The Cathedral of the Icon of the Mother of God of Kazan seems light, slender, aspiring to the sky. This impression is created by semicircular endings of the walls, thin graceful columns at the corners of the building, the dome resembling the helmet of a Russian warrior, the light drum with ten arched windows. Above the entrance there are three interconnected arches, in two side arches there are windows, and in the middle part there is a temple icon.
The history of the Kazan Cathedral is connected with the Toplovsky Monastery. Count Nikolai Fedorovich Heyden donated to the monastery his summer house «Kafa» in Feodosia, so that here arranged a subvillage of the monastery. Residents of the city in 1892 allocated a plot of land next to the dacha for the construction of a temple in memory of the miraculous rescue of the royal family at the train crash on October 17, 1888. But there were no funds for the construction of the church, so Baroness Maria Petrovna Fredericks, the Empress’ maid of honor, and Marfa Stepanovna Sabinina donated a portable church,
which was previously located in the southern coastal estate of Kastropol. On October 22, the church was consecrated by Archbishop Martinian in honor of the Great Martyr and Healer Panteleimon.
In 1890, the benefactor of the Toplovsky St. Paraskeviev Monastery Count N.F. Heyden donated an icon of the Mother of God of Kazan. From the Kazan icon of the Mother of God, which was in St. Petersburg, in the Kazan Cathedral, lists were made. One of such lists was passed on by inheritance in the Count’s family. In honor of the miraculous deliverance of the royal family during the train crash in Borki, the Count donated the family relic to the Toplovsky Paraskeviev Monastery. The icon, decorated with silver and gold, pearls and precious stones, was solemnly delivered to the Crimea. The inhabitants of Theodosia appealed to the Holy Synod with a request to bring the icon by procession and leave in the city from October 17 to October 22. Permission was granted, and every year the icon of the Mother of God was carried in procession from the
monastery to Theodosia.
On October 16, the icon arrived at the monastery suburb, and the next day it was solemnly transferred to the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. There the icon was met by the priests with the icon of the Sign of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It was a festive day for all the inhabitants of Theodosia. On October 22, as solemnly the icon returned to the monastery.
In 1907 at the Feodosia suburb Toplovskij monastery instead of a wooden church built a stone cathedral, which was consecrated in honor of the Kazan icon of the Mother of God. During the hard revolutionary years the church was looted and was empty for a long time. Divine services were resumed in 1943 and since then have not stopped. In the fifties, the temple was renovated with the active participation of Archbishop of Simferopol and Crimea St. Luke (Voyno-Yasenetsky), he held a solemn service in the cathedral.