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Constructed: 1561- 62
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The Cathedral of the Annunciation of the Kazan Kremlin (Cathedral
of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos, Tat. Aru habar
chirkave) is an Orthodox church in Kazan, a monument of Russian
architecture of the 16th century.
From 1552 to 1918, the
cathedral was the cathedral church of the Kazan diocese of the
Russian Church (currently the Nikolsky Cathedral is the cathedral),
priests were ordained here for centuries, and since the end of the
19th century, bishops were consecrated (here Anthony (Khrapovitsky),
Andrey (Ukhtomsky)).
The Annunciation Cathedral of the Kazan
Kremlin is the most remote example of the Pskov school of
architecture and the oldest surviving monument of history and
architecture in the ensemble of the Kremlin and the city. The
cross-domed temple with five domes resting on six pillars and three
altar apses, the cathedral originally recreated the layout and
appearance of the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin,
emphasizing the new status of Kazan. Many Kazan archpastors found
their rest in the basement of the cathedral, thus, the Cathedral of
the Annunciation for the Kazan Kremlin had the same meaning as the
Cathedral of the Robe of the Robe for the Moscow Kremlin.
Despite the latest reconstructions, the primordial Pskov style of
the cathedral can be read in a band of typical Pskov ornament
encircling the base of the central dome, and an arched belt
decorating the apses.
16th century
Initially, a wooden church was erected on the site of
the stone cathedral, consecrated on October 6, 1552 in honor of the
Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Three years later, the Kazan
diocese was established, and hegumen of the Selizharov Monastery Guriy
Rugotin was appointed to the new department with the elevation to the
rank of archbishop. The small wooden church could no longer serve as the
center of the diocese, which covered a vast territory, including
Siberia, and after 9 years, in 1561, by decree of Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich,
80 masons arrived from Pskov, headed by Postnik Yakovlev and Ivan
Shiryai, nicknamed Barma, the builders of the temple Basil the Blessed.
The temple was built from the Volga limestone, the stone was mined on
the opposite, high bank of the Volga. On August 15, 1562, the church was
consecrated by Archbishop Gury of Kazan.
The new white-stone
cross-domed cathedral originally had a length of 18 sazhens, a width of
7 sazhens 2 arshins, almost 2 times smaller than the modern temple,
which expanded as a result of several reconstructions. The walls had
keeled ends and ended with zakomaras. The arch rested on 6 round
pillars, as in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. Tromps
supported the central dome instead of traditional sailing passages.
The domes of the cathedral in the 16th century were helmet-shaped.
At the end of the 16th century, side aisles were added to the temple:
the northern one in the name of St. Peter and Fevronia of Murom and
southern in the name of St. princes Boris and Gleb, connected by a
porch, which went around the central cube-shaped volume of the
cathedral.
17th century
In 1694, the narrow windows of the
Annunciation Cathedral were enlarged.
During its centuries-old
history, the cathedral burned down several times - in 1596, 1672, 1694,
1742, 1749, 1757. In 1742, the relics of St. Gurias were even carried
out beyond the Bulak canal. Despite the fires, a fragment of ancient
fresco painting has been preserved, with which the entire church was
decorated in the 16th-17th centuries - this is the image of the Kazan
Mother of God in the altar apse, which was discovered during restoration
in the 1990s.
18th century
Restoration of 1736
In the 18th
century, a number of alterations changed the appearance of the
cathedral. In 1736, the helmet-shaped domes were replaced by onion ones,
and the central dome was completed in the Ukrainian baroque style, the
so-called "bath"; on the western side of the cathedral, a one-story
refectory and a porch with a staircase were added. In this form, the
cathedral is depicted in the engravings of V. Turin, A. Duran, E.
Turnerelli, made before the new reconstruction of 1841.
19th
century - early 20th century
Restoration in 1841 The city fire on
September 3-4, 1815 severely damaged the Annunciation Cathedral, which
stood 2 years after the fire in desolation. In the fire, the entire
provincial archive, which was stored in the temple, burned down. The
Kazan historian Pinegin describes this event as follows: “On September
3, 1815, the eighth major fire in the history of the city occurred in
Kazan, which destroyed 166 streets with alleys and 1179 houses in them.
