Kazan

Kazan is the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan, third capital of Russia; it’s one of the largest economic, scientific and cultural centres in the country. The city celebrated its 1,000th anniversary in 2005. About 1.2 million people – representatives of over 100 nationalities – live in Kazan in the atmosphere of cultural, religious and linguistic diversity.

The Kazan Kremlin, a unique complex of archeological, historical and architectural monuments enrolled into the UNESCO World Heritage list, is the main tourist attraction of Kazan. It is open for visits and tours on a daily basis. Tourists visiting the territory of the architectural conservation area will see such places of interest as the ‘falling’ Syuyumbike Tower, Savior Tower, Annunciation Cathedral

and Kul-Sharif, one of the largest mosques in the world.

There are all the reasons to call the thousand-year-old Kazan a ‘young’ city, as it’s the largest student city of Russia. There are nearly 200,000 students from 67 countries studying in Kazan, Russia’s top higher education institutions are concentrated here, among them Kazan (Volga Region) Federal University, Tupolev Kazan National Research Technical University and Kazan National Research Technological University. Students of Kazan are always among winners of national and international contests and holders of state scholarships by international and national funds, they also excel in sports.

The thousand-year-old Kazan has a busy cultural life. Aside from classical art, the city facilitates the development of contemporary art trends as well. Such cultural events as the Feodor Chaliapin International Opera Festival, Rudolph Nureyev International Ballet Festival, White Lilac International Festival named after Sergey Rachmaninov, Kazan Autumn International Open Air Opera Festival, Concordia Modern Music Festival, Aksenov-fest Literature Festival, and International Festival of Muslim Cinema have already become annual for Kazan. There are 9 theatres, 34 state museums, privately owned art galleries, Saidashev State Big Concert Hall and 2

philharmonics. The La Primavera Kazan State Chamber Orchestra is known far beyond the boundaries of Kazan. National Russian and Tatar holidays are celebrated in Kazan in a big way.

Kazan actively develops its infrastructure; new sporting venues, industrial and social facilities, residential premises, roadways and traffic interchanges are being built. The city’s economics follows an innovative way of development; Idea Technopark, one of the largest technoparks in Europe, and the biggest IT centre in Russia have been successfully operating for several years in Kazan.

Sports and the city

Kazan is also a driving force for Russian sports development and is a home for many multi-titled athletes and sports clubs, who compete at national and international championships of various size and in different sports, including those that are on the Olympic programme. Many high-profile competitions have been held at Games venues over the last few years.

The staging of the 27th Summer Universiade has given a new impetus to the development of children’s, youth and university sports not only in Kazan, but all over Russia. Kazan has become a well recognisable city on the international sporting scene. Kazan’s achievements in the field of hospitality, namely a newly refurbished

airport, a well-developed hotel infrastructure, a state-of-the-art traffic and transport system, as well as a great number of sporting venues will be the successful formula behind many major international events that are to be brought to Kazan.

In 2014, Kazan hosted major international sporting events such as the INTERSPORT European Championships, IWF Junior World Championships, World Fencing Championships, inaugural edition of the FINA High Diving World Cup, as well as a series of events dedicated to the World Fair Play Awards.

In 2015, Kazan hosted the 16th FINA World Championships and 16th FINA World Masters Championships. The city is also in the list of Russian cities for matches of the FIFA World Cup in 2018.