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OUR LADY OF KAZAN

 
  Our Lady ofKazan  
 

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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