Laying of Kazan Cathedral has taken place on August 27, 1801. Before on a site about Nevsky Avenue there was small stone Church of the Nativity of the Virgin constructed in 1733-1737 on the project of the architect M. G. Zemtsov. The miraculous icon of the Kazan Mother of God brought from Moscow to St. Petersburg by order of Peter the Great was stored in her.
Construction of a cathedral which, as envisioned by the emperor Paul I, had to remind St. Peter's Cathedral in Vatican was entrusted to the architect Voronikhin, the former serf Stroganov column who has become subsequently professor of Academy of Arts.
In 1811 before citizens the majestic temple, the biggest at that time in St. Petersburg has appeared. Height of a cathedral reached 71,5 meters. Inside and outside the cathedral was decorated by the unique columns cut from huge granite monoliths weighing up to 30 tons everyone.
The crucial role in destiny of a cathedral was played by Patriotic war of 1812. The temple built originally for the miraculous icon of the Kazan Mother of God has turned into storage of sacred relics of victorious war and became some kind of museum of military glory. In 1813 in Kazan Cathedral it has been decided to bury the field marshal Mikhail Illarionovich Kutuzov. Thanks to this event memorial value of a cathedral has even more increased.
In 1837, in the 25th anniversary of a victory over Napoleon, before a cathedral monuments to field marshals M. I. Kutuzov and M. B. to Barclay de Tolly have been established. Executed on models of the sculptor Orlovsky, they have so organically entered an architectural complex of Kazan Cathedral that many Petersburgers are still sure that they have been initially included in Voronikhin project.
After revolution of 1917 the cathedral has been selected at orthodox church. In 1932 in him the Museum of history of religion and atheism has been open.
Date has become on November 4, 1990 history of a cathedral as day of his revival. Then on a holiday of the Kazan icon of the Mother of God for the first time after more than seventy-year break in the building of a cathedral the Divine liturgy has been served.