The Kremlin and the best parts of the city burned out. Historically
valuable Kazan archives perished in this fire.” See: Pinegin M.N. Kazan
in its past and present. - St. Petersburg. 1890.
The restoration
of the cathedral was started by Archbishop Ambrose (Protasov). The
carving for the new iconostasis was made by the Moscow master Bykovsky.
The coloring and gilding of the iconostasis was carried out by the
Moscow tradesman Gavriil Lvov. the icons for the new iconostasis were
painted by Vasily Stepanov Turin, a teacher at the Kazan Public School
and collegiate registrar.
On June 19, 1821, the solemn
consecration of the renovated church took place.
Next to the
cathedral stood the Church of the Nativity, built under Metropolitan
Markell of Kazan in 1694. By 1821, the temple was very dilapidated, in
connection with which the technical commission proposed to dismantle the
church and build a new warm temple. Emperor Nicholas I, who visited the
Annunciation Cathedral on August 20, 1836, proposed to build a new warm
refectory of the Annunciation Cathedral on the site of the Nativity
Church, expanding it to the west. In 1841, the emperor approved the
project of the Kazan provincial architect (1834-1844) Foma Petondi
(1794-1874), according to which the cathedral was expanded to the west,
north and south, for which the one-story refectory and the old porch
were demolished.
The former aisles became part of the main
temple, two warm aisles were built, separated from the main temple by
walls and having separate entrances. The left one was consecrated in
honor of the Nativity of Christ, in memory of the dismantled church of
the 17th century, and the right one in the name of Boris and Gleb. A
staircase leading to the choir stalls was built in the new double-height
refectory.
Since then, the appearance of the cathedral has not
changed, except for the porch of the cathedral built according to the
project of Thomas Petondi, demolished after the revolution, and the bell
tower destroyed by the Bolsheviks.
At the direction of Emperor
Nicholas I, funds were also allocated for the restoration of the
Bishop's House, and already in 1841, the Archbishop of Kazan and
Sviyazhsky Vladimir Uzhinsky moved from the Resurrection Jerusalem
Monastery to the Kremlin.
On August 24, 1842, a fire raged in Kazan again, almost all city
churches, the Peter and Paul Cathedral were damaged, the complex of
buildings of the theological seminary burned down, the seminary was
transferred to the building of the Kazan Theological School, and the
school was transferred to the Sviyazhsky Assumption Monastery. The
Annunciation Cathedral, the expansion of which was completed only two
years ago, was again in need of repair. After 2 years, the temple was
restored. In 1855, the icons in the 5-tier iconostasis were renovated,
for which the Vladimir icon painter Timofey Gagaev was invited (ten
years later, he also renovated the iconostasis of the Peter and Paul
Cathedral). The next renovation was sustained in the Byzantine style.
After the reconstruction of the middle of the 19th century, the
iconostasis looked like this: in the lower, local row, on the right side
of the royal doors, the icon of the Lord Almighty sitting on the throne,
the Holy Trinity, the descent of the Lord Jesus Christ into hell and the
Resurrection of Christ; on the left - the Annunciation of the Most Holy
Theotokos, the Nativity of Christ, St. Guria. All icons were in silver
vestments. Archangels Gabriel and Michael were depicted on the southern
and northern doors. There are 12 feasts in the second tier, and in the
center above the bronze royal doors is the Last Supper. In the third,
deesis row in the center is the Almighty, on the sides are the Mother of
God, John the Baptist and the twelve apostles; in the fourth, prophetic
row in the center - the Sign of the Mother of God and sixteen prophets
on the sides; in the fifth forefather row in the center is the Lord of
Hosts with the forefathers standing on the sides. The iconostasis was
crowned with a cross. Three icons of the deesis row of the iconostasis
are now in the exposition of the Museum of Fine Arts of the Republic of
Tatarstan: this is an ancient image of the forthcoming Apostle Paul of
the 16th century, fine spiritual writing, and later icons of St. in a
rather primitive provincial manner.
