Moscow Kazan train station

Kazan train station

The Kazan train station ( Russian Казанский вокзал / Kazanski voksal ) is one of the eight long-distance train stations in Moscow . It is located on Komsomolskaya Square , in the immediate vicinity of the Yaroslavl and Leningrad train stations , and is still one of the largest train stations in the Russian capital. The entrance building of the Kazan train station, designed by Alexei Shtusev , is also a valuable monument of early Soviet architecture.

history

The forerunner of today's Kazan station was built in 1862 with the commissioning of the railway line from Moscow to Ryazan , for which a separate terminal station was planned. At that time, the building of the new "Ryazan Railway Station" was nothing more than a wooden house, and there were no real platforms at that time, so getting on and off the train was a very difficult matter for passengers. Two years later the temporary wooden terminal building was demolished and a stone station building was erected in its place. This made the future Kazan station the third station building on what was then Kalanchovskaya Square, which later became known as the "Square of the Three Stations".

But the new station building did not meet the growing demands either; On the one hand, it was not particularly architecturally attractive; on the other hand, the waiting room was much too small and uncomfortable. At the latest with the extension of the Moscow-Ryazan railway line further east to the Volga metropolis of Kazan , which now also gave the station its name, and the resulting increase in passenger numbers, a new reception building was urgently needed. However, it would be several decades before the current building took its place.

Initially, the Ministry of Transport rejected a number of expansion projects for the old building due to various deficiencies, and a project submitted in 1907 for a new building had to be rejected. After the old building, which was now bursting at the seams, had to be expanded in a makeshift manner, a new competition was announced, which was finally won by the renowned architect Alexei Shtusev . At the end of 1913, after Shtusev's project had been approved by the Ministry of Transport, the construction of the new station began, the completion of which was scheduled for November 1, 1916; the old building had been demolished a few months earlier and relocated to a two-story temporary structure . Ultimately, however, nothing came of the planned completion in 1916, because meanwhile the First World War broke out, a little later the October Revolution and the civil war followed . After all of Russia's railways, including the Moscow-Kazan line, had been nationalized in 1918 , the construction of the station was resumed, although progress was extremely slow due to the lack of building materials.

In June 1922 it was finally possible to complete the waiting halls of the future station, whereupon the temporary station building was demolished and the partially completed Kazan station took the first passengers. The station was not fully completed until 1940 . In 1923 the large clock was installed on the facade, which was intended from the beginning in the Shtussev project - it adorned the station facade until 1941, when it was destroyed during the German air raids ; It was not until the 1970s that the station clock was restored to its original location.

In addition, numerous extensions and renovations were made to the building in the period after its final completion. In the 1950s, an additional underground check-in hall was built for local traffic, which also included direct access to the subway , and in 1990 additional waiting rooms and a new roofing of the platforms were built. The station complex was last restored in 1997; this resulted in two new extension buildings, which were provided for in the original Shtusev project, but had not been built before.

architecture

"Place of the three stations"

The Kazan train station is rightly regarded as one of the most interesting train station buildings in the Russian capital. The building complex, at the same time one of the most famous Shtusev buildings, was kept in the so-called Neo-Russian style; Shtusev wanted to integrate the building harmoniously into the already existing architectural landscape of the station square and at the same time emphasize individual style elements of the new station. Characteristic of the Kazan train station is the elongated row of buildings, some of which contain pointed towers of various heights, a bell tower with a clock and, as a central element, the entrance building with an arcade-like gate construction. Shtusev was mainly inspired by old Russian architecture, which adorned cities such as Nizhny Novgorod , Astrakhan and Ryazan , but there is also an allusion to the Kazan Sujumbike tower . The interior of the station halls is also often adorned with paintings by renowned artists such as Alexander Benoîs , Boris Kustodijew , Sinaida Serebrjakowa or Ivan Bilibin .

The Kazan train station today

The check-in hall of the Kazan train station

Formerly a restaurant room, now a business lounge

The Kazan train station is also one of the most important components of the Moscow traffic junction in terms of traffic. Every day it is approached by around 70 pairs of long-distance trains and 200 pairs of trains in regional traffic (so-called " Elektritschkas "). From the station there are train connections not only to Kazan and other Volga provinces, but also to the Urals , parts of Siberia and Central Asia . Local trains departing from the Kazan train station take you to Moscow Bykowo Airport and cities such as Kolomna or Ryazan . As from the two neighboring stations on Komsomolskaya Square, there is a direct transfer from the Kazan train station to the Komsomolskaya metro station on line 1 and the ring line .