Location: Nizhny Novgorod Oblas
Nizhny Novgorod (in Soviet times - Gorky) is the fifth most
populous city in Russia, located on the banks of the Oka at the
confluence of the Volga. It is located at the junction of the Volga
region and Central Russia, combining the grandeur of the Kremlin and
the intimacy of the central regions with the scope of an old Volga
fair and industrial outskirts. Nizhny is a city with surprisingly
many faces, where you will find monuments from various centuries,
interspersed with breathtaking panoramas from the high bank of the
Volga. In addition to the completely diverse architecture in Nizhny
Novgorod, there are more than a dozen museums and an active cultural
life that is not inferior to other large cities in Russia.
Nizhny Novgorod is one of the most historical cities in Russia. This
is the city of Gorky and Chaliapin, the cradle of Russian radio and
the Soviet automobile industry. The city of the Volga merchants, the
revolutionary labor movement, river and sea shipbuilding.
The
development of the Lower Nizhny took centuries to develop, starting
with the Kremlin and magnificent churches of the 17th-18th
centuries, continuing with merchants' mansions and carved wooden
houses, and turning into a bizarre interweaving of Art Nouveau and
Russian style or, for example, pre-revolutionary workers' barracks
and monuments of Soviet architecture by the 20th century. It cannot
be said that this heritage has ever been treated with sufficient
care. Everywhere, and especially in the city center, you will
encounter layers of various eras, where historical buildings are
thinned out by multi-storey residential buildings or glass
skyscrapers. Nevertheless, a lot has been preserved in Nizhny, and
for an attentive traveler, this city is a true storehouse of
architectural styles and viewpoints, as well as courtyards, nooks
and crannies, cliffs, ravines and, last but not least, historical
reminiscences, since a good half of Gorky's plots have been
collected right here. In general, the parallels between the
character of the city and the work of the “petrel of the revolution”
are much broader than the details of the biography and ideological
renaming of the Soviet era. It is still as bright, exciting and open
to the boundless expanse of the Volga.
Nizhny Novgorod is a very large city and, at first, it is very easy
for a visitor to get lost in it. However, not everything is so scary at
first glance.
Nizhny Novgorod differs from most megacities, with
a traditional radial-ring structure, in that it has the shape of a
semicircle. This is due to the fact that the center of the city is
shifted to the north, and immediately after it begins another city -
Bor. Starting from the center, the main highways bypass it in the
southern part in a semicircle. There are five such circles in total. The
most extreme of them is the Southern Bypass.
It is also worth
focusing on the fact that the city is divided by the Oka into two parts:
Nagornaya (Upper) and Zarechnaya (Lower), and semi-circular highways
connect them together.
The upland part is located on the right
mountainous bank of the Oka. Here is the historical center of Nizhny
Novgorod, which starts from the Kremlin. It is encircled by the first
semi-circular highway, and peripheral roads and streets are directed
towards the center. Routes connecting the regions of the Upland part
prevail here. It has only one metro station "Gorkovskaya", from which
you can go from the center to the Zarechnaya part. The upland part has
two bus stations - Sennaya Ploshchad and Shcherbinki, the
Nizhegorodskaya cable car station and the river station, so getting to
the center is quite easy.
The riverside part is located on the
left flat bank of the Oka. This is the industrial and commercial part of
the city. Not far from the Moscow railway station is the old Nizhny
Novgorod Fair, where various business forums are held. Here the road
network is directed to two main directions - the Moscow railway station
and the Gorky Automobile Plant. The transport network is very well
developed. From the station you can go almost anywhere in the city by
several modes of transport. It has a more developed metro system, both
lines of which are located in the Zarechnaya part. Also in this part of
the city is the Strigino airport. From it you can go closer to the
center by city taxis and buses. There are tram lines nearby. From the
airport, in general, transport routes lead to the center of the
Avtozavod, where you can transfer to any type of transport in any
direction.
Nizhny Novgorod region
Tourist, historical and commercial center
of the city, where you will find the Kremlin, Minin and Pozharsky
Square, Bolshaya Pokrovskaya Street, Rozhdestvenskaya Street, Alexander
Garden, Chkalov Stairs, Annunciation Monastery and many more interesting
things
Sovietsky district
Kuznechikha, Upper Pechery,
Podnovye, Alexandrovskaya Sloboda, Switzerland Park
East of Nizhny
Novgorod. upland part
Prioksky district
Manor, Shcherbinki,
Switzerland park
Southeast of Nizhny Novgorod. upland part
Sormovsky district
Sormovo Center, Spaso-Preobrazhensky Cathedral,
School of Barricades, "Steam Locomotive SU-251-32" memorial, Glory
Square
Northwest of Nizhny Novgorod. Zarechnaya part. Initially - a
separate settlement, now the Sormovsky district of the city.
Kanavinsky district
Arrow of the Oka and Volga, Nizhny Novgorod Fair,
Lenin Square, Spassky Old Fair Cathedral, Alexander Nevsky Cathedral,
Moscow Station, Revolution Square
Western part of the city.
Zarechnaya part. Initially a separate settlement, now it is the
Kanavinsky district of the city.
Avtozavodsky district
Gorky
Automobile Plant, Center of the Automobile Plant, Park of Culture and
Leisure, Sotsgorod, Monchegorye, Strigino
Southwestern part of the
city. The main industrial and most densely populated area with the
largest auto giant plant. During the Second World War, most of the air
strikes fell on the Avtozavod.
Leninsky district
Karpovka,
Molitovka, Engine of revolution, Machine-tool plant
One of the
industrial areas in the geographical center of the city
Moskovsky
district
Aviation, Kalinin, Lesnoy Gorodok, Nizhny Novgorod
Machine-Building Plant, Nizhny Novgorod Oil and Fat Plant, Sokol
aircraft plant
Industrial area of Nizhny Novgorod. It is recognizable
by the pungent smell from the oil-fat plant.
Nizhny Novgorod is an inexhaustible city. For a
superficial acquaintance with it, a couple of days are enough, but
stopping at least for a week, at least for two, you will continue to
discover new corners, museums, outlying areas, and the surroundings
deserve every attention. Here is a partial list of the most important:
The Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin is one of the
largest in Russia, a remarkable monument of defensive architecture.
There are not many interesting things inside the walls, but you can walk
at any time of the day, admiring the Volga and the ancient Archangel Michael
Cathedral (Собор Архангела
Михаила)- the only surviving Kremlin church
The view
of the confluence of the Oka and the Volga (Strelka) from the high bank
(Fedorovsky embankment) is one of the best panoramic points in Russia.
