Russia - Table of Contents ............... Architecture Around the World

Kazan Cathedral
Red Square, Moscow, Russia

1933 Replica of 1933 building

This small but charming [Russian Orthodox] Cathedral was built in the 17th century on the north side of the square near the Resurrection Gate. It was built to commemorate the repulsion of Polish invaders, and in honor of the Virgin of Kazan icon.

The building is a cube topped with a cluster of domes and encircled by a gallery. In the north-west corner there is a bell-tower, and in the north-east the chapel of Averkiy Ierapolskiy. The Cathedral was restored between 1925 and 1933 by the great architect-restorer Pyotr Baranovsky. However, this did not stop the Soviet authorities from taking the decision in 1936 to have the Cathedral demolished.

Fortunately, thanks to Baranovsky, blueprints of the building survived, and in 1989 one of his former students, Oleg Zhurin, took charge of the project to rebuild the Cathedral. This was the first church to be rebuilt in post-communist Moscow.






Basilica style church



Finial atop onion dome   ....... Left: apse



Finial - Eastern Orthodox cross - atop onion dome


Ogee arches



Mother of God icon


Photos and their arrangement © 2010 Chuck LaChiusa
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