Kazan Cathedral

Kazan Cathedral at the northern end of Red Square is a small, vivid red-and-white church honouring Our Lady of Kazan, whose icon is considered protector of Russia. The first church was built in 1625 to give thanks for the liberation of Moscow from Polish troops in the Time of Troubles. Stalin had it demolished in 1936 to clear more room for military parades on Red Square. After the fall of the Soviet Union it was rebuilt from 1990 to 1993, one of the first destroyed Moscow churches to be reconstructed using surviving drawings and photographs. Today it serves again as a parish church; a few steps from the busy square lead into a gilded iconostasis and the smell of incense.