Since 2017, the cargo port on Strelka has been liquidated and a park and
a new Volzhskaya embankment are being laid out on its territory
Alexander Nevsky Cathedral
(Собор Александра Невского) (or Nevsky Cathedral) is located
in the same place, on the Strelka. One of the visiting cards of the
city. The yellow cathedral with black tents is probably familiar to many
who are fond of river tourism along the Volga. In Soviet times, it stood
like a warehouse in a semi-dismantled state, but it was just as
recognizable.
The Chkalov Stairs (Чкаловская лестница)
descend from the Kremlin down to the Volga, a legacy of Stalinist
architecture, ironically one of the symbols of the city. Connects the
square. Minin and Nizhne-Volzhskaya embankment
Stroganov churches are
the brightest monuments of the Baroque style, striking with the richness
of decor and stone carvings:
- Rozhdestvenskaya is located in the
Upper part of the city on the street of the same name. It is clearly
visible from the Kanavinsky bridge.
- Smolenskaya is lost among
the residential development of the Kanavinsky district of the lower part
of the city, a ten-minute walk from the Moscow railway station
The building of the State Bank on Bolshaya Pokrovskaya is a masterpiece
of architecture of the early 20th century, incorporating the traditions
of ancient Russian architecture, fabulous and mythological motifs. From
the same period in Nizhny Novgorod there are many monuments of
eclecticism and modernity, concentrated, for example, on the
Verkhnevolzhskaya embankment east of the Kremlin
Wooden houses with
carvings have been preserved in many parts of the city. Particularly
interesting is Bolshaya Pecherskaya Street near Sennaya Square. In 2017,
a decision was made to demolish most of the wooden houses and completely
build up the street with ordinary skyscrapers.
Kremlin
Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin (Kremlin),
Kremlin, Nizhny Novgorod. ✉ ☎ +7 (831) 439-06-96. Mon–Fri 10:00–19:00.
An ancient fortress in the very center of Nizhny Novgorod. The main view
point is the central Dmitrievskaya tower. The fortress was built in 1516
according to the design of the architect Pyotr Fryazin (Pietro
Francesco). Under Ivan the Terrible, the Kremlin served to repel the
Tatar-Mongol invasions. They tried to capture him several times, but no
one succeeded. Then the fortress lost its relevance and was empty for a
long time until the authorities were placed in it. Since then, following
the example of the Moscow Kremlin, various political centers have been
located here.
On its territory there are many monuments, museums,
souvenir shops and one cathedral, as well as the bell tower of the
Transfiguration Cathedral. The belfry, 51.5 meters high, was opened in
the summer of 2021, on the occasion of the 800th anniversary of the
city; it offers a beautiful view of the entire territory of the Kremlin
and the part beyond the river; You can climb the bell tower by elevator.
Now you can take a circular route along the entire Kremlin wall (a
ticket for such an excursion costs 500 rubles; due to elevation changes
and often uncomfortable, steep and high steps, the route is not
recommended for tourists aged and / or with health problems). Along the
entire route, you can meet officially opened towers: Dmitrievskaya,
Ivanovskaya and Zachatievskaya. They house various museums. The
Zachatievsky Tower serves as the official residence of Father Frost in
winter.
Arsenal (Center for Contemporary Art), Kremlin, 6 (on the
territory of the Kremlin, between the Dmitrievskaya and Powder Towers).
☎ 45 54 +7 (831) 422 45 54. 12:00-20:00. The former armory of the Nizhny
Novgorod Kremlin, converted into a modern exhibition hall. Here you can
have an interesting time at exhibitions of contemporary art, chat with
interesting people and spend time in a cafe. Ideal for loft lovers.
Cathedral of the Archangel Michael (Cathedral of Michael the
Archangel) , Kremlin, bldg. 2A. ☎ +7 831 419-78-97. 8:00-18:00. The
oldest temple in Nizhny Novgorod, first built in 1221, and the existing
hipped church was erected by Lavrenty Semyonov and Antipa Konstantinov
in 1631. The ashes of Kuzma Minin are buried in the cathedral.
Monument to Prince Georgy Vsevolodovich and St. Simon of Suzdal,
Kremlin, Michael the Archangel Cathedral (in front of the main gate to
the temple). Monument to the founder of the city George (Yuri)
Vsevolodovich and Saint Simon of Suzdal.
Chkalov Stairs, Minin and Pozharsky
Square/Nizhne-Volzhskaya Embankment (beginning next to the Georgievskaya
Tower of the Kremlin, ending at the boat "Hero"). A staircase connecting
the Upper Volga and Lower Volga embankments. It is one of the visiting
cards of the city. It is beautiful in that it is made in the form of the
number 8 and is very huge. No one has been able to count the number of
steps on it.
Monument to Valery Chkalov, Minin and Pozharsky Square
(near the Georgievskaya Tower of the Kremlin). Dedicated to Soviet pilot
Valery Pavlovich Chkalov, who made the first non-stop flight from the
USSR to the USA via the North Pole. On the pedestal are the years of the
pilot's life and the inscription "Valery Chkalov, the great pilot of our
time." Under these words, above the map of flights, holes from the
mounts are visible - there was an inscription "Stalin's falcon", removed
during the fight against Stalin's personality cult. There is also one
piquant feature. If you stand on the third step of the Chkalov Stairs,
from the side of the St. George Tower, and look at the monument from the
back, you will notice a very interesting detail in the form of an
optical illusion on the figure of Chkalov.
Church of Saint John the Baptist (Церковь Рождества
Иоанна Предтечи)
(Ivanovskaya Church), Ivanovsky Congress, 1B (Bus stop "Rozhdestvenskaya
Street"). ☎ 38 00 +7 (831) 437 38 00, fax: 37 75 +7 (831) 437 37 75.
08:00 – 18:00. one of the oldest Orthodox churches in Nizhny Novgorod,
mentioned since the 15th century. The stone temple was consecrated in
1683, again on November 4, 2005. By the name of the temple, the nearby
tower of the Kremlin is called Ivanovskaya. The church is located on the
National Unity Square. In the Time of Troubles (in 1612), from the porch
of this - then still wooden - temple, Kozma Minin called on the people
of Nizhny Novgorod to liberate Moscow from Polish intervention.
Monument to Minin and Pozharsky, National Unity Square (Tram No. 11,
stop "Skoba"). A reduced copy of the monument erected on Red Square in
Moscow. The monument is located in the historical part of Nizhny
Novgorod on National Unity Square, under the walls of the Kremlin, near
the Church of the Nativity of John the Baptist. The history of the
monument goes back to the Time of Troubles. Russia was under a
Polish-Swedish siege, and Moscow was occupied by the Poles. Then, in
1611, in Nizhny Novgorod, the zemstvo elder Kuzma Minin began to call on
the people to take up arms against the Polish interventionists. It was
also necessary to find a commander for the future militia. Nizhny
Novgorod decided to ask Prince Dmitry Pozharsky to head it. In 1803, it
was decided to start raising funds for the erection of a monument in
honor of Minin and Pozharsky. Ivan Martos immediately got down to
business. Initially, it was supposed to erect a monument in Nizhny
Novgorod. But due to the fact that it was of great value to the country,
it was decided to install it on Red Square in Moscow. However, in 2004,
Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov decided to correct this historical injustice
and decided to install a copy of the Moscow monument in Nizhny Novgorod.
