Designing large-scale church buildings, especially timed to coincide with high-profile anniversaries, is rarely a simple story with a linear plot. Accordingly, the story of the Great Cathedral Mosque in Kazan, timed to coincide with the adoption of Islam by the Volga Bulgaria in 922, is putting on new details. The land sites and projects prepared for them keep on shuffling. In the spring of the anniversary year of 2022, a competition for the design of the mosque for 10,000 people was announced; then, in May, the amusement park Kirlay on the right bank of the Kazanka River opposite the Kazan Kremlin was demolished and the first stone of the future construction was laid there. In July 2022, the results of the architectural competition were announced, and at that time the first place was shared by the project by Alexei Ginzburg (a hypostyle hall of white lotus-shaped columns overlooking the public space of the square), and the project by Aivar Sattarov (a netted domed hall with four minarets).

Then, virtually without making any announcements, the city considered a few new locations for the construction of the anniversary mosque. Specifically, according to the 116.ru website, three locations were considered: one in the eastern part of Kazan in the Troitsky forest, one south of the Kremlin near the River Station on the left bank of the Volga, and one next to the Park of Newlyweds.

The third location – one in Admiralteiskaya Sloboda, on the cape where the old riverbed of the Kazanka joins the Volga – became the main one in May 2023.

Alexsey Ginzburg

The new site has completely different characteristics, and we understood that it would be impossible and even wrong trying to adapt our first project to it. So when we were asked to think about an option for Admiralteyskaya Sloboda, we proposed a whole new idea, which comes from the urban planning features of the new site. The building can be seen from afar, from the river as well as from the city – in our opinion, it should have an iconic silhouette that is easily readable and recognizable from afar.

That is why we offered the idea of a “tulip” building with four minarets: it correlates with the silhouettes of the most famous mosques; it allows you to make the main sculptural accent of the prayer hall volume; and finally it does not exclude the modern form that we tried to “mold” as being flowing and visually mobile, especially if we are to consider the building in motion, for example, when cruising down the river. At the same time, the symmetry of its composition works beautifully for representativeness and solemnity of the image, which is appropriate based on the anniversary meaning of the project and its significant scale.