Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan and also known as the “Third Capital of Russia,” is becoming an increasingly popular tourist destination yearly. This city offers everything needed for a journey filled with rich experiences.
Kremlin Diet
The white-stone Kazan Kremlin is justifiably considered one of the most photogenic architectural structures in Russia. The finest views are from the opposite bank of the Kazanka River at the observation deck of the Kazan Family Center, where the citadel, encircled by fortress walls, is clearly visible with all its structures. A thorough guided tour around its grounds will deepen your appreciation of the Kremlin’s history and architecture. Built in the 16th century by craftsmen from Pskov, it not only shelters the Annunciation Cathedral, the oldest stone building in the city, and the Kul Sharif Mosque with its towering 55-meter minarets — a modern yet impressive structure housing a museum of Islamic culture on its ground floor — but also features powerful gate towers that harmonize with the “leaning” Suyumbike Tower.
On clear days, tourists enjoy settling into a café behind the Annunciation Cathedral to survey the city from above, which helps them plan their next moves. If it rains, you can find refuge in one of the many local museums located in places like the Spasskaya Tower, Cannon Yard, the Public Offices, Manege, and the Cadets’ School, which notably houses the first branch of the Hermitage outside Saint Petersburg.
Took Kazan
After getting acquainted with the Kremlin, boldly explore other areas of the Tatar capital. A good starting point is “Kazan’s Arbat,” Bauman Street — a pedestrian zone lined with charming historic buildings, cafés (don’t miss Tubetei, the local fast food spot), souvenir shops, and numerous sculptures. The Epiphany Cathedral also rises on Bauman Street, featuring a bell tower with a panoramic viewing platform at its summit.
A stroll along the four-kilometer Kremlin Embankment offers equal pleasure; after visiting landmarks like the Palace of Farmers, you can walk to the National Library and nearly the largest extreme park in Europe, Uram, where athletes continuously train and which leads to the Millennium cable-stayed bridge. Lastly, another walking route follows the boardwalk along the newly revamped Kaban Lake embankment, which becomes particularly enchanting at dusk when colorful lights illuminate the area.
For a taste of exoticism, visit the Old Tatar Quarter on the shores of the same lake. Once home to merchants, writers, doctors, and scientists, this compact district with its wooden urban mansions and Kazan’s oldest mosque now hosts wandering tourists. In this quarter, you can also stay overnight at the elegant hotel and restaurant complex Tatarskaya Usadba (Tatar Manor). It occupies a 19th-century house where a second guild merchant once made traditional Eastern headwear. Nowadays, dishes are “crafted” in a wood-fired oven here using recipes from Yunus Akhmetzyanov, a pioneer of modern Tatar cuisine. The menu features all-time favorites of national cuisine alongside familiar European dishes.
Another notable spot is Tugan Avilim, an ethnographic village complete with a café, cultural-craft center, wood-fired sauna, and even a monument to echpochmak (triangular small pies). The restaurant here serves this “triangle” filled pastry along with kystybiy (stuffed flatbread), peremyach (belyash), gubadiya (layered pie), kazylyk horse sausage and dried goose, bishbarmak and kyzdyrma (roasted horse meat), tokmach and shulpa soups, chak-chak and talkysh-kaleve cotton candy. Feasting indeed!
Two in One
Enhance your varied leisure activities in Kazan with a day trip on the route named “Pearl Necklace of Tatarstan.” Among the most popular destinations are Innopolis and the Sviyazhsk town-island.
The first stop is Innopolis, a science city and high-tech hub established in 2012 and designed by architects using Singaporean templates. The tour showcases university buildings and campuses where students engage in highly sought-after fields like IT, artificial intelligence, and neural networks; it also includes a technopark that hosts Russia’s leading tech giants and cozy residential quarters where many apartments feature fingerprint sensors instead of keys.
In Sviyazhsk — the town-island named so enchantingly because many believe it inspired Buyan in The Tale of Tsar Saltan — you feel as though you’ve stepped back in time. The first fortifications were built here during Ivan the Terrible’s reign as an outpost for further conquests of the Kazan Khanate. Today, it serves as a museum-reserve offering numerous guided tours. Most tours include visits to the Assumption Monastery of the Virgin Mary — the cradle of Orthodoxy in the Middle Volga Region and a UNESCO World Heritage Site — and St. John the Baptist Monastery with its ancient wooden Trinity Church, plus strolls through historic streets. But simply being in this unique place without any specific agenda is delightful — just wandering through its streets, observing its surroundings, and enjoying views of the Volga, Sviyaga, and Shchuka rivers.
Photo: shutterstock.com
