Kazan: A City of Harmonious Contrasts

11 points4 km1 hour

Get to know Kazan, where an ancient kremlin sits beside modern rebuilds, a mosque beside an Orthodox cathedral, and city legends beside real historical events. The route starts in the heart of the city, the Kazan Kremlin, and leads along touristy Bauman Street to the quiet Black Lake park, Freedom Square and the National Library, ending on the Kremlin Embankment with views of “The Bowl” and the Ferris wheel.

Route author

Alina Rakhmanova

Things to do

👀 Watch city life
🏛️🕰️ Compare the eras
📸 Take photos

Route points (11)

Black Lake in Kazan

Point on route “Kazan: A City of Harmonious Contrasts”

Point 8

Black Lake

🌿 Public garden or park • 📜 Historic site • 🍽️ Cafés and restaurants

Historical Background

You can't fully appreciate the flavor of Tatarstan without visiting its parks. One of Kazan's iconic parks is Black Lake, and its history is unusual. The park is named after a lake that existed here for a long time. The lake was known for its clean water and good fishing. Over time the shallow pond turned into a swamp and began to give off a foul smell, so the lake was filled in and drained for a while. Landscaping began in 1829: the banks were terraced and turfed and the paths planted with greenery. In 1894 a fountain opened in the park, and in winter it was turned into a skating rink. At the entrance, visitors are greeted by the Lovers' Arch, which has a unique acoustic quirk: if two people stand on opposite sides of the arch and speak into the wall, they can hear each other as if they were less than a meter (3 ft) apart.

Myths and Legends

Black Lake was not always a model park: in the 19th century it had a bad reputation, and newspaper sketches reported that the park was a breeding ground for brothel workers and pickpockets.