The Public Offices

The architect V. I. Kaftyrev, who created the first comprehensive city plan for Kazan, constructed the Public Offices building, situated along the driveway inside the Kremlin leading from the Spasskaya to the Tainitskaya Towers, in the 1770s. The main facade of the building is designed in style of late classicism, and the court facades feature details which date back to the late-18th century.

The Spasskaya Tower and the National Museum of the Republic of Tatarstan
The classical solution of the Public Offices complex, which also includes the Guardroom, constructed in the middle of the 19th century, to the right of the Spasskaya Tower, forms an even better link of the Kazan Kremlin's architectural ensemble to the adjacent buildings of the city centre. The stylistic tendency of the general plan of the reconstruction of Kazan succeeded in fusing together all the outstanding buildings and monuments in the centre of Kazan that lie close to the Kremlin. In the strict lines of the Public Offices we can follow the inner connection with the complex of the Kazan University, the buildings of the former City Council (presently the Mayor's Office of Kazan) and the Gostinyi Dvor (now the State Museum of the Republic of Tatarstan). The 'Russian Empire' style of the architectural ensemble of the Public Offices is reflected in the design of the Monument to the Fallen Warriors on the Kazanka river island, which was constructed in its present form in 1829 according to the same plan for the city of Kazan, which facilitated the reconstruction of the streets and buildings of the Kazan Kremlin.

At the same time the religious complexes of the Kremlin are echoed in the nearby urban groupings of the Peter and Paul Cathedral (1723-1726) and the John the Baptist Monastery (1555-1564). The Kazan Kremlin thus serves as the quintessence and the focal point for all architectural ideas and solutions used in Kazan, and it still continues to fulfill its special historical, spiritual and town-planning role.