Chernoyarovsky Passage

The Chernoyarovsky Passage is a commercial and residential tenement building on Kremlyovskaya Street, one of two historic trading arcades in Kazan alongside the better-known Alexandrovsky Passage located nearby. Thanks to this pair of buildings, Kazan was the only city in the empire outside the two capitals where two trading arcades operated in parallel — no other provincial center built such commercial structures.

The building was erected in 1900–1901, commissioned by the heirs of the merchant Dmitry Chernoyarov — his sons Alexander and Dmitry — on the corner of the former Voskresenskaya Street, on a site that had previously formed the edge of the block originally occupied by the neighboring Alexandrovsky Passage. The design was created by architect Heinrich Rusch, who had participated in the construction of the Alexandrovsky Passage some two decades earlier: this time he worked independently and for a different client.

The three-story tenement building, with shops on the ground floor, included two two-story brick wings, which disrupted the symmetry of the building. The façade composition is organized by a central and side avant-corps with broken pediments, decorative domes on massive volutes, and columns of an elaborate order. The Art Nouveau decoration with elements of Eclecticism featured details rare for Kazan architecture — cartouches and stylized flamingo images. In 1912 the building was remodeled by architect Stepan Bechko-Druzinin: some of the original decoration was removed, the cornice was replaced, and glazed-brick cladding and a large balcony, later lost, were added.

In the pre-revolutionary years, the passage housed one of the city’s best furnished-room establishments, the “Tsentralnye Nomera,” a photo studio run by S. Felzer, a photographic-supplies shop owned by F. Grahe, and various offices. After the October Revolution, the second and third floors were converted into residential apartments, while a grocery store and the “Bukinist” book department store opened on the ground floor — at the time unrivaled in Kazan for the scale of its book trade. By the late Soviet period the building’s appearance had been considerably distorted: the ground-floor windows were widened into shop windows, some of the arched openings were bricked up, and additional volumes were added on top. A restoration in the late 1980s, carried out by architect Svetlana Mamleyeva-Kozlova, partially restored the balconies and stucco decoration.

Today the Chernoyarovsky Passage remains an architectural monument of the early 20th century, though it is in less well-kept condition than its neighbor on Kremlyovskaya Street: some historical details have been lost, and the façades require further restoration. The ground floor is still occupied by retail premises, while the upper floors are used as residential and commercial space. Despite all the alterations, the building retains its status as a rare example, for Russian provincial towns, of commercial tenement architecture, and visibly complements the appearance of Kazan’s historic center alongside the more stately Alexandrovsky Passage.