The frescoes of the cathedral
with a total area of several thousand square meters, discovered during
the restoration of the turn of the 20th-21st centuries, were painted by
the artel of the famous icon painter of the Vyaznikovsky district of the
Vladimir province N. L. Sofonov, who painted many temples in the 19th
century. The most detailed plan of the painting with the indication and
location of all the plots was made by the Archbishop of Kazan and
Sviyazhsky (from April 16, 1867 to November 8, 1879) Anthony
(Amphitheaters), who personally supervised the work of the artel.
The vaults of the new warm refectory part of the cathedral, attached
from the west, were decorated with a unique cycle of murals related to
the history of Kazan. The frescoes depict: the acquisition and
glorification of the miraculous Kazan Icon of the Mother of God; the
ordination of Archbishop Gury of Kazan by Metropolitan Macarius of
Moscow; the acquisition by Metropolitan Hermogenes (future patriarch) of
the holy relics of Saints Guriy and Barsanuphius, also on the walls of
the cathedral are depicted the saints to whom Kazan churches were
dedicated, including Saints Cyprian and Justinia, the Cyzic martyrs, the
noble princes Theodore, David and Constantine.
In 1892,
Archpriest Andrei Polikarpovich Yablokov, a graduate of the Kazan
Theological Academy, who left a detailed description of the cathedral,
became the dean and later the rector of the temple.
1909
reconstruction
The next major reconstruction of the cathedral was
carried out in 1906-1909. According to the design of the Kazan diocesan
architect (1894-1912) Fyodor Nikolaevich Malinovsky (1864-?), the floor
on the solea and in the altar was lined with patterned marble tiles,
which have survived to this day, and the wall painting was renovated.
The temple was equipped with steam heating and electric lighting. After
the reconstruction, the left aisle was consecrated in the name of Saint
Gury of Kazan.
During the battles for Kazan in early September 1918, the Bolsheviks
fired at the Kremlin with direct fire from cannons installed on the hill
of a gunpowder factory, as a result of which all five domes of the
cathedral were destroyed by direct hits of shells (the external
appearance was recreated only during the restoration of the cathedral in
1973-1984 years). Having captured the city, the Bolsheviks entrenched
themselves in the Kremlin, declaring it a military camp: the entrance to
the townspeople was closed, all organizations were evicted, all 7
Kremlin churches were closed. The diocesan administration, by order of
Bishop Anatoly (Grisyuk), temporarily managing the diocese, was
transferred from the bishop's house in the Kremlin to the John the
Baptist Monastery. The role of the cathedral began to be performed by
the largest temple in Kazan - the Kazan Cathedral of the Bogoroditsky
Monastery. The believers were allowed to take out of the cathedral only
the shrine of the relics of St. Gurias and a few icons. The relics were
transferred to the church of St. Nicholas of the Tula Kazan-Bogoroditsky
convent. After the closing of the monastery, the relics were transferred
to the Peter and Paul Cathedral (now in the Church of the Yaroslavl
Wonderworkers at the Arsk Cemetery, a particle of the holy relics was
placed in the recreated shrine of the saint in the Annunciation
Cathedral).
The collection of icons, liturgical vessels, small
plastic arts, sewing, handwritten and early printed books and other
church utensils was looted by the Bolsheviks, many valuables disappeared
without a trace. Only 3 icons from the iconostasis (in the Museum of
Fine Arts of Kazan), a small part of the books in the library of KSU and
the Museum of the Republic of Tatarstan, and some items from the
sacristy have survived. Some of the icons seized from Kazan churches
formed the basis of the department of ancient Russian art in the Kazan
Provincial Museum (now the National Museum of the Republic of
Tatarstan); 85 objects that survived after the destruction of the
cathedral in the first years of Soviet power were taken from the
sacristy of the Blagoveshchensk Cathedral to the museum.
In 1920,
the authorities allowed the renovationists to serve in the cathedral,
but in 1925 they closed the temple again and handed it over to the
museum department. In 1921, for some time, the house church in the name
of Saints Guriy, Barsanuphius and Herman of Kazan of the former bishop's
house still operated.
In 1922 the bell tower was destroyed.
