Kazan Cathedral or Kazanskiy Kafedralniy Sobor, also known as the Cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan, is a cathedral of the Russian Orthodox Church on the Nevsky Prospekt in Saint Petersburg. It is dedicated to Our Lady of Kazan, probably the most venerated icon in Russia.
Monday-Saturday, 8.30 – 20.00
Sunday, 6.30 – 20.00.
It was built in 1801-1811 by architect A. N. Voronikhin to store the honorable list of the miraculous icon of the Mother of God of Kazan. The icon was brought to the city by Tsarina Praskovia Fedorovna after moving the royal court from Moscow and became one of the main Orthodox shrines of St. Petersburg. This icon was inspired by the people’s militia led by Prince Pozharsky, who in 1612 moved from Nizhny Novgorod to Moscow to liberate the Kremlin from foreigners.
After the Patriotic War of 1812 Kazan Cathedral became the temple of Russian military glory. In 1812, appointed commander of the Russian army, Mikhail Kutuzov, before leaving the city, he visited the cathedral and fell to the icon of the Kazan Mother of God. In 1813, the remains of the great field marshal were buried in the Kazan Cathedral, as well as 107 French trophy banners and standards of crushed French regiments, 93 keys from fortresses and cities taken by the Russian army. In 1837, in honor of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the defeat of Napoleon, bronze monuments to M.I. Kutuzov and M.B. Barclay de Tolly were solemnly opened in front of the Kazan Cathedral.
In 1932 the cathedral was turned into a museum of the history of religion and atheism.
Since 2000, became the cathedral of the St. Petersburg diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church, and in 2001 it was returned to the list of the icon of the Mother of God of Kazan.