Wednesday -- a new day. We briefly stopped into the Butlerov Museum before heading out into the city once more. To fill you in on the museum: it occupies the original "new" chemistry building at Kazan University, which was first fitted out under the supervision of Karl Karlovich Klaus (later, the discoverer of ruthenium). The Auditorium has been in continuous use since then, and was where Zinin, Butlerov, Zaitsev, and Arbuzov all gave lectures. These days, it is still used for important small congresses, and dissertation defenses. Here are some shots taken in the Butlerov auditorium of the Museum.

One of the bookcases in the Butlerov auditorium

Portraits in the Butlerov auditorium. (l-r): Markovnikov, Vagner (Wagner), Flavitskii.

Aleksandr Mikhailovich Butlerov

Nikolai Nikolaevich Zinin -- check out that mustache!!

Portraits in the Butlerov auditorium. (l-r): Zaitsev, Klaus, Zinin.

Portraits in the Butlerov auditorium. (l-r): Aleksandr Yerminingel'dovich Arbuzov, and his son, Boris Aleksandrovich.

Our first stop was at the Peter-Paul cathedral, which we found by accident yesterday. This cathedral was built to honor Peter the Great -- hence its name. The cathedral was built in three years (1723-1726), and so was not finished before the death of Peter the Great in 1725.

The history of the Peter-Paul Cathedral. I will translate it when I am less tired.

It is still a working church, as this sign outside shows:

The sign reads: Peter-Paul Cathedral оpen daily. Morning worship – liturgy begins at 8-00 daily, 7-00, 8-40 on Sunday and holidays. Evening worship at 17-00 daily. TRAFFIC ACCESS LIMITED!

The back (north) steps of the Peter-Paul cathedral in Kazan

The front (south) steps of the Peter-Paul cathedral in Kazan

The northern balcony of the Peter-Paul cathedral in Kazan

The belltower of the Peter-Paul cathedral in Kazan

The view of the spire from the main entrance to the sanctuary

In the Cathedral of the Assumption, in the Kremlin, there was a clearly posted, "no photographs" sign. Here there was no such sign, so I asked the ladies at the front of the church if photography was permitted in the sanctuary. The emphatic response was, "Da! Da! Da!" So we took lots of pictures inside. Gene's and Sasha's blogs will have much better pictures than mine, but these photographs will still give you some idea of the incredible beauty of the cathedral. Sorry for some of the blurred pictures -- I am still really a 35-mm film SLR type of individual, and I do better with the camera up to my eye.

As you can see, every square inch above floor level was covered in the most beautiful paintings and metalwork (it looks like brass and silver to me) -- walls and ceiling, both.

The balcony of the church provides a vista of the skyline of Kazan.

The skyline of Kazan from the west balcony of the Peter-Paul cathedral, looking south, towards the belltower of the Shalyapin church on Baumann street.

After this, we went to see the State Museum of the Republic of Tatarstan, which is right outside the Kremlin. Here we could not take photographs, but the museum itself is a marvelous journey from the stone age to the beginning of the Soviet era in Tatarstan. They also have relics of the war of 1812, when Napoleon was stopped. I got this shot of a cute little church just downhill from the Kremlin on the south side.

My home city of Adelaide, in Australia, is often called the City of Churches. It is way short of deserving that title by what we have seen of Kazan!

After four hours of walking (yes, cardiac rehab readers, 4 hours), we called it a day, and had lunch.

It's now supper, and I have just finished about 8 oz of good black Russian rye bread with some ham and Gruyere cheese. Now it's time for a nap.

More anon...