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Cathedral of our Lady of Kazan was
commissioned by Emperor Paul I. It was not completed until 1811, well after his
death. The architect was the serf Andrei Voronikhin. The similarity to St
Peter's in Rome is obvious. The church is named after an icon, the
miracle-working Icon of our Lady of Kazan which was believed to have saved
Moscow from the Poles in 1612. By coincidence the cathedral was completed in
tome to celebrate the victory over Napoleon in 1813. Field Marshal Kutuzov was
burried in a chapel here. His statue is visible in front of the left arm of the
colonade. Marshal Barclay de Tolly stands in front of the right arm. The
statues were by Boris Orlovski and were erected in 1837.The cathedral is on the
south side of Nevsky prospect just west of where it crosses the Griboedova
canal on the Kazan bridge, part of which is seen in the forground. The church
is oriented sidways from the colonnade so that the altar is on the east end.
The Soviet authorities turned it into a museum of atheism, but it is now
restored to the church
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