Bauman Street Kazan

Bauman street runs about a kilometre and a half from below the kremlin to Tukay square and is the main pedestrian route of the city, lined with nineteenth-century merchant buildings, hotels, churches and shops, with buskers and stalls along it. The Epiphany bell tower of 1897, red brick and seventy-four metres, leans slightly and can be climbed for a view over the roofs; Chaliapin was baptised in the church beside it, and there is a statue of him on the street. Halfway along stands the Kazan cat, a bronze of a fat reclining cat under a canopy, referring to the story that Empress Elizabeth sent for Kazan cats to deal with mice in the Winter Palace. There is a copy of the Kazan clock, a fountain with frogs, and the National Bank building where part of the imperial gold reserve was held during the civil war. It is commercial and busy and works best in the evening.

What you actually see

• The leaning bell tower - the 1897 Epiphany tower, seventy-four metres and slightly off vertical.
• The Kazan cat - a bronze recalling the cats sent to the Winter Palace to catch mice.
• The merchant fronts - nineteenth-century buildings along the pedestrian route.
• The Chaliapin connection - the church where the singer was baptised, and his statue.

When to go

May to September; evenings are liveliest. Two hours including the tower climb.

Honest expectations

It is heavily commercial with tourist pricing. Buskers and stalls crowd the middle section in summer. The bell tower climb is narrow and ticketed separately. Chain shops occupy many of the historic ground floors.

Nearby

The kremlin is at the north end; the Old Tatar Sloboda is south beyond Tukay square.