Somewhat later, the porch built according to the project of the
architect Thomas Petondi, leading to the temple, was broken, so that the
door to the cathedral was 3 meters above the ground for a long time. At
the end of November 1923, Archimandrite Pitirim (Krylov), rector of the
Annunciation Cathedral, was arrested and exiled for 3 years to the
Solovetsky camp. In May 1929, the Kazgorsovet asked the Presidium of the
TCIK to allow the dismantling of closed churches, including the
Annunciation Cathedral. A month later, given the urgent need for
building materials, the Presidium of the TCEC allowed the City Council
to dismantle part of the buildings of the cathedral, which he ordered to
start on June 27, 1929. Despite the fact that the State Academy of the
History of Material Culture, having studied the state of the temple from
June 23 to July 14, 1929, found the condition of the cathedral to be
satisfactory, the Presidium of the TCEC and the NKVD did not see “the
need for a special decision of the Presidium, since the church has long
been closed by a special decision of the TCEC, and the issue of analysis
is only arising from the former decision on liquidation.” At the
beginning of March 1932, the church porch was demolished at an
accelerated pace and what was left of the bell tower was dismantled into
bricks. But the cathedral itself miraculously survived.
Soon the
State Archive of the TASSR was placed in the church, having arranged
four tiers of wooden floors inside. In the basement church, which served
as the necropolis of the Kazan bishops, a vegetable store was set up,
and a gatehouse was set up in the cell of St. Gurias.
In
1977-1984, the external appearance of the cathedral was restored in the
forms of 1841, the domes and drums were restored (Ukrainian "bath" and 4
onion-shaped domes). In 1987 the central dome was gilded.
After
reconstructions and restorations, the central volume of the building
with three apses and six massive pillars round in section supporting the
vault has been preserved from the original temple of the 16th century: 2
pillars in the altar, 4 in the temple. The pillars are connected by
arches, forming 12 vaults. The foundations of two side stone aisles and
fragments of frescoes also belong to the 16th century.
Cathedral
revival
In 1995, by decree of Tatarstan President Mintimer Shaimiev,
the cathedral was transferred to the jurisdiction of the Kazan Kremlin
State Historical and Architectural Museum-Reserve. In 1997, the State
Archive of the TASSR was transferred to another building.
For the
restoration of the interior of the cathedral, the Fund for Financial
Support for the Restoration of the Annunciation Cathedral was created.
Since 2000, icon and painting works have been carried out by the
interregional scientific and restoration art department under the
Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation. A team of Moscow icon
painters under the guidance of artist-restorer of the highest category
S. R. Bragin took part in the reconstruction of the icons of the main
iconostasis of the cathedral. The restoration was completed in 2005, on
the occasion of the 450th anniversary of the Kazan Diocese.
On
July 19, 2005, the church was re-consecrated by Anastassy, Archbishop of
Kazan. The first liturgy in the revived cathedral was performed by
Patriarch Alexy II on July 21, 2005. The first rector of the revived
church was Hieromonk Methodius, later rector of the Kazan Kizichesky
monastery.
In 1630-1640, with the blessing of Kazan Metropolitan Matthew, a
white-stone bell tower more than 50 meters high was erected next to the
cathedral, built on the site of a wooden belfry mentioned in cadastral
books of the 16th century: hearth, and two medium bells, and two smaller
ringing ones, all the bells of the sovereign's treasury. In the first
tier of the bell tower was the largest bell of Kazan, its weight was
1,500 pounds (about 24,570 kg).
In the 18th century, the bell
tower had a clock with a strike, and next to the bell tower, in the
fence surrounding the cathedral, there was the gate church of the Praise
of the Most Holy Theotokos, dismantled under the Archbishop of Kazan and
Simbirsk (1785-1799) Ambrose Podobedov.
The bell tower adjoined
the porch of the refectory part of the cathedral; in height, the 5-tier
bell tower was only slightly inferior to the Syuyumbike tower. Three
tiers of fire-shaped kokoshniks ascended from the last tier to the base
of the dome (originally helmet-shaped). According to M. Pinegin, the
bell tower was “a combination of Tatar taste with ancient Russian: the
first floors were erected under the strong influence of the architecture
of the neighboring Syuyunbekin tower, and the top floors were built in
the style of the Ivan the Great bell tower. Instead of a roof, it is
picturesquely covered with various towers…”. The bell tower was crowned
with a "carved cross with a crown and a dove of Noah's ark."
