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)

Kremlin Embankment in Kazan

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

Point 11

Kremlin Embankment

🔭 Viewpoint • 🚶‍♂️ Waterfront

The Embankment Today

Behind the library runs the Kremlin Embankment, and it's just like a fairy tale: turn left and you'll be back at the Kremlin walls; turn right and you'll reach Uram, one of Russia's largest all-season extreme parks, and the Millennium Bridge. Before it was landscaped, there was just an ordinary flood embankment here with a narrow concrete path where locals sometimes strolled. The embankment opened in 2015, in time for the World Aquatics Championships. Speaking of Russian and European records: in winter the embankment hosts one of the longest skating rinks, about a kilometer (0.6 miles) long.

Views and Surroundings

Kazan is vast: you can't get to know it in a day, but the Kremlin Embankment is the perfect place to plan your route for the days ahead. On the other bank of the Kazanka you can see the Bowl, the Kazan Family Center (known as “The Bowl”). It is Kazan's main wedding palace and is shaped like a traditional Tatar kazan (cooking pot). Next to it is the iconic “Around the World” Ferris wheel of the Kazan Riviera complex. Farther along the bank where you're standing, you can make out the woods of Russian-German Switzerland, a forest park right in the middle of the city that welcomes visitors in good weather and hides its secrets under the crowns of century-old trees. It is a specially protected natural area with wetlands, Red Data Book plants and ancient human settlement sites.