Kazan - a city with a history of 1000 years

     Kazan is the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan (the subject of the Russian Federation). It is situated 797 km east of Moscow. The city is located on the left bank of the great Russian river, the Volga, on its confluence with the Kazanka River. From ancient times, Kazan had been the trading intermediary between the East and the West and it now plays an increasing role in the political and economical spheres as well as international communications. Kazan occupies 425.3 square kilometers of surface area; its population is about 1,1 million people, more than 90 % of whom are Tatars and Russians. The inhabitants of the capital of the Republic represent more than 100 nationalities.

     Kazan is one of the oldest cities of Russia; its foundation dates back to 1005. For more than three hundred years, Kazan was an outpost of Bulgaria. In the following century, the city became a significant administrative center of one of Uluses of Golden Horde. From 1445 to 1552, Kazan was the capital of the Kazan Khanate. In 1552, the city was conquered by Ivan the Terrible and became the Christian settlement in the Volga region. During the following 150 years, Kazan was the main city of the Kazan area, the east gate of Russia. During the reign of Peter the Great in 1708, the city became a capital of the Kazan province and it kept that status for more than 200 years. For the last 90 years Kazan has been the capital of Tatarstan.

     In August 2005, Kazan celebrated its 1000th anniversary. This significant anniversary coincided with the arrangement whereby one of the major Orthodox relics – the Icon of Kazan Madonna - which had been kept in Vatican for a long time, was returned to the city. In the year of the 1000th anniversary, the beautiful mosque Kul-Sharif was opened for parishioners. Nowadays, Kazan is an important center of pilgrimage for Christians and Muslims. Because of its historical and cultural value, the heritage capital of Tatarstan was classified as an "A" class (just as Moscow and St. Petersburg). There are 759 ancient monuments in Kazan. Almost all of them are concentrated within the historic center of the city, occupying 6% of the territory of Kazan.

     The pearl of Kazan is the Kazan Kremlin - a unique complex of archaeological, historical and architectural monuments. Kremlin consists of a group of buildings dating back to the XVIth-XIXth centuries, including ruins of earlier constructions of the Хth-XVIth centuries. Kazan Kremlin is also unique for the fact that it is the only Tatar fortress that is left within the Russian Federation. On November 30, 2000, the historical and architectural complex of the Kazan Kremlin was inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. As a result, Kazan became a member of the Organization of the World Heritage Cities and the seat of its Euro-Asia section.