He offered to copy the monument to the famous Russian sculptor Zurab
Tsereteli. And already on November 4, 2005, the grand opening of the
monument took place on the new square of Nizhny Novgorod - the National
Unity Square. The choice of the place was not accidental - after all, it
was from here that the people's militia of 1612 began.
Church of the
Nativity (Stroganovskaya), Rozhdestvenskaya Street, 34 (Bus stop "River
Station"). ☎ +7 (831) 430-18-60. One of the best examples of the
Stroganov style. The main attraction of Rozhdestvenskaya street. It was
built in 1701, but after a fire it was rebuilt in 1719. The church is a
bit like St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow or the Savior on Spilled Blood
in St. Petersburg. Interestingly, during the reign of Peter I, the
church was closed until his death. After the revolution, the church was
closed and was subject to demolition, but it was possible to defend it
and open the Museum of Religion and Atheism inside. In modern Russia,
the church is working again.
Annunciation Monastery, Melnichny lane,
8 (Bus and tram stop "Annunciation Square"). ✉ ☎ 07 97 +7 (831) 430 07
97. 07:00 – 19:00. The oldest monastery in Nizhny Novgorod, founded in
the 13th century when the city was founded. The oldest buildings on the
territory of the monastery date back to the 17th century, although
almost all of them were rebuilt at a later time.
Bolshaya Pokrovskaya
street. "Local Arbat", the main street of the city. Mostly pedestrian
with an abundance of beautiful architecture of the XVII-XIX centuries, a
large number of artists, musicians, cafes, bars, restaurants of all
stripes. On the street there are attractions such as the State Bank, the
Drama Theater and the UNN. N. I. Lobachevsky. There are many bronze
sculptures, among which the most popular is the Merry Goat at the Drama
Theatre.
Central Bank of the Russian Federation for the Nizhny
Novgorod Region (Gosbank) , st. Bolshaya Pokrovskaya, 26 (1
(Avtozavodskaya) line "Gorkovskaya"). ☎ +7 (831) 433-59-22. A very
beautiful building of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation is
located in the very center of the city on Bolshaya Pokrovskaya Street.
The bank was built in 1913 in honor of the 300th anniversary of the
Romanov dynasty in the Art Nouveau architectural style, stylized as the
17th century.
Manor of the Rukavishnikovs (Nizhny Novgorod State
Historical and Architectural Museum-Reserve), Verkhnevolzhskaya
embankment, 7 (access by public transport to the Water Academy stop or
Minin and Pozharsky Square). ✉ ☎ +7 (831) 422-10-80. Tue-Thu 10:00 -
17:00, Fri-Sun 12:00 - 19:00, Mon closed. 140–270 ₽. The main palace of
Nizhny Novgorod. The estate of the merchant S. M. Rukavishnikov was
built in 1875-1877 according to the project of the architect P. S.
Boytsov. The estate was kept in excellent condition and the first of the
Nizhny Novgorod houses was equipped with electric light in 1903. After
the revolution, the house was nationalized in 1918 and in 1924 given
over to the museum of local lore. The museum changed its name several
times until in 1959 it became known as the State Historical and
Architectural Museum Reserve.
Peasant Bank (Palace of Children's
Creativity named after Chkalov) , st. Piskunova, 39 (Bus and tram stop
"River School"). ✉ ☎ +7 (831) 433-04-87.
Chambers Pushnikov, st.
Gogol, 52. The only monument of the leather manufactory in the city. It
consists of two connecting buildings - a one-story late 17th and
two-story early 18th century.
Elias Church (Church of St. Prophet
Elijah) , st. Ilyinskaya, 9 (Tram No. 11, stop "Skoba". Then you need
to go up Ilyinskaya Street. Or trams No. 1, 2, 21 to the stop
"Dobrolyubova Street", then down Ilyinskaya Street.). ☎ +7 (831)
430-32-43. Mon–Sun 8:00–18:00. Church on the same Ilyinskaya street.
Consecrated in honor of the prophet Elijah as the ruler of thunder and
lightning. It was built in memory of the deliverance of Nizhny Novgorod
from the invasion of the Tatars and Nogais in 1505. According to legend,
at this place stood the tent of the Nogai Murza, who was killed with an
accurate shot by the captured gunner Fedya Litvich. For the first time
faced with a formidable weapon, the army of Mahmet-Emin fled in a panic.
Assumption Church on Ilyinskaya Gora, Krutoy Lane, 3 (Trams No. 1, 2, 21
to the stop "Dobrolyubova Street", then walk about 250 m to the end of
Krutoy Lane.). ☎ +7 (831) 430-33-03. Mon–Sun 8:00–17:00. The church was
built with the money of the merchant Afanasy Olisov and is remarkable
not only for its architectural features, but also for the Balakhna tiles
of the 17th century. Next to the church is the house of A.F. Olisov,
built in 1676.
Church of the Ascension of the Lord, st. Ilinskaya, 54
(Trams No. 1, 2, 21 to the stop "Nizhegorodskaya Street"). ✉ ☎ +7 (831)
437-39-17. Mon–Sun 7:00–18:00. The church was built in the
Russian-Byzantine style in 1872 on the site of an older church. In
Soviet times, the church was closed and a grain warehouse was located in
it. After the collapse of the USSR, the church was transferred to the
Nizhny Novgorod diocese and restored. Its bell tower with a non-standard
dome is the most conspicuous building on Ilyinskaya Street.
Varvarskaya Street (Figner Street in Soviet times). The central street
of Nizhny Novgorod, one of the seven streets that diverge radially from
Minin and Pozharsky Square.
Rozhdestvenskaya street. The most unique
concentration of stone buildings of the old Lower times of its golden
era. Bank of the Rukavishikovs, a pearl of Art Nouveau, architect
Shekhtel, sculptor Konenkov.
Ilinskaya street. Beautiful monuments of
merchant architecture
Upper Volga embankment. modernist mansions and
villas in the Stalinist Empire style
Observation deck on the
Fedorovsky embankment. Stunning view of the sunsets
Church of the
Myrrh-Bearing Women (1649), st. Dobrolyubova, 13a.
