Freedom Square (Ploschad Svobody) is the main civic square of Kazan — a large open space ringed by the Opera and Ballet Theatre, the Hotel Tatarstan, the State Council building, and a Soviet-era statue of Lenin still in place at the centre. The square stays formal and quiet most days; on national holidays it fills with parades, military bands, and fireworks.
The buildings around the square are mostly 19th- and early-20th-century classical revival, with several handsome examples of late-Imperial municipal architecture. A short walk from Bauman Street to the south.