KAZAN CATHEDRAL
Kazan Cathedral encircles a small square with a striking double row of beautiful
columns. The architect Andrei Voronikhin, who built the church in 1801-1811, was
inspired by St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. After the War of 1812, the church
became a monument to the Russian victory over Napoleon. Captured enemy banners
were put in the cathedral and the famous Russian field marshal Mikhail Kutuzov,
who won the most important campaign of 1812, was buried inside the church. The
cathedral was named after a "miracle-making" icon of Our Lady of Kazan,
which the church housed till the early 1930s. The Bolsheviks closed the
cathedral for services in 1929, and from 1932 it housed the collections of the
Museum of History of Religion and Atheism.