Monument to Maxim
Gorky, Gorky Square (1 (Avtozavodskaya) line "Gorkovskaya"). Monument to
the famous Nizhny Novgorod writer Maxim Gorky. It was opened on November
2, 1952. The figure of Gorky, raised high above the square, is set on a
tetrahedral pedestal, as if "growing" out of a granite rock. Vera
Mukhina created the image of the young Gorky during his life in his
native Nizhny Novgorod, it was during this period that he wrote the
famous “Song of the Petrel”.
Bust of A. From Pushkin. Installed at
the main entrance to the Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre.
Pushkin
park.
Kulibin park. Former cemetery, barbarously destroyed in the
first years of Soviet power. Only Kulibin's grave has survived, after
which the "park" was named. Gorky's grandmother, known to us from his
novel Childhood, is also buried here.
On the territory is the Church
of All Saints (Vsevyatskaya, or Peter and Paul). You can also find the
following monuments: a bust of Kulibin, a monument to Maxim Gorky, a
monument with a high relief of Kulibin, a stele with a bas-relief. In
addition, the park is located: a children's town, a cafe "Ark", an
entertainment center, a nightclub.
Pechersky Ascension Monastery (Печерский Вознесенский монастырь).
The monastery was founded in the 14th century by Dionysius of Suzdal,
who came to the Volga from the Kiev Caves Monastery. The existing
monastic ensemble was mainly built in the middle of the 17th century by
Antipa Konstantinov. The Archangel Cathedral of the Nizhny Novgorod
Kremlin served as a prototype for the over-gate St. Euthymius Church,
and the bell tower of the monastery is a rare example of ancient Russian
belfries of the 16th-17th centuries.
Sennaya Square. Numerous wooden
mansions in the Russian and Art Nouveau styles have survived, in which
the spirit of the old Nizhny Novgorod still lingers and, unfortunately,
are being destroyed with the full connivance of the local authorities.
Rowing canal and surroundings. Pecherskaya Sloboda, which originally
housed the Pechersky Monastery, before it was destroyed by a landslide.
There is a church on this site.
Gagarin Avenue
Park Switzerland. ☎
+7-831-282-63-00. 05:00 - 22:00. Opened after reconstruction for the
800th anniversary of Nizhny Novgorod. Most of the park is a valuable
natural landscape. There are playgrounds for children, playgrounds for
sports.
Stunning view of the lower part of the city, especially at
night.
Shchelokovsky farm, Nizhny Novgorod, st. Gorbatovskaya, 41.
Forest park zone in the mountainous part of the city between the Soviet
and Prioksky districts. In the center of the park there are three lakes,
stretched in one line. The third, lower and largest lake in terms of
area is equipped with places for swimming. In winter, the park is a
place for skiing for citizens, as well as cross-country skiing and
orienteering competitions. In the park, ski routes roll up with
snowmobiles - 3, 5, 10, 15 km. The Museum of the History and Ethnography
of the Peoples of the Volga Region is located in the area of the second
lake, where wooden buildings of past centuries are presented. The
exhibits were brought disassembled to the museum in the period 1970-1975
and reassembled in the museum. You can get to the Museum of Wooden
Architecture at Shchelokovsky Farm by bus 28 without transfers, the
final stop is right at the museum. Currently, restoration work is
underway on the territory of the museum, so the visit has been stopped
for some time.
Kanavino
Nizhny Novgorod fair , Sovnarkomovskaya
st., 13 (2 (Sormovskaya) Strelka line). ✉ ☎ +7 (831) 277-55-80.
09:00-18:00. The largest fair in Russia, the fame of which thundered far
beyond its borders. It was repeatedly visited by Russian emperors, as
well as by a number of very curious characters, such as Lewis Carroll.
The modern fair is the Main Fair House and several trade pavilions.
Exhibitions, business meetings and seasonal fairs are regularly held
here.
Arrow (Arrow of the Oka and Volga), Strelka street (2
(Sormovskaya) Strelka line). One of the main natural attractions in the
historical center of Nizhny Novgorod. It is located at the confluence of
the Oka and Volga rivers. Since the 17th century, there has been a river
port on the territory of Strelka, which was moved from this place only
in 2018. Now there is a park with historical warehouses (warehouses)
headed by the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral.
Cathedral of Alexander
Nevsky (New Fair Cathedral) , st. Strelka, 3 (2 (Sormovskaya) Strelka
line). ✉ ☎ +7 831 246-24-84. Cathedral of Nizhny Novgorod and Arzamas
Metropolis
Spaso-Preobrazhensky Cathedral (Staroyarmarochny
Cathedral), Yarmarochny proezd, 10/1 (2 (Sormovskaya) Strelka line). ☎
+7 (831) 246-07-15. Mon–Sun 7:00–19:00. Temple in the style of late
classicism in Nizhny Novgorod on the territory of the Nizhny Novgorod
Fair. It was built in 1822 by the architect Auguste Montferrand, the
creator of St. Isaac's Cathedral in St. Petersburg. In Soviet times, the
temple was closed and used as a warehouse for grain and flour. In April
1989, by decision of the Council for Religious Affairs, the cathedral
was transferred to the Gorky diocesan administration for its restoration
and use as a cathedral. On September 11, 2009, Patriarch of All Rus'
Kirill took part in the opening of a monument to Nizhny Novgorod
residents - participants in the liquidation of the consequences of the
accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
Park them. May Day (1
(Avtozavodskaya) Chkalovskaya line). Built for the All-Russian
Exhibition of 1896, the park is one of the most attractive places in
Nizhny Novgorod. There are many attractions, walking areas and a food
court. It is patrolled by mounted police, which looks very nice.
Nizhny Novgorod Stadium , st. Betancourt, 1A (2 (Sormovskaya) Strelka
line). International football stadium. It is located on Strelka, at the
confluence of the Oka River into the Volga.
Smolensk Church in
Gordeevka (Smolensk-Vladimir parish in Gordeevka), Ul. Gordeevskaya,
141A (1 (Avtozavodskaya) line 2 (Sormovskaya) line "Moskovskaya"). ☎ +7
(831) 215-30-50. Mon–Sun 7:00–19:00. Baroque house church of the country
estate of the merchant Grigory Stroganov. Next to it is the Vladimir
Church of the early 20th century in the eclectic style.
Sormovsky Park , Yubileiny Boulevard, 31B. ✉ ☎ +7 (831)
281-47-27, fax: +7 (831) 281-47-27. Quiet pine forest park -
beautiful landscapes and unique coniferous aroma. If you are
careful, sometimes you can see woodpeckers living in the park on the
trees. There is also a private zoo "Limpopo" with many animals, all
well-fed and well-groomed, for a fee you can buy animal food and
feed them. In Limpopo there is a contact zoo "Russian Village" -
animals that are safe for humans (goats, sheep, rabbits, etc.) are
outside the enclosures and you can pet them. Small children
especially love this part of the zoo.
