Monument "Kazan cats": history and description

2024 Author: Harold Hamphrey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:06

Foundation of Kazan happened more than 1000 years ago. To date, this city is one of the richest in terms of saturation with historical events

Kazan is the capital of Tatarstan

The most visited place for tourists is the Kazan Kremlin, which houses the architectural and historical museum of the city.

Another popular attraction is the temple of all religions. Its name indicates that different religions and beliefs are united by purity of thoughts and kindness of thoughts.

In a stunning city, there are a lot of interesting places and monuments that can be seen somewhere in the shade of a square or on a narrow street. His energy and piety can be felt in every lane, in every square, at every monument.

The city has its own Kazan cat. Kazan greatly honors these animals, and the unusual monument has become a kind of personification of respect and honor. These cute fluffies are the symbol of the city. It is believed that Kazan catsattract we alth and good luck in everything. Therefore, souvenirs with this mustachioed animal are sold at every turn.

But the cat has become a symbol of the city for a reason. There are several versions of the legend that shed light on the reason for the love of the inhabitants for these animals.

Monument to the Kazan cat: description

In the place where Musa Jalil Street intersects with Bauman Street, there is a remarkable monument to the cat. It is a metal sculptural and architectural composition depicting a well-fed mouser, lounging in a royal pose on a carved couch. At its foot there is a rug on which you can see an old popular joke about a cat: “Kazan cat, Astrakhan mind, Siberian mind. Lived well, ate sweetly, worked sweetly. The sculptor decided to soften the impression of this harsh expression and replaced the last indecent word with a drawing of a pot. And the meaning is not lost, and everything is censored. There is a small figure of a mouse on the roof.

Kazan cat is a creation of metal artist Igor Bashmakov. The monument was erected in 2009. The ebb of the sculpture was made at the Zhukovsky Art Casting Plant. All the author's masterpieces are endowed with meaning and convey to people a piece of history. For example, his fountain with frogs, recreated in the same Kazan, is very famous.

The cat sculpture is 3 meters high and 2.8 meters wide.

Kazan cat: the story of a legend. Medieval luboks

There are many stories about cats in Kazan. And they all leave on their ownrooted in bygone centuries. The most famous versions of how Kazan cats gained respect and love are known to every resident of the city, young and old. Let's talk about them in more detail.

The first legend is based on the content of the most famous popular prints of medieval Russia, in particular "How mice buried a cat" and "Kazan cat". The latter is a picture, which depicts an animal with very bulging eyes, and even not a very decent inscription. Most historians believe that this splint is a kind of parody of the extraordinary appearance of Tsar Peter I. Indeed, if you analyze the details, you can see that the tsar really had a characteristic mustache, as well as slightly bulging eyes.

"How the mice buried the cat" - these are funny pictures, each of which tells in a comic form about the mice participating in the funeral. However, the humor was that the cat was actually alive and ate the mice in turn, which arranged a funeral procession for him. Such pictures are among the exhibits of the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg.

Khan's Favorite

The second legend is based on the Mari stories about how the cat saved the khan and his family. In those difficult times for the Khanate, an attack by the troops of Tsar Ivan the Terrible was expected. The Mari kings Akpars and Yylanda conceived a vile trick. They wanted to dig under the khan's chambers, capture him with his family, and subsequently hand him over to Ivan the Terrible. Late at night, the cat began to make disturbing sounds, trying in every possible way to leave the luxurious chambers. Khan, accustomed to trusting his pet, realized that the animal warns of danger. Then he decided, using a secret passage, to leave the city. Having reached the Volga, the Khan and his family went to the shores of Persia. So, thanks to the instinct of the cat, they were able to avoid a bitter fate.

Cat Guard

The third legend about how Kazan cats became famous seems to be the most reliable. Moreover, the events it describes are documented.

In the 18th century, the expression "Kazan cat" was used quite often. Kazan was almost the only city where there were no mice. The cats living there had a reputation for being good mousers. Empress Elizabeth was very interested in their abilities. She, having visited the city in 1745, issued a decree according to which it was necessary to find the best cats and send them to the capital. Under fear of a fine, even pets that the guardsmen liked were taken away from their owners and transported to St. Petersburg. More than 30 animals were collected in this way. They replenished the shaggy Life Guards of Elizabeth. In total, it consisted of 300 cats, according to the number of guardsmen who assisted the empress in taking the throne. Once in the imperial chambers, the animals began to live a luxurious life. Their food was beef, partridges and black grouse.

According to another version, the governor of the Kazan Khanate told the empress about the dexterity of Kazan cats. He found out that the rodents had launched an invasion of the imperial apartments of the Winter Palace, and he himself offered to help the cats, which weredescendants of Alabrys, who became famous as a sophisticated rat hunter.

Cats in the Hermitage

Kazan cats, who are the descendants of those who saved the palace from mice, still live in the Hermitage premises, protecting them from mice. From year to year, on April 1, museum workers arrange a grand feast for their wards, timed to coincide with the Day of the March Cat. Treats and treats for every taste, toys in the form of mice, obligatory stroking of fluffy tummies … In a word, a real holiday for the mustachioed-striped ones.

About other cats

The "Cat of Kazan" monument, whose history began with the merits of hunters-mousecatchers back in the 18th century, is not only in this city. The sculpture of Alabrys (as the locals call it) made of light sandstone is located on the territory of the monastery in Raif. There are also similar monuments in St. Petersburg and Kyiv.

Many tourists call the monument to the Kazan cat the main attraction of the city. Kazan, of course, is a place where visiting interesting places is not limited to this sculpture. However, this particular monument is of great interest to fans of legends and parables.