Palace Square

Palace Square is an irregularly quadrilateral square by the northern wall of the Kazan Kremlin, wedged between Baturin Street, the Kazanka embankment, and the start of Fedoseyevskaya Street. Together with the façade of the Palace of Farmers, it forms one of the most recognizable architectural ensembles of modern Kazan and serves as a stop for tour buses, a spot for wedding photo shoots, and a place for ordinary city strolls.

Before the early 21st century, this area looked quite different. In the 16th century the locality was known as “Poganoye Boloto” (Foul Swamp), and later, along with the whole of Fedoseyevskaya Street, it was built up with low-rise houses and barracks. The 1969 general plan already called for demolishing this dilapidated development and laying out a wide esplanade with new buildings along Fedoseyevskaya to the east of the Kremlin, but for decades the site remained a neglected wasteland with the remnants of slums of no particular historical value.

The transformation began in the 2000s: for Kazan’s millennium, an elite cottage development, the “Oil Workers’ Settlement,” was built to the east of the site, and in the middle of the decade the authorities decided to demolish the remaining dilapidated buildings and lay out a large administrative and residential quarter with a park or square in their place. The monumental Palace of Farmers building, completed by 2010, became the new space’s southern boundary; the houses of the “Oil Workers’ Settlement” formed the eastern boundary; and the Kazanka embankment along the crest of the flood-defense dam formed the northern one. The square itself was landscaped by 2011, and by the end of that same year three high-rise towers of the “Palace Embankment” residential complex had gone up nearby.

The peak of the square’s public life came in the summer of 2013, when, for the duration of the World Summer Universiade, a Cultural Park with a capacity of about 30,000 people was set up here on almost six hectares — with checkpoints, metal detectors, and free daytime admission. On the stage in front of the Palace of Farmers, Cirque du Soleil performed a specially staged one-hour street show, a new Tatar opera, “Ak Böre” (White Wolf), premiered under conductor Alexander Sladkovsky, performed by the republic’s symphony orchestra, rock concerts were held, and in pavilions guests were introduced to national crafts and to the cities that would host future student games.

Today’s square is organized around a round central area with alleys, decorative paving, wrought-iron benches, and flowerbeds; next to it lies an artificial pond, and between the square and the embankment stretches a three-tiered gallery of shops and restaurants, reached by stone staircases descending from the water. From the square there is a panoramic view of the Kremlin’s eastern wall lit up in the evening, of the Church of St. Paraskeva and the recreated Cathedral of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God standing on the hills, and of the new development on the far bank of the city.

Palace Square has long since ceased to be a nameless wasteland and has become a full-fledged city living room next to the Kremlin — a point of attraction for tourists and residents alike, where formal architecture stands alongside a view of the main verticals of historic Kazan.