Spaso-Preobrazhensky
Cathedral (Sormovsky Spaso-Preobrazhensky Cathedral), st.
Shcherbakova, 13A (2 (Sormovskaya) line "Petrel" and any bus or tram
to the stop "Center of Sormov"). ☎ +7 (831) 270-47-97. Mon–Sun
8:00–17:00. The cathedral was built as an addition to the already
built earlier church of Alexander Nevsky. Sormovo grew thanks to the
Sormovo plant, which employed more than 10 thousand people, and the
small temple could not accommodate everyone. In 1898, the
construction of the cathedral designed by the architect Pavel
Malinovsky was approved, and in 1905 the main throne was
consecrated. In 1927, the cathedral was closed, the roof was removed
from it and church utensils were confiscated. Initially, it was
decided to blow up the temple, however, an orphanage of culture was
opened in it, and later a warehouse and a refrigerator were created.
Only in 1990 the temple was returned to the Russian Orthodox Church
and later restored.
Avtozavodsky Park (Central Park of Culture and Leisure of the
Avtozavodsky District) , st. hero Prygunov, 2 (1 (Avtozavodskaya) line
"Park Kultury"). ☎ +7 (831) 256-58-65. The main park of the Avtozavodsky
district of Nizhny Novgorod. It is located in its central historical
part (Sotsgorod microdistrict). Built in the spirit of the Stalinist
Empire style. Nearby are the cinema "Mir" and the Palace of Culture GAZ.
There are many attractions for adults and children, a skating rink,
World War II memorials, beaches and fountains.
Palace of Culture
GAZ , st. hero Smirnov, 12 (1 (Avtozavodskaya) line "Park Kultury"). ☎
+7 (831) 295-72-28. Tue-Sat 11:00 – 19:00. Monumental building in the
"Stalinist" style. It was considered the largest palace of culture in
the USSR
Serobusyginsky quarter (Busyginsky quarter), Oktyabrya
pr-kt, 21 (1 (Avtozavodskaya) line "Kirovskaya", or bus stop "Station"
Happy ". You can also take the train to the station" Happy "). Several
houses-communes, united among themselves. The houses in the quarter were
built in the "Stalinist" Empire style and have a cold gray color. Green
areas are laid out around and inside the quarter, and the communal
houses themselves amaze with their grandeur. In addition to the gray
house, on opposite sides of it are other Stalin-era houses built in the
same style, but with a different color. Together they make up the most
beautiful part of the Sotsgorod Automobile Plant of the 1930s - the
Busyginsky Quarter.
Annunciation Monastery (Благовещенский монастырь)
House museum of A.D. Sacharov (Музей-квартира А.Д.Сахарова)
House Museum of A.M Gorky (Музей-квартира А.М.Горького)
To study the history of Russia in the late 19th and early 20th
centuries and the history of the USSR during the first five-year plans.
The city is very beautiful, especially in summer. Two large rivers and a
high bank with the Kremlin promise a magnificent panorama, but, in fact,
there is nothing to look at: the coast beyond the Volga is deserted, the
coast beyond the Oka is sleeping areas. Caution - a fairly strong wind
always blows, it must be taken into account, especially in bad weather.
Cycling around the city is not an idea, there is no cycling
infrastructure here at all. You can ride a boat, since there are many
different ones.
Museum of Architecture and Life Shchelokovsky
farm , Gorbatovskaya street 41 (On the western outskirts of the park of
the same name). ☎ 422-10-87. Temporarily closed due to restoration work.
Art Museum, Kremlin, bldg. 3 (Russian art), Verkhnevolzhskaya
embankment, 3 (foreign art), pl. Minin and Pozharsky, 2/2 (art of the
20th century). ☎ +7 (910) 130-02-84. 10:00–18:00 Tue-Wed, 12:00–20:00
Thu, 11:00–19:00 Fri, Sat, Sun; Monday - day off; The box office closes
30 min. until the end of the museum.. The exposition of Russian art,
ranging from icons to the avant-garde of the early XX century. The
section of ancient Russian art is quite large and includes icons from
Nizhny Novgorod, which you will not see anywhere else. Russian art of
the 17th and 19th centuries. pretty standard and looks like a branch of
the Tretyakov Gallery. Most likely, you will not discover any new names
for yourself, although the exposition is not bad. On the other hand, the
painting of the beginning of the 20th century is quite high quality -
again, there are no little-known names, but they are known in large
numbers, including, for example, the Larionov and Goncharova hall. The
building - Rukavishnikov's house - is an architectural monument in
itself.
Museum of the History of Artistic Crafts , st. B.
Pokrovskaya, 43, 4th floor. ☎ +7 (831) 282-25-43. 11:00–18:00, closed on
Mondays. Art crafts of the Nizhny Novgorod region from the 17th century
to the present day: painting and wood carving, forging, pottery, dolls
and folk costumes.
Nizhny Novgorod Planetarium (Nizhny Novgorod
Planetarium named after G. M. Grechko), st. Revolutionary, 20 (1
(Avtozavodskaya) line 2 (Sormovskaya) line "Moskovskaya"). ☎ +7 (831)
272-50-94. Mon–Sun 9:00–21:00. 100 - 250 ₽. The planetarium was opened
in 1948 and until December 5, 2005 it was located in the building of the
Alekseevskaya Church of the Annunciation Monastery. After the return of
the building of the Russian Orthodox Church, it was decided to build a
new planetarium. During construction, he did not interrupt his work.
When creating the planetarium, the latest technologies were used, in
addition, it surpassed the old building and is ready to receive more
than 50 thousand spectators annually and hold 1300 events. The
planetarium complex includes multimedia halls "Planet" and
"Cosmonautics". The planetarium has the first digital planetarium
program in Russia. The opening of the Great Star Hall of the Nizhny
Novgorod Planetarium was timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of
the Space Age and took place on October 4, 2007.
Nizhny Novgorod
Circus (Nizhny Novgorod State Circus named after Margarita
Nazarova) , st. Communist, 38 (1 (Avtozavodskaya) line 2
(Sormovskaya) line "Moskovskaya"). ✉ ☎ +7 (831) 246-13-80. Mon–Sun
10:00–19:00. 800 - 2000 ₽. The history of the Nizhny Novgorod circus
dates back to 1883, when Akim and Pyotr Nikitin built the first wooden
circus building. In 1886, the construction of the stone building of the
circus was completed. In 1923, the Nizhny Novgorod Circus came under the
jurisdiction of the Central Administration of State Circuses (TSUGTS).
The modern building of the circus for 2000 seats was built in 1964,
opened after reconstruction in 2007.
