. The snow cover is moderate, reaching its maximum height in February and March - 38 cm. The number of clear, cloudy and overcast days per year is 40, 169 and 149, respectively. The most cloudy month is November, the least cloudy months are July and August. In autumn and spring there are fogs, only 16 days a year. The average temperature in summer is +17…20 °C, in winter - -9…12 °C. A prolonged heatwave broke the temperature record in July and again in August 2010, with temperatures reaching 39.0°C on 1 August in the shade. The minimum record was set on January 21, 1942 (-46.8 °C). The highest possible snow depth is 150 centimeters. The average annual wind speed is 3.6 m/s, and the air humidity is 75%. Weather with a stable positive temperature is set, on average, in late March - early April, and with a stable average temperature below zero - in late October - early November. Most of the precipitation falls from June to October, with a maximum in June and a minimum in March. During the year, the average number of days with precipitation is about 197 (from 11 days in May to 24 days in December). The rainiest month was June 1978, when 217 mm of precipitation fell (against a norm of 70 mm). The driest months were February 1984, August 1972 and October 1987, when Kazan experienced no precipitation at all. The lower cloudiness is 4.1 points, the total cloudiness is 6.7 points.
The main environmental problems are: air pollution,
the unfavorable quality of the waters of the Volga, Kazanka and other
water bodies within the city, insufficient landscaping of the city, as
well as waste disposal. Despite the unsatisfactory situation, Kazan is
not included in the list of cities in Russia with the highest level of
air pollution, and is also the only large city in the Russian Federation
that fully recycles its waste.
In 2010, emissions of pollutants
(pollutants) into the air from stationary sources of pollution by more
than 1,700 enterprises and organizations of the republic, according to
estimates, amounted to 255 thousand tons against 263 thousand tons in
2009. The total mass of emissions from stationary and mobile sources
amounted to 543.4 thousand tons, of which 47% is accounted for by
industrial enterprises and 53% by transport. According to the degree of
air pollution, 11 critical zones and 3 risk zones are distinguished. The
risk zones with maximum concentrations of harmful substances include the
northern part of Kazan, where such large pollution sources as the
Kazanorgsintez plant, CHPP-2 and CHPP-3 operate. The main air pollutants
are volatile organic compounds, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide,
hydrocarbons and sulfur dioxide. In 2010, Kazan was especially acutely
confronted with the problem of smog caused by forest fires in the
region, when the maximum allowable concentrations for harmful substances
were repeatedly exceeded.
The volume of wastewater discharges
into the surface water bodies of Kazan is 254 million m³ per year, of
which 45 million m³ falls on industrial enterprises. The largest water
discharges are produced by MUE Vodokanal, as well as the Kazanorgsintez
plant and the Kazan Synthetic Rubber Plant. The main water pollutants
are suspended solids, chlorides, nitrates, nitrites, sulfates,
phosphates and ammonium nitrogen. The area of green spaces in Kazan is
98 km², which is 23% of the area of the city, only half of the required
by the standards. The number of green zones is only 20% of the norm, the
most problematic are new areas of high-rise buildings. In Kazan, there
are 2 landfills for solid waste - "Samosyrovo" and along Khimichnaya
Street, while the Samosyrovsky landfill has already exhausted its
capabilities and requires reclamation. There are also 2 waste sorting
complexes with a total capacity of 250 thousand tons per year.
In
Kazan, the comprehensive programs "Green Record" and "Blossoming Kazan"
were launched and implemented. 5 million flowers are planted annually.
As part of the city's Green Record project, 530,000 m² of new lawns were
laid, 78 km of automatic watering systems were laid, and the city's
flower decoration area was doubled. One of the sights of the city, the
Bulak duct, has found a new life, where a fountain complex with a length
of 1.4 km was installed.
In 2011, the harvesting equipment fleet
grew by a quarter, 6 stationary points and 2 mobile snow melting
chambers were built.
In 2014, the construction of three treatment
facilities on storm sewer networks was completed. And in order to reduce
the concentration of harmful substances in the air, all public transport
in Kazan has been converted to Euro 3 and Euro 4 standards. An
electrolysis plant for the production of sodium hypochlorite was put
into operation at the Volzhsky water intake. This made it possible to
abandon water purification using chlorine that is unsafe for health and
switch to European standards for the disinfection of tap water.