Old Tatar Sloboda

After Kazan fell in 1552 the Tatar population was expelled from the city and permitted to settle only beyond Lake Kaban, and the district that grew there is the Old Tatar Sloboda. Building mosques in stone was forbidden until Catherine II lifted the ban in the 1760s, and the first two - the Mardzhani mosque of 1766 and the Apanay mosque - date from immediately after, which is why they are the oldest in the city. Around them the merchant families who made money in the eastern trade built houses in a distinctive local manner: brick and wood with carved detail and paint in green, blue and red, with shops below. Kayum Nasyri's house museum covers the nineteenth-century Tatar educator. The main street, Kayuma Nasyri, was restored ahead of the 2013 Universiade, so the buildings are in good order and the street now carries cafes, tea houses and craft shops, which some find pleasant and others find tidied.

History

Even before Ivan the Terrible took Kazan, the Tsar's meadow and the village of Kuraishi with its stone Otuchevaya Mosque stood here, and the settlement grew fast after Catherine II visited Kazan in 1767 and lifted the old restrictions on building stone mosques. Its trading heart was the Peçən Bazaar around the Nurulla Mosque, and in the south stood the soap works and the Petzold brewery (Wikipedia, Old Tatar Quarter).

What to look for

• The Mardzhani mosque - built in 1766, immediately after the ban on stone mosques was lifted.
• The merchant houses - carved and painted brick and wood along the restored street.
• The Kayum Nasyri museum - the house of the nineteenth-century Tatar educator.
• The lake edge - the quarter running along the south shore of Kaban.

When to go

May to September for walking. Half a day. Ramadan and Eid change the atmosphere and the mosque access.

What to expect

Mosques are active - dress modestly, shoes off, and women may be directed to a separate area. The restoration is thorough and reads as new in places. Museums keep short hours. It is a twenty minute walk from the centre.

Nearby

Lake Kaban is alongside; the Kul Sharif mosque and the kremlin are north.

Key facts