Aquapark "Oceanis", st. Gagarin,
35, building. 3 (near the Switzerland Park; buses 1, 12, 43, 68, 85). ✉
☎ +7 (831) 2-831-831. 10:00–22:00. Prices: from 1500 ₽ adult rate Lite
on weekdays for 4 hours to 2600 ₽ for an aqua park and thermal baths for
an adult for 12 hours on weekdays; on weekends, the cheapest ticket for
an adult: 1700 ₽, the most expensive: 2900 ₽. The water park opened in
2022. Safe slides are provided for children, extreme slides for adults.
Play area for children 0+, family water play complex 3+. Pools of
different depths. There is also a thermal complex with various spas,
jacuzzis, baths. It is possible to purchase a ticket for 12 hours and
not go out: there are cafes and bars on the territory.
Zoo "Limpopo"
(located in the Sormovsky Park of Culture, this is the riverside part of
the city) , st. Yaroshenko, 7-b (buses 3, 12, 45, 57, 65). ☎ +7 (831)
271-67-37. 09:00–21:00. 700 ₽, complex with "Amazonia": 850 ₽. The zoo
is located on two sites, next to the Museum of the History and Life of
the Soviet Union “Back to the USSR” (10:00–19:00), rides and cafes. The
zoo occupies about 7 hectares, there are more than 1300 representatives
of the fauna, as well as the Amazonia tropical botanical garden.
Academic Philharmonic named after Rostropovich (on the territory of
the Kremlin). ☎ +7 (831) 439-11-87. 10:00–19:00, lunch break:
14:00–14:30. The main organizer of symphony, chamber, organ, children's
and literary concerts. It holds the International Sakharov Festival, the
annual children's festival "New Names", provides an opportunity to get
acquainted with the work of the best musicians in the world. There are
charity concerts with free admission by advance registration.
Opera
and Ballet Theatre. A.S. Pushkin, st. Belinsky, 59 (tram 2 to the stop
"Opera and Ballet Theatre", buses to the stop "Freedom Square" and walk
through a small square). ☎ +7 (831) 234-05-34. 9:30-19:00, lunch break:
14:00-14:30. One of the founders of the annual festival "Boldino
Autumn", which has now become international and annual. The theater
itself opened in 1935, although it can be considered that the beginning
was laid in 1897, when, with the active support of Maxim Gorky, a
decision was made to build the People's House, which would also include
a people's theater. The People's House opened in 1903 with a concert by
F.I. Chaliapin.
Drama Theatre. M. Gorky, st. Bolshaya Pokrovskaya, 13
(travel to the Minin and Pozharsky Square stop by bus or tram 2, 21 to
the Bolshaya Pokrovskaya / DK Sverdlova or Black Pond stop; you can get
to the Gorkovskaya metro station and walk along Bolshaya Pokrovskaya). ☎
+7 (831) 419-51-73. Since 1896, the theater has been located in a
beautiful building on the central pedestrian street of the city. The
building was designed by the chief architect of the imperial theaters,
academician V.A. Schroeter. The repertoire includes plays by N.V. Gogol,
M. Gorky, A.S. Pushkin, A.P. Chekhov, W. Shakespeare, A.N. Ostrovsky, G.
Gorin, V. Tokareva and others. On the basis of the theater, the Russian
Theater Festival named after I. M. Gorky.
It was founded in 1221 under the name of Novgorod, which, perhaps,
meant not just “new city”, but repeated the name of the city of Novgorod
on the Volkhov River. To distinguish cities of the same name, the
definition “lower” is introduced, which at first was used sporadically,
and from the 14th century it was almost constantly used. This definition
is most often understood as an indication of the location of the city in
the lower lands, on the Niza. According to N. D. Rusinov, in this case
the city would be called not Nizhny, but Nizovsky Novgorod. In addition,
he draws attention to the fact that pairs of toponyms with the
components "lower" and "upper" usually arise within the same river - in
other words, the city, in relation to which Novgorod is "lower", should
have been located upstream of it. Oka or Volga. Rusinov considers
Gorodets to be such a city, which arose before Novgorod, lies upstream
of the Volga, and it was from it that the functions of an advanced
defensive point were transferred to Novgorod. Nevertheless, the
etymology based on the Nizovsky land is evident, for example, in the
great imperial title that was preserved until 1917, in which the emperor
was called the “Grand Duke of Novgorod of the Nizovsky land” (in the old
spelling - “Novagorod of the Nizovsky land”).
On October 7, 1932,
in commemoration of the 40-year literary activity of the Soviet writer
Maxim Gorky, a native of this city, Nizhny Novgorod was renamed Gorky,
although he himself was against this, he forbade his relatives and
friends to call Nizhny Novgorod in a new way and in general disagreed
with the city renaming campaign. As part of the “process of revival of
historical original names” carried out in the late perestroika period,
at the suggestion of the Toponymy Council of the Soviet Cultural Fund,
in accordance with the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of
the RSFSR No. Gorky region to the Nizhny Novgorod region, the historical
name of Nizhny Novgorod was returned to the city.
The emergence of the city and the Nizhny Novgorod principality
Starting from the 9th century, the Slavic colonization of the
lands along the upper Volga, inhabited by Finno-Ugric peoples,
took place. By the end of the 11th century, Rus' owned the
entire upper Volga, almost to the mouth of the Oka. The borders
of the Volga Bulgaria began a little lower, and the right bank
of the Volga up to the mouth of the Sura was inhabited by the
Erzyans. At the same time, Gorodets was the “last” Slavic city
on the Volga until 1221.
In 1221, Prince Yuri
Vsevolodovich, at the confluence of the Volga and Oka, founded a
stronghold for the defense of the borders of the Vladimir
principality from the Moksha, Erzya, Mari and Volga Bulgars
under the name Novgorod of the Nizovsky land. Novgorodians
called the principality of Vladimir “Nizovsky land”, later this
name was transformed into Nizhny Novgorod, and it remained in
the imperial title until 1917.
During the period of
feudal fragmentation, Nizhny Novgorod was alternately the lot of
Suzdal and Vladimir principalities. In 1350, the city became the
capital of the independent Nizhny Novgorod-Suzdal Grand Duchy,
created in 1341, which occupied a vast territory and competed
with Moscow. During this period, the Nizhny Novgorod lands began
to be actively settled.
Russian kingdom
In 1392 (but
finally only in 1425 under Vasily II), during the growth of the
lands of the Moscow principality, the Nizhny Novgorod-Suzdal
Grand Duchy was annexed to the possessions of Moscow, and Nizhny
Novgorod became the center of the county.
Around 1469,
the city was visited by Afanasy Nikitin, who mentioned it in his
travel notes "Journey Beyond the Three Seas".