In
1928, the bell tower of the Cathedral of the Annunciation was destroyed.
Now there is a square in its place to the south of the cathedral.
Under the bell tower there was a temple, originally consecrated in
honor of the holy martyr Irina, at the end of the 18th century it was
closed due to dilapidation. Through the diligence of Archbishop Philaret
of Kazan, this temple was renewed in 1832 at the expense of the Kazan
merchant, mayor (from 1830 to 1832) Nikifor Osipovich Chizhov and
consecrated in the name of the Kazan miracle worker St. Herman.
In the 1840s, in the western part of the
refectory, a secret room was arranged for the richest cathedral
sacristy. The sacristy kept: icons, precious liturgical vessels,
contributions of noble people, statesmen, church hierarchs; rare
work priestly and bishop vestments; gold and silver panagias adorned
with emeralds, pearls and diamonds and other cathedral shrines, of
which we can highlight:
nine ancient metropolitan hoods,
including two made personally by Saint Barsanuphius of Kazan,
Shroud of the 16th century, embroidered by Princess
Temkina-Rostovskaya,
manuscript gospel of the 15th century,
sakkos, embroidered in the technique of gold and face embroidery in
the Stroganov workshops, and personally donated by the Stroganov
brothers to Metropolitan Lavrenty of Kazan in the 17th century (the
sakkos is kept in the museum of the Republic of Tatarstan),
one-sided saddle, upholstered in crimson velvet, on which the Kazan
hierarchs performed on Palm Sunday "the ceremony of solemn
procession on a donkey"
until 1918, in the Cathedral of the
Annunciation Cathedral, an icon belonging to St. Gury was kept - the
Saints of the Stroganov letter,
the corner part of the tomb of
St. Gurias,
the gold altar cross with enamel of Metropolitan
Adrian (end of the 17th century) with particles of the relics of the
holy apostles,
in the National Museum of the Republic of
Tatarstan there is a manuscript Gospel of 1478, arranged by order of
Bishop Vassian of Tver (Prince Strigin-Obolensky) and donated to the
cathedral by Archbishop Guriy,
The gospel in a gold frame with
diamonds of the All-Russian Patriarch Adrian, donated to the
cathedral on December 25, 1692,
The gospel of the Elizabethan
era, striking in size and weight (2.5 pounds), which was used only
once a year - on the first day of Easter,
ancient canvas
antimensions (boards depicting the position in the tomb of Jesus
Christ) from the time of Metropolitan Macarius of Moscow and Tsar
Ivan the Terrible,
a silver ladle donated by Tsars John
Alekseevich, Peter Alekseevich and Princess Sophia,
silver bowl -
a gift from Empress Anna Ioannovna,
Panagia with 209 diamonds,
personally granted to Metropolitan Veniamin by Empress Catherine II
and a cross with many diamonds, extracted from Catherine's own
jewelry.
The sacristy also kept sakkos of gold embroidery,
including those of the Stroganov school, also decorated with
precious stones, the vestments of the Metropolitans of Kazan
Lavrenty and Tikhon were especially valuable. The weight of a full
episcopal vestment of the 17th century reached 40 kg, and the
metropolitan's klobuks and caps were also kept in the sacristy.
On August 29, 1919, the Kazan security officers planned to
confiscate the cathedral sacristy "as having no historical
significance" with subsequent disposal. And only thanks to the
courage of the Kazan art critic Pyotr Maksimilianovich Dulsky and
the professor of Kazan University (1918-1922) Irinarkh Arkadyevich
Stratonov, it was possible to partially preserve the collection of
the sacristy of the Annunciation Cathedral. Dulsky and Stratonov,
despite the wave of class terror from the Bolsheviks, the wave of
arrests and executions that swept the city, boldly turned to the
chairman of the provincial executive committee Nikolai Antipov and
proved the historical value of the sacristy of the main cathedral of
Kazan, and also found understanding and support from the People's
Commissar of Education of the RSFSR A. V Lunacharsky and the famous
art critic I. E. Grabar. The surviving contents of the sacristy were
transferred for storage to the Provincial Museum (now the National
Museum of the Republic of Tatarstan).
