Kazan Nunnery is one of the three ancient monasteries being revived in Kaluga. The nunnery still functions despite the fact that it used to be closed and set on fire and its novices were persecuted. It was its nuns who revived in the city the tradition of Cross Procession in celebration of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God.
The Kazan Nunnery originated in 1626 during the reign of Mikhail Fyodorovich, the first Russian Tsar of the house of Romanov. Its nuns were known outside Kaluga thanks to needlework-knitting and gold embroidering. In 1918 the nunnery was closed and the building was given to the archives. In 1995 the restored monastery occupied the building of the former religious seminary which also houses a family chapel of Guriy of Kazan. Now the Kazan Nunnery keeps his relics, the relics of Seraphim of Sarov, Optina elderly monks, and also a cross with a portion of the Life-Giving Cross.