Under Ivan
III and Vasily III, the city played the role of a border post
with the Kazan Khanate, had a permanent army and was a gathering
place for warriors during campaigns against it. In 1500-1511,
instead of the existing wooden one, the stone Nizhny Novgorod
Kremlin was built. After the campaign of Vasily III to Kazan, in
1523, the city of Vasil (now Vasilsursk) was founded on the Sura
River, to which border duties were transferred, and with the
conquest of Kazan and Astrakhan by Ivan IV, the borders on the
Volga disappeared completely. In 1565, after Tsar Ivan the
Terrible divided the Russian kingdom into oprichnina and
zemshchina, the city became part of the latter.
During
the Time of Troubles, Nizhny Novgorod, along with the
Trinity-Sergius Lavra, continued to support Moscow. The decisive
role in the liberation from the Polish-Lithuanian invaders was
played by the Nizhny Novgorod militia of 1612, led by the Nizhny
Novgorod Zemstvo elder Kozma Minin and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky.
In the XVII century, the church schism that occurred in the
Orthodox Church under Patriarch Nikon led to the fact that in
the vicinity of Nizhny Novgorod, and especially on the
Kerzhentse River, numerous settlements of Old Believers were
formed. To eradicate the schism in Nizhny in 1672, the Nizhny
Novgorod and Alatyr diocese was founded, headed by the
metropolitan until 1719.
Russian empire
As a result of
the administrative-territorial reforms of Peter I, in 1708 the
Nizhny Novgorod district became part of the Kazan province. On
January 26 (February 6), 1714, it became the center of its own
province of the same name. From the largest, at that time, Kazan
province, Nizhny Novgorod province stands out, including
Arzamas, Alatyr, Balakhna, Vasil (Vasilsursk), Gorokhovets,
Murom, Yuryevets, Yadrin, the lower reaches of the Kerzhents and
Vetluga rivers. In the 1720s, the Alphabet, Slavic-Russian and
Hellenic-Greek schools were created in the city, and in 1721
Archbishop Pitirim opened the Nizhny Novgorod Theological
Seminary. On April 23 (May 4), 1733, a police force was
established in the city. The first Nizhny Novgorod police chief
was a retired army captain, Grigory Ratkov.
On May 20-21
(June 1), 1767, the "highest" visit to Nizhny Novgorod by
Catherine II took place. The Empress, in a letter to Count
Panin, gave a low assessment of its development:
This
city is beautiful in its situation, but its structure is
disgusting, everything is either lying on its side, or close to
it ...
As a result, Governor Yakov Arshenevsky was
ordered to remove the exact plan of Nizhny Novgorod, on the
basis of which a new regular plan of the city was created in the
capital's Commission on the structure of St. Petersburg and
Moscow. Well-known urban planners headed by A. V. Kvasov were
involved in the work on the project. The plan was approved by
the Governing Senate and approved by the Empress on April 13
(24), 1770[52]. According to it, various social and cultural
institutions appear: the first city hospital and the first
pharmacy (1780), the first provincial printing house in the
Volga region (1791), the first public theater of Shakhovsky with
a troupe of serf actors (1798)
In 1817, the largest fair
in Russia was moved from the city of Makaryev to the left bank
of the Oka, thanks to which the rapid economic development of
the city and the settlements adjacent to it began. Arrangement
of a fair town on the low sandy bank of the Oka became an
outstanding urban planning project created under the leadership
of A. A. Betancourt: an artificial canal was dug, a sewer system
was created. The complex of the Nizhny Novgorod Fair included
the Main Fair House, the Orthodox Old Fair and New Fair
Cathedrals, a Sunni mosque, an Armenian church, the Great Fair
Theater, and a circus. Thanks to the fair, Nizhny Novgorod
received the nickname "Pocket of Russia".
In the years
1834-1841, town-planning transformations were carried out in
Nizhny, which still determine the appearance and infrastructure
of the historical center: several congresses were laid
connecting the Lower and Upper Posadas (one of them, Zelensky,
was dug into the slope of the Kremlin Mountain). The lower
Safronovskaya and upper Georgievskaya embankments were built.
From the earth collected during the construction of the Zelensky
Congress, the Lykov dam was poured in place of the old wooden
bridge across the Pochaina. A military garrison was stationed in
the Kremlin, for which residential development was finally
removed from there. The Kremlin became the military and
administrative center of the city.
In the middle of the
19th century, large industrial enterprises appeared in the
nearby villages: the Nizhny Novgorod Mechanical Plant in Sormovo
and the metal plant in Kanavina. In 1861, one of the first in
the country, the Moscow-Nizhny Novgorod railway was built here.
In 1880, the Nizhny Novgorod Commodity Exchange was established.
In 1896, the largest All-Russian Art and Industrial
Exhibition in pre-revolutionary Russia was held in Kanavin, on
the occasion of which large-scale landscaping work was carried
out in the city: an electric tram was organized (the first in
Russia in modern borders), funiculars were built from Nizhny to
Upper Posad ( in Nizhny Novgorod called elevators), the new
building of the city Nikolaev theater.
In December 1905,
an uprising of the workers of the Sormovo plant took place in
Sormov and Kanavin. Although it was quickly suppressed, the
newspapers of the time noted widespread public support for the
strikers' actions.
During the First World War, Nizhny
Novgorod was filled with refugees from the west of the empire.
Thanks to the governor A.F. Girs, in 1915, a telephone factory
"Siemens and Halske" was built near Nizhny Novgorod.
Enterprises, institutions and defense factories were evacuated
to the city (including the Felzer and Etna factories in Riga).
In 1916, the Nizhny Novgorod People's University was opened and
the Warsaw Polytechnic Institute (which became the base of the
future Gorky Polytechnic Institute) was evacuated. To
accommodate it, the architect Vladimir Pokrovsky is designing a
whole complex of educational, administrative and auxiliary
buildings. Their construction was not completed in full due to
the revolutionary events unfolding in the country. For the same
reason, the construction of a temple for almost a thousand
people in the Russian baroque style of the late 17th century, as
well as the projects of the architect Nikolai Streletsky in
1913-1915 - a drawbridge across the Oka and a tunnel under the
Volga, commissioned by the Moscow-Kazan Railway Society - did
not take place.
In early April 1917, the Nizhny Novgorod
Provincial Executive Committee of the Provisional Government was
created. In mid-March, a provincial council of peasant deputies
was also formed, and a period of dual power began.
In the autumn of 1917, Soviet power was established in the city.
Then the city was shaken by turmoil, civil war and the First
World War. In 1929, the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Committee of
the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks was formed in the
city. During the NEP period, the Nizhny Novgorod Fair was
revived for a short time. However, with the beginning of
industrialization in the 1930s, the fair was closed as a
"socially hostile phenomenon."
