Kazan University has a claim to a surprising scientific lineage. The Russian mathematician Nikolai Lobachevsky, who worked out a geometry in which parallel lines behave differently from the ones taught in school, was a professor here and later its rector, and the university built an astronomical observatory in the nineteenth century. The observatories of Kazan Federal University grew from that early effort, and one of them, the Engelhardt Observatory, was founded outside the city by a Russian nobleman and amateur astronomer who gave his instruments to the university. It is a quiet place of domes and old telescopes.
Kazan itself is a bright, handsome, slightly surprising place, where two cultures share the same streets. The city sits on the Volga where the Kazanka River joins it, and it was the capital of a Tatar khanate before Ivan the Terrible took it in 1552. Today the white-walled Kremlin has a Russian Orthodox cathedral and the blue-and-white Kul Sharif Mosque side by side, a statement about coexistence that the city is proud of. Tatars are Muslims, speak a Turkic language and form about half the population of the republic.
The Tatar food is a pleasure. Echpochmak, a triangular pie filled with meat and potato, is the classic snack, and chak-chak, a heap of fried dough drenched in honey, is the sweet that goes with strong tea. Bauman Street, a long pedestrian lane in the centre, is the city's promenade, lined with cafes and statues, and the embankment on the Kazanka is a favoured evening walk. Kazan was named the third capital of Russia in a marketing campaign, which locals mention with a smile, and it hosted the Summer Universiade in 2013 and matches of the football World Cup in 2018.
Traffic in the city is heavy, and parking near the centre is difficult. Fuel is no problem in a city of over a million. The roads in the surrounding Tatarstan countryside are flat and straight, with farmland and birch forests stretching to the horizon, and the Volga is wide and slow. Summers are warm, and winters are hard, with snow and ice from November to March. Check current travel advice and entry rules before planning a trip to the region, since conditions can change.