Kul Sharif Mosque
The Kul Sharif Mosque ( Tatar Колшәриф мәчете Qolşärif mäçete ) in Kazan is the second largest mosque in Russia . It is named after Kul Sharif , the last Imam of Kazan before the Russian conquest. Together with the neighboring Cathedral of the Annunciation , it is a symbol of the peaceful coexistence of the Muslim and Orthodox population of Tatarstan .
It was erected in the Kazan Kremlin by order of Mintimer Shaimijew , President of Tatarstan, and is said to be a memorial to the Tartars who fell during the Russian conquest of Kazan at the end of the Moscow-Kazan wars in 1552. Work began in 1996; the mosque was inaugurated on July 24, 2005.
In the 16th century, the main mosque of the Kazan Khanate was located near the current location , the traditional shape of which with eight minarets is taken up by the new building in modern forms and reduced to four minarets. The historic mosque was destroyed when Kazan was conquered in 1552; Some of the components that have been preserved were probably built into St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow, which was begun in 1555 and was intended to structurally represent the incorporation of the khanate into the tsarist empire.
Web links
- Official homepage (Russian / English / Tatar)
- Video
Coordinates: 55 ° 47 ′ 54 ″ N , 49 ° 6 ′ 18 ″ E