The Guardhouse was the building where the guards who watched over the Kazan Kremlin were stationed. Later, it housed arrested military personnel.
The Guardhouse building was erected in the mid‑19th century in the south‑eastern part of the Kazan Kremlin. The L‑shaped building has three storeys, austere, smoothly plastered façades without decorative details, rectangular windows with a simple cornice, and a low‑pitched roof.
On the south side, the building adjoins the curtain wall of the Kremlin between the Spasskaya (Saviour) and Yugo‑Vostochnaya (South‑East) Towers, while on the east side it is slightly set back from the curtain wall between the Yugo‑Vostochnaya (South‑East) and Konsistorskaya (Consistory) Towers.
In August 1918, the tower was used by the White Guards as a prison. Y.S. Sheinkman, M. Vakhitov, S.N. Gassar, M.I. Mezhlauk and many others were imprisoned here and later shot against the Kremlin wall.
Repair and restoration work was carried out in the building in 1998 and 2003.
The Guardhouse building currently houses a police battalion.