Тhe Cathedral of the Epiphany

The first wooden church was built here in the 17th century. The Lower Nagai posad gates were previously located here, and before that, a break in the posad wall, through which the army of Ivan the Terrible entered the city in October 1552.

In 1756, a stone church and pyramidal bell tower were built next to the Prolomnaya gate. The merchants Ivan Mikhlyaev and Sergey Chernov donated the money for its construction.

In 1897, a new bell tower, the tallest in Kazan, shot up into the sky. Ivan Krivonosov, an honorary citizen of Kazan and first-guild merchant, donated the funds for construction.

The inside of the Church of the Epiphany, decorated with brick patterns, was topped with a gold-plated dome. The church was always crowded, as it was located next to the busy shopping lane known as Bolshaya Prolomnaya Street, currently called Bauman Street.

From 1920 to 1939, the Church of the Epiphany received the title of a cathedral church from Peter and Paul Cathedral and served the city’s Orthodox community, which had no other place to gather. In the 1950s, the Cathedral was used as a warehouse, and later as a gym of Kazan State University (KGU). The chapel in the cathedral was destroyed, its beautifully decorated walls were covered in plaster.

In 1996-1997, the Cathedral of the Epiphany was returned to the Russian Orthodox Church. Restoration experts restored the dome. The cathedral, which holds daily church services, also has new icons and iconostasis.

Today, an exhibition hall of the State Museum of Fine Arts (GMII) of the Republic of Tatarstan featuring works of Russian ancient art operates in the bell tower. In 2001, the Chaliapin Chamber Hall was opened here, named in honor of the great performer, who was baptized in the Cathedral of the Epiphany.