Alexandrovsky Passage

The young, talented architect Genrikh Rush moved from St. Petersburg to Kazan upon being offered the commission to construct the Passage, which was to be built near the Kremlin. This was the first project that Rush implemented in full. Construction cost Alexandrov 800,000 rubles, a relatively small amount for such a large undertaking.

Alexandrovsky Passage opened on November 8, 1883. Kazan residents were amazed by the luxuriousness of the building. Before their eyes opened up a cast iron staircase with wrought lace, a glass roof and floor, a pneumatic heating system, the city’s first electric lighting system, and an elevator, which many people rode up and down just for fun.

A clock with three dials, each pointing in a different direction, was installed on the top of the highest tower. A bell in the dome of the tower rang several times a day. An illuminated fountain featuring a bronze sculpture of a woman holding a baby drew eyes toward the center of the courtyard.

A substantial amount of money was spent on construction, as well as the interior decoration of the Passage. Due to high rental rates, much of the Passage had trouble attracting merchants and remained largely vacant.

The merchant Alexandrov sold the Passage to his sister, the known Kazan philanthropist Olga Alexandrova-Gains, for 500,000 rubles.

Gains offered the organizers of the future National Museum the second and third floors of the Passage in hopes of attracting an influx of visitors. The proposal was ultimately rejected due to the technical unsuitability of the building for hosting the museum, and for many years the Passage functioned as an apartment building with a number of stores. With the help of Gains, the National Museum opened in the nearby Gostiny Dvor.

In 1908, Kazan’s first electric movie theater debuted in the lobby of the Passage. On the ground floor guests could dine at the famous “Palais de Cristal,” which historians have described as “riotous.”

Until 1907, the third floor served as the home to Ivan Nikolaevich Kharitonov’s printing press, which placed a great strain on the structure of the building, as the Passage architect reported to the Kazan city government in a letter.

The architect’s concerns were ignored, however, and during the Soviet era no attention was paid to the building either. During the night of April 28, 1977, a vestibule wall collapsed. There were no casualties, but a few days later the entire northern part of the Passage also buckled. Now residents and guests of Kazan can see only half of the original building, and a complete reconstruction of the merchant Alexandrov’s ambitious project is expected to be completed in a few years. As originally planned by the founder of the building, a hotel will be opened in the Passage.