Kazan Cathedral, Moscow

The Kazan Cathedral (Russian Казанский собор ) in Moscow is located on the northern side of Red Square and is one of the most famous Russian Orthodox church buildings in Russia and outside it. She was also the beginning of the 1990s, one of the first rebuilt after the collapse of the Soviet Union churches in Russia. Your full name is " Cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan ".

History

The building of the Kazan cathedral was built in its place for the first time in the 1620s, the exact date was not known. However, it is known that the construction of the church was founded by Prince Dmitry Pozharsky. Pozharsky, who had organized a few years earlier with the merchant Kuzma Minin the successful popular uprising against the Polish-Lithuanian invaders in Russia, left the cathedral built to commemorate the victory over the Poles and dedicate them to the icon of Our Lady of Kazan, those icon that is especially revered by Orthodox believers to be miraculous bringing. So Pozharsky was also the belief that the icon of Our Lady of Kazan brought his people's army to victory over the occupiers.

Originally, the new church was built of wood, as was customary in Russia. In 1635 it burnt down completely. In response, Czar Michael I. Cathedral again build in stone. On October 15, 1636 the new building was inaugurated. Since that time, the Kazan Cathedral was considered one of the most important churches of Moscow. Every year on the anniversary of the liberation of Poland - Lithuania, there was a solemn Cross procession from the Kremlin to the cathedral, led by the Patriarch and the Tsar. Middle and end of the 17th century, the church building was also extended and received, among other things, a bell tower and a redesigned Parade entrance.

Another historically important event in the Kazan Cathedral was the solemn church service on April 26, 1755 at the founding of Moscow University.

A few years after the October Revolution in 1917, the cathedral was taken over by the so-called renovation Church, a schismatic movement within the Russian Orthodox Church, which was built during the February Revolution and the new rulers supported. Although the cathedral was the end of the 1920s again thoroughly renovated, it was canceled in 1936. In their place, initially, a temporary building for the Communist International was built and later a summer café.

1990 decided the Moscow City Government on suggestions of the Church and the public to leave the Kazan Cathedral build again in the original position. Over the next three years, the church was built with donations and funds from the city budget and on 4 November ( the anniversary of the victory over Poland - Lithuania, again today officially celebrated as a day of unity of the people ) inaugurated in 1993. The re-establishment of the Kazan Cathedral was one of the first reconstruction of destroyed during the Soviet era Russian Orthodox churches.