The cathedral possessed the most valuable collection
of early printed and handwritten books of the 16th-17th centuries. After
the ruin of the cathedral by the Bolsheviks, a significant part of the
books from the collection of the Annunciation Cathedral replenished the
fund of Kazan University. On all the books from the church sacristy, the
handwritten mark “K. K. S.” (Kazan Cathedral). Many books were donated
to the temple from eminent persons, church hierarchs.
Among the
miraculously surviving most valuable book copies of the cathedral
collection, now stored in the National Museum of the Republic of
Tatarstan, is the Efremovo (named after Metropolitan Ephraim of Kazan)
Gospel, printed in Moscow in 1606 “by the skill of Anisim Mikhailov, son
of Radishevsky, a Volynian and other kindly laborers.” This gospel was
presented to the cathedral by Metropolitan Ephraim of Kazan, who crowned
the first of the Romanov dynasty, Tsar Mikhail Feodorovich, in 1613,
about which there is a corresponding inscription in the gospel. The
gospel is distinguished by the rarest beauty of book miniatures, images
of the four evangelists. The sovereign's master Parfeniy not only
painted in tempera the headpieces, endings, and initial letters executed
in a typographical way, but also, not adhering strictly to the drawing
of miniatures, turned them into his own colorful compositions, admiring
their unique originality.
The main shrine of the Cathedral of the Annunciation
for centuries was a shrine with the relics of the builder of the
cathedral, the primate of Kazan Gury. Saint Guriy rested on December 5,
1563, and was buried behind the altar of the cathedral church of the
Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery. Thirty-one years later, on October 4,
1595, during the laying of the new stone church of the monastery, the
saint's relics were found incorrupt and placed in the new monastery
cathedral. On June 19, 1630, the holy relics were transferred by the
Kazan Metropolitan Matvey to the Annunciation Cathedral and placed near
the northern wall in a silver shrine arranged by the Kazan nobleman
Savva Timofeev Aristov, on which Prince B. I. Cherkassky in 1633 donated
a cover embroidered with gold and silver depicting St. in growth. A
carved gilded canopy was built over it at the expense of the Kazan
Yamsky hunter Timofey Shalanin. In the middle of the 19th century, the
Kazan merchant Pyotr Sveshnikov arranged a new shrine, for which he
donated 5,000 rubles.
Near the shrine were kept the phelonion of
St. Gurias, sewn from silk patterned fabric - “kamki” and his wooden
staff, arranged so that the aged saint could lean on him with his chest,
which facilitated the prayerful vigils of St. Gurias.
Festive
services to Saint Gury were performed 3 times a year: on December 5 in
memory of his blessed death, on June 20 - the transfer of St. his relics
from the Spaso-Preobrazhensky monastery to the cathedral and with
special solemnity on October 4 - the day of finding St. relics, when a
religious procession with the miraculous revealed icon of the Kazan
Mother of God came to the cathedral from the Kazan Bogoroditsky
Monastery. By a special imperial decree of April 12, 1854, this day in
Kazan was declared non-working.
Cell of St. Guria
In the
course of the reconstruction of the cathedral in 1841, under the
Borisoglebsky chapel, the cell of St. Gurias was opened - a small
closet, built of the same Volga stone as the cathedral, in which the
saint prayed in solitude, as it is written in the Life of "the vigil
standing in prayers, bringing it to God , in a cell near ... Boris and
Gleb ".
On the wall was discovered painted, probably by the saint
himself, with mineral paints the Image of the Savior Not Made by Hands,
the colors of which become brighter from year to year. The cell
immediately became an object of pilgrimage for Kazan citizens, soon an
icon-case was arranged for the fresco, the walls were plastered, and a
door was cut through from the west. Somewhat later, at the expense of
the headman of the cathedral, V.F. Bulygin, a chapel was added to the
cell, which has survived to this day.
