Monument to soldiers who died during the capture of Kazan in 1552

In the middle of the Kazanka River stands a truncated pyramid. This is a temple in honor of the soldiers who died in the third campaign of Ivan the Terrible to Kazan. Why is it on the river?

Once it was the shore of Kazanka, and only in the middle of the 20th century, after the construction of the Kuibyshev reservoir, the river spilled and the shrine was in the middle of the water. After the conquest of Kazan, Ivan the Terrible ordered to bury the dead in a mass grave. A monastery was founded above it. Initially, it was wooden and was flooded by the waters of the river. We decided to move it to Zilanto Mountain, which is nearby. And over the grave, in 1823, architect Nikolai Alferov built a temple-monument in the form of a pyramid. They consecrated him in honor of the Savior’s Unmade Image.

In the four corners of the temple there were cells where monks prayed for the eternal repose of the memory of the dead. There is an underground part in the temple. This is a memorial room. In Soviet times, the service stopped, the monument was planned to be turned into a monument of friendship of peoples. But that didn't happen.

In 2007, the church was transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church and its restoration began. Some believe that there are underground passages under the monument. Others object, explaining that in those days it was impossible to dig tunnels under the river. Anyway, it is one of the most interesting monuments of the bygone era, and even in Soviet times was one of the symbols of Kazan.