Old-Tatar Sloboda. Sights of Kazan

Sloboda in feudal Russia was called either a village whose inhabitants were not serfs, or a city suburb. Staro-Tatar Sloboda is a former okologorodskoy village, and now the southern part of the central district of Kazan, the historic heart of the city.

History of occurrence

This suburb appeared after the capture of Kazan by Ivan the Terrible in 1552. The first settlers were Tatars - soldiers and feudal lords who took part in the conquest of this settlement. In 1556, here, for the city line, the Tatars were evicted from the center, they resisted the incoming Orthodox missionaries. But of course, here, on the shore of Lake Kaban, and this is proved by archaeologists, there were earlier settlements. Initially, as often happens, Staro-Tatar Sloboda was a single street stretching along the lake.

Formation of settlement

By the time of the first documentary mention of it in the Pisz book of 1565-1568, the village was a suburb, numbering 150 yards and consisting of several dead-end streets. It stretched from the north-west to the south-east. It was limited by the left bank of the Lower Kaban Lake and the Bulak Canal, which connected the Kazanka river, the tributary of the Volga, with the Kaban lakes. From the north, Staro-Tatar Sloboda was confined to the Central Market. Now it is in the south of the Vakhitovskiy central district of the city. As the suburb was formed, the suburb was divided into three parts-artisans settled in the southernmost, behind the Bulak Channel, it was the industrial part of the settlement. The northern part, located closer to the city, became business, the center of the suburb was a cultural and residential part.

The historical center of the settlement

The main thoroughfare of this microdistrict of the city is Tukaya Street. Kazan immortalized the memory of its national poet Gabdulla Tukai (1886-1913), who died, according to M. Gorky, from "hunger and consumption" at the age of 26, not only in the names of urban objects.

This street was completely built up by the mansions of the Tatar nobility - merchant industrialists and representatives of the clergy. The center of this historic district is a very small Yunusovskaya Square, located at the intersection of Tukaya and F. Karim.

Arrival of the benefactress

Certainly, over time, the wooden houses were worn out, dilapidated, they were demolished, and in the vacant place new modern buildings appeared, and yet many original Tatar buildings were preserved in the Old-Tatar Sloboda. Special damage to wooden buildings caused a fire in 1842. After 1751, the Novo-Tatar Sloboda begins to form to the south. In 1767, Kazan was visited by Catherine II. She personally authorized the construction of stone mosques. And when in 1773 the famous law "On Tolerance of Beliefs" was published, Staro-Tatar Sloboda began to develop rapidly.

The first stone religious buildings

Before the arrival of the empress in the village there were two wooden mosques built in 1749 and 1759 years. Immediately after the departure of the royal person, in the same year of 1767, the merchant M. Yunusov began construction of a stone mosque. And this became the first officially registered parish after the capture of Kazan by Ivan the Terrible. The current Al-Mardjani mosque was built for four years, and the whole world collected money for it. Its name was given in honor of Imam Shigabutdin Mardjani, who served in it for 30 years. He was a famous Tatar enlightener and theologian. This cult institution was not closed in the years of militant atheism. In 1768, another stone mosque was built - Bayska (now Apanaevskaya). The historical neighborhood of the two peoples was reflected even in the construction of Muslim temples. Thus, the Old-Tatar Sloboda in Kazan boasts the Burnaev Mosque, in the architecture of which the elements of both Tatar and Russian architecture are clearly seen.

Local self-government centers

As the construction of this area began the formation of mahallas. Makhallya is in the East part of the settlement, usually the size of a quarter that is exercised by local government. The center of the mahalla is a mosque. Since the Old-Tatar Sloboda in Kazan had 10 mahallas, there were as many mosques there as well. The liberal era of Catherine II is very well reflected in Kazan: the city is rich, and here began to build very beautiful mansions in the national style.

Pearl of the Old-Tatar Sloboda

One of the most remarkable is the so-called Shamil's house, located on Tukaya Street. It was built in 1863 by a millionaire, merchant of the first guild Ibrahim Iskhakovitch Apakov. The house is located near Yunusovskaya Square, on Ekaterininskaya Street. The only daughter of this rich man was married to the third son of Imam Shamil, the famous leader of the Caucasian mountaineers. Shamil himself was never in this city, he was imprisoned in Kaluga, but he was prominent in the Muslim world. So, in a dowry to an 18-year-old girl who married a 45-year-old uncle, II Apakov presented this palace, which is on the list of "Sights of Kazan". The description of this monument of architecture and the object of cultural heritage, in which the museum of Gabdulla Tukaya is located since 1986, you can start with the parameters. The area of the building is 430 square meters, and the volume is 4,200 cubic meters. The exterior of the house is a variation on the themes of medieval architecture. On the facade there are machiculi (hinged loopholes), arcades (a series of false arches), stucco monograms and turrets with forged peaks. The facade is decorated with bay windows and rizalit (part of the building that protrudes from the main line of the facade), on the roof there are high tents with weather vanes.

Other attractions

Absolutely the entire Old-Tatar Sloboda is a complex landmark of Kazan. But there are objects worthy of special attention in it, which glorify not only this historical region, but the entire city of Kazan. The Nurullah Mosque is an architectural monument. It was erected in 1845-1849 in the very center of the historical Haymarket by the means of the same Yunusov family. The unique building was built by the architect AI Peske, the author of the project was AK Loman. There is also the Blue Mosque in Old-Tatar Sloboda , which is also ancient. There are ten of them, as noted above, and each is worthy of attention. There is also the Tikhvin church, intended for a special group of Tatars, professing Orthodoxy. From the non-religious objects of attention, the Apanaevs' House and the Merchant's House deserve.

On the metro - best of all

To look at these miracles people travel from all over the world. How to get to Staro-Tatar settlement? When the city has a subway, it's much easier to get to the sights. The metro station Kremlyovskaya is located under the Kazan Kremlin, one of the main tourist sites. The next station is Tukaya Square. To explore the historic center of the city, you can go to one of these stations. From Tukaya Square along Tatarstan Street you can walk to the Old-Tatar Sloboda. It is within walking distance. But it is also possible to get there by public transport - here there are routes of trolley buses No. 3, 5, 7 and several buses. From other parts of the large city to the central historical Vakhitovskiy, separated from others by the Kazanka River, you can reach the Millennium Bridge, opened to the 1000th anniversary of Kazan, on three dams and with the help of the metro.

Address of the settlement

A complex landmark of the city is Staro-Tatar Sloboda - the address is as follows: the south of the central Vakhitovsky district of the city of Kazan. And if you need to know the address of a particular landmark, then the first assistant in this matter will be the network. For example, what is the address of the Al-Mardjani mosque? It looks like this: Kazan, Kayum Nasyri Street, 17. And where is Shamil's House located? City of Kazan, st. Gabdulla Tukay, 74.