Architecture of Bulgar period

During the XIII-XV centuries the city noticeably grew, but its inner planning didn’t change much. The fortified citadel of the city (the Kremlin) was widened up to 400 meters, and its area reached 10 hectares. But the streets with the wooden flooring that were built earlier were still in use.

The Kremlin was surrounded by walls made of oak beams. At some places the walls were up to 6 meters wide. The walls of the fortress had gates and several towers; the Northern Tower and walls next to it were made of white stone. The walls of white stone also surrounded the khan’s yard. Inside the yard there was khan’s palace, a mosque, a guests’s house, treasury depository, archival depository, a library and burial-vaults.

But usual 2-storey buildings, where lived rich people of Kazan, were “very beautiful and worthy of great amazement” too.

The land of Kazan belonged to the zone of infection of Central Bulgar culture, the characteristic features of which were monumental “seldzhuksky style” of architectural  monuments, decorative fronts, ideas of high-rising, pyramidal composition of spiritual constructions and transition from mono-  to polychrome architecture. Numerous tiles, colour plaster and frescoes became an inseparable element of the Bulgar architecture of that period. On the other hand, specific gravity of wood, which was more important in the architecture of Kazan than in Central Bulgary, couldn’t but influence the further development of its system of decoration.