Another Kazan shrine, the miraculous icon of the Smolensk Mother of Pain; is located in the Sedmyuvernaya Hermitage (92 versts from Kazan), from where every year on the 26th of Ponya the icon is brought to the city; At this time, a mass of pilgrims flock to Kazan to worship her. Having founded the Seven Lake Desert in relation to begins around 1615-1620. The place where it arose was at that time an impenetrable virgin forest, which fully suited the founder of the desert, the ascetic Eveimpo, who strived for solitude, for complete detachment from the world. When in 1654 Russia suffered a terrible disaster in the form of a pestilence, the icon of the Smolensk Mother of God was brought to Kazan, where the plague daily decimated the people in large numbers, on the orders of the then Kazan governor Saltykov and at the earnest requests of the people. The pestilence stopped, and from that time on, by order of Metropolitan Lavrenty, it was established that the icon should be brought to Kazan annually in memory of the city’s deliverance from destruction.
In the commercial part of Kazan there is also a wonderful temple, namely the Peter and Paul Cathedral, which in its architecture and beauty belongs to outstanding buildings. In Rosa, three churches can be named so original: St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow, the Stroganov Church in Nizhny and the Peter and Paul Cathedral in Kazan. It was built in 1726 by the merchant Miklyaev in memory of Peter the Great, who was in Kazan. In the same part of the city there is another large and beautiful building - the Kazan Real School, which has an excellent library and a rich museum.
If a tourist who comes to Kazan wants to take a walk around the city, then he can be recommended, having first visited the Spasskaya Tower, from where the whole city is visible at a glance, to begin his walk precisely from this tower, turning left from it and following along the wall along Vremlevsky Boulevard.
The city is quite sharply divided into two parts, one of which - the rich, but not commercial part - is very attractive; in it you will see many beautiful stone buildings and some of its blocks are surrounded by green gardens. People of means live in this part of the city, mostly in their own houses. The other part is trading; The tourist will see the general panorama from Vremlevsky Boulevard. It’s a different matter here: the stone houses are huddled together one against the other, there can be no talk of an abundance of greenery here, since everything here is dedicated to the interests of commerce for shops, shops, warehouses, etc. The border between these two parts is Voskresenskaya Street, the most important street in the city, so to speak, Nevsky Prospekt of the city of Kazan.
There are many churches in the commercial part of the city, and these churches significantly soften the overall picture of houses clinging to each other, set up for commercial purposes. As the world moves away from the Kremlin, the churches become increasingly redder and redder, and finally, on the outskirts of the city, they are completely replaced by Muslim mosques. The predominance of the latter on the eastern outskirts of Kazan is explained by the fact that it was there that the Tatar settlement began to exist, from the time when the former inhabitants of Tatar Kazan were removed outside the city to Lake Kabanu.
From the Kremlin Boulevard you can see the outskirts of Kazan for a long distance. Behind the dam you can see the Volga, and also Dalfe, on the very horizon, the Uslonemya Mountains and the village of Verkhishy Uslon, leaning against the mountainside. In the churchyard in this village there is the grave of Princess Menshikova, who died on her way to Siberia; Her husband, who was once the semi-powerful ruler of Rosea, and at that time an unfortunate exile, himself read prayers over her, dug a grave with his own hands and himself buried the unfortunate victim of a reversal of fate.
To the right and somewhat behind the monument to the slain soldiers, on a hill, is the Zelantov Dormition Monastery, founded in 1552. Founded by Toann the Terrible himself on the site where the Pavia warriors were buried and where the monument now stands, the monastery was transferred 7 years later to its present location in a hut destroyed by the annual flood. The cathedral monastery church was completed in 1625. The location of the monastery is quite picturesque.
Behind the monastery is Porokhovaya Sloboda; There is a state-owned gunpowder factory there, producing from 40 to 50 thousand pounds of gunpowder annually. Nearby is the Kizichesvy monastery with its high bell tower, the village of VKizitsy and the settlement of Grivka.