Burials in temples were in the tradition of Russian
religiosity. Church hierarchs, tsars and grand dukes, temple builders
and ktitors (persons who donated large sums to monasteries and temples)
were awarded such a privilege. So, the great princes of Vladimir,
starting with Andrei Bogolyubsky, are buried in the Assumption Cathedral
of Vladimir. The Archangel Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin houses the
tomb of the rulers of Rus' and Russia, starting with Ivan Kalita (from
1340 to 1730). The tomb of the Moscow princesses was located in the
Church of the Savior on Bor, and later in the cathedral church of the
Ascension Monastery of the Moscow Kremlin. Emperors, starting with Peter
I, were buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral of the Peter and Paul
Fortress in St. Petersburg. Hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church
(1326-1700) were buried in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow
Kremlin.
For more than 400 years, the Annunciation Cathedral of
the Kazan Kremlin served as the resting place of many Kazan bishops
(sources mention about 17 burial places of Kazan metropolitans and
archbishops): the fourth Kazan lord Vassian was the first to be buried
in the cathedral in 1575. The last - in 1910, the Archbishop of Kazan
and Sviyazhsky Nikanor (Kamensky). In 1840, during the reconstruction of
the cathedral, the burial places from the old Borisoglebsky aisle were
moved under the altar, the names of the Kazan lords were indicated by
inscriptions on stone slabs.
In the basement of the Annunciation
Cathedral, under the altar of the main church, there was a church in the
name of All Saints, built in 1896 by Archbishop Vladimir (Petrov) of
Kazan and Archbishop Pavel Lebedev at the expense of Mrs. Eropkina from
the merchant class. A door in the main apse of the cathedral led to the
temple. Metropolitan Lavrenty II (†1672), who took the schema with the
name Leukia before his death, Metropolitan Markell (†1698), later found
rest in this temple, Archbishops Athanasius (Sokolov) (†1868), Vladimir
II (Ivan Stepanovich Petrov) were buried under the altar († September 2,
1897), Dimitri (Sambikin) († 1908), Nikanor (Kamensky) († 1910).
Archbishop Vassian (†1575), Metropolitan Matthew (†1646), Metropolitan
Simon Serb (†1649), Metropolitan Kornily I (†1656), Metropolitan Joasaph
(†1686) are buried along the northern wall of the main church. Their
burials were located in the named order from the refectory to the altar.
Along the southern wall - Metropolitan Tikhon III (Warriors)
(†1724)39, Archbishops Pavel I (Zernov) (†1815)40 and Jonah (Pavinsky)
(†1828).
Archbishops Anthony (Amfiteatrov) (†1879) and Paul II
(Lebedev) (†1892) rested in the new Borisoglebsk aisle, built in
1841-1843 according to the project of Thomas Petondi. Cathedral
archpriest Viktor Petrovich Vishnevsky (1804 - December 30, 1885) was
buried near the Borisoglebsky chapel.
In 1907, during the
overhaul of the cathedral, the floor was opened and Professor of Kazan
University A.I. Alexandrov determined the exact burial places, after
which tablets with the names of the bishops were installed.
Burials in the basement church of the cathedral and Borisoglebsk aisle
were devastated in Soviet times. Burials in the main temple may have
been preserved.
Many prominent hierarchs and archpriests participated
in the services, many famous people visited the cathedral: the holy
righteous John of Kronstadt (served the liturgy on July 5, 1894 and July
16, 1897); September 7, 1833, collecting materials for the "History of
the Pugachev rebellion" Alexander Pushkin; Alexander Radishchev,
Vladimir Korolenko, Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, Fyodor Chaliapin
(sang many times in the bishops' choir of the cathedral), Sergei
Rachmaninov.
Almost all Russian emperors who visited Kazan prayed
at services in the cathedral: Peter I, Paul I, Catherine II, Nicholas I
(August 20, 1836), Alexander II (June 20, 1837 and August 27, 1871),
Alexander III (August 22, 1866, 27 August 1871). The cathedral was
visited by many members of the imperial house: the sons of Paul I, Grand
Dukes Alexander Pavlovich and Konstantin Pavlovich (May 24, 1798), Grand
Duke Mikhail Pavlovich (August 26, 1817), son of Alexander II, Grand
Duke Nikolai Alexandrovich (August 16, 1861, July 9, 1863 ), Grand Duke
Alexei Alexandrovich (May 19, 1868), martyr Grand Duchess Elizabeth
Feodorovna (in 1911 and 1913).