Kazan’s striking kremlin is home to government offices, pleasant parks, museums, the enormous Kul Sharif Mosque and other religious buildings. Among the highlights are the Hermitage Kazan gallery and the Tatarstan Museum of Natural History. Some of the white limestone kremlin walls date from the 16th and 17th centuries.
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Kazan Kremlin
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Lonely Planet's must-see attractions
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The Kul Sharif Mosque was completed in 2005 and is named after the imam who died defending the city against the troops of Ivan the Terrible in 1552. The…
1.04 MILES
Interactive museum dedicated to traditional Tatar food and drink, particularly sweet 'chak-chak', balls of dough that are baked in honey and served on…
0.82 MILES
Kazan's most unusual museum, packed with Soviet knick-knacks, is proof that Russia's socialist epoch fostered a lively contemporary cultural scene –…
1.24 MILES
This assemblage of historic timbered buildings, dating mainly from the 17th and 18th centuries, marks the quarter where ethnic Tatars were forced to live…
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The attractive Annunciation Cathedral, built on on the foundations of a razed eight-minaret mosque, was designed by Postnik Yakovlev, who was also…
National Museum of the Republic of Tatarstan
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Opposite the kremlin’s main entrance, the National Museum occupies an ornate 1770 building and has a worthwhile archaeology collection as well as…
House of Zinaida Ushkova/Tatarstan National Library
0.61 MILES
This small but extraordinary library dates from the early years of the 20th century, when several mid-19th-century houses were united and restyled to give…
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This striking bronze figure of a man tearing barbed wire is at the entrance to the kremlin and was erected to honour the Tatar poet who was executed by…
Nearby attractions
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This striking bronze figure of a man tearing barbed wire is at the entrance to the kremlin and was erected to honour the Tatar poet who was executed by…
2. National Museum of the Republic of Tatarstan
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Opposite the kremlin’s main entrance, the National Museum occupies an ornate 1770 building and has a worthwhile archaeology collection as well as…
0.2 MILES
The Kul Sharif Mosque was completed in 2005 and is named after the imam who died defending the city against the troops of Ivan the Terrible in 1552. The…
0.2 MILES
Located inside the former cadet school building, the Hermitage Kazan has top-flight rotating exhibitions, many of them from the collection of St…
5. Tatarstan Museum of Natural History
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About a dozen rooms here tell the story of the planets, geology and minerals, and the development of life forms on earth. The most interesting sections…
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The attractive Annunciation Cathedral, built on on the foundations of a razed eight-minaret mosque, was designed by Postnik Yakovlev, who was also…
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The 59m-high leaning Syuyumbike Tower dates from the early 18th century and is the subject of one of the most romantic of Kazan’s legends.
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This is Kazan’s most attractive Orthodox church, built between 1723 and 1726 to commemorate Peter the Great’s visit in 1722.