In 1929, the settlements
of Sormovo and Kunavino were abolished, their territory,
together with other settlements (villages: Gordeevka, Karpovka,
Vysokov, as well as the villages: Vysokov, Koposov, Pochinki,
Burnakovka, Knyazhikha, Ratmanikha, Kostarikha, Molitovka,
Borzovka, Monastyrka and others ) was included in the greater
Nizhny Novgorod, which since then has been divided into
districts. In the same year, the Nizhny Novgorod province was
abolished, and Nizhny Novgorod became the center of the region.
October 7, 1932 the city was renamed Gorky.
The thirties
of the XX century were marked by the rapid growth of industry.
In 1932, the largest industrial enterprise in the city, the
Gorky Automobile Plant, built with the participation of Ford
Motor Co., began operating. In the 1930s and 1940s, the city was
even referred to as "Russian Detroit". The automobile plant was
an important object of the defense industry during the Great
Patriotic War, along with the Krasnoye Sormovo plant, aircraft
plant No. 21, the Gorky Zhirkombinat and the Gidromash aircraft
plant evacuated from Moscow. In 1932, a large river cargo port
was created on Strelka, which was of high importance both for
the city and for the entire European part of the country. During
this period, the first capital bridges were built: the
Kanavinsky automobile bridge across the Oka and the Borsky
railway bridge across the Volga, connecting Gorky with a direct
railway connection with the Urals and Siberia.
During the
Great Patriotic War, several large military units and formations
of the people's militia were formed in Gorky, the 137th rifle
division of the Gorky formation received the title of guards. In
1941-1942, a defensive line with a total length of more than
1,000 kilometers was built around the city. Industrial
enterprises were important suppliers of weapons for the front.
At the Gorky Machine-Building Plant (New Sormovo), as many
artillery pieces were produced as at all enterprises in Germany.
Due to its military-industrial significance, the city was bombed
by German aircraft. During the war, enemy bombers made 43 raids
on Gorky, 26 of them at night.
After the end of the war,
public transport was gradually restored in the city. The
transport network and infrastructure, at that time, were built
without taking into account the possibility of competent city
management, which served as the basis for modern transport and
infrastructure problems. Multi-populated dormitory quarters were
built in the Lower part of the city near the factories where
their inhabitants worked. At that time, the daily movement of
the working population to other areas or to the other side of
the Oka was not supposed. Gorky in the 1930s-1950s was a city
itself and several factories with workers' settlements and
villages around them, separated by wastelands, which, by the end
of the 20th century, were already built up with multi-storey
residential areas. At the turn of the 20th-21st centuries, the
shortcomings of such a scheme appeared: a significant number of
the population of the residential microdistricts of the
Zarechnaya part began to work and study in the upland part and
vice versa. As a result, four bridges across the Oka, three of
which were built during the Soviet period, still remain
bottlenecks in the city's transport system. The subway in the
city was also built without taking into account the movement of
residents to the Upper part of the city. Because of this, it was
unprofitable for a long time, until the opening of the
Gorkovskaya station. It was assumed that the metro will serve to
move the working population from different parts of the city to
the Gorky Automobile Plant. Nevertheless, the plans for the
construction of the metro initially called for four lines, one
of which would completely cover the Upper part of the city.
Due to the presence of defense plants in Gorky, from August
4, 1959, according to the decree of the Council of Ministers of
the USSR, it became a closed city for foreigners. Subsequently,
this affected the low influx of tourists and the poor
development of the Gorky airport. Cruise ships on the Volga with
foreign tourists on board passed through Gorky at night, without
disembarking.
In 1970, by the Decree of the Presidium of
the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the city of Gorky was awarded
the Order of Lenin.
In the same year, a major radiation
accident occurred at the Krasnoye Sormovo plant. 12 people died
immediately, the rest received severe exposure.
On October 22, 1990, the city was renamed back to Nizhny
Novgorod. On September 6, 1991, it was reopened for visiting by
foreign citizens. In the 1990s, the fair began to function
again, which became a platform for international assemblies,
exhibitions and business forums. At the same time, the German
corporations Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen bought out part of GAZ
for their own production.
The business center of the city
is developing in its historical part, despite the fact that
narrow streets become an obstacle to this. In the early 2000s,
it began to be actively built up with multi-storey residential
and office buildings, while infill development is often carried
out, which constantly attracts public attention. Arson of old
wooden buildings is also a problem in the city center. Some
construction projects that began before the crisis of 2008-2009
remained frozen for a long time, as a result of which there were
many unfinished retail and office buildings in the center.
In 2010, the city government, with the participation of the
public, approved a new master plan for the development of the
city of Nizhny Novgorod. The new development concept implies the
following main points. In terms of socio-economic and
territorial development: an increase in the number of
inhabitants to 1.47 million people, the working-age population -
up to 660.5 thousand people with a reduction in employment in
industry from 35.4% to 28% due to an increase in those employed
in services up to 72 %; the transfer of business activity from
the overloaded historical center to the riverside part of the
city (such a transfer was envisaged by the Soviet general plans
of the 1980s). In terms of designing industrial areas: reduction
of industrial areas from 5.9 thousand hectares to 4.1 thousand
hectares, mainly due to the elimination of industry in the
central planning zone. In terms of recreational areas: providing
green areas for common use in the amount of 58 square meters per
person (average for the city). In terms of natural and
environmental development: strengthening the banks and equipping
embankments along the Volga - 22 kilometers, along the Oka - 39
kilometers; expansion of the rain sewer network; installation of
noise-protective windows on residential buildings along highways
and an increase in the sanitary break zone of the airport. In
terms of transport infrastructure: reconstruction of the
international airport, construction of a light rail and electric
trains from the nearest metro to the airport; removal of cargo
berths for water transport from the Strelka area; completion of
the construction of automobile bypasses of the M7 Moscow-Kazan
highway and the complete removal of the flow of transit traffic
from the city; extension of the Avtozavodskaya subway line to
Sennaya Square on the right bank of the Oka and to a residential
area on the South Highway on the left; extension of the
Sormovskaya line to Slavy Square and Strelka station. However,
in late 2011 - early 2012, the regional authorities decided to
suspend the design of the Sormovskaya line towards Slavy Square
in favor of a project to develop it towards the Meshcherskoye
Lake microdistrict and the Avtozavodskaya line towards Sennaya
Square. Among the reasons are problems in negotiations between
the city authorities and Russian Railways, which owns land
intended for construction, on which the existing transport
infrastructure of railway workers is located. The interest of
the city's power and economic elites in raising interest in the
Meshcherskoye Lake microdistrict, where they are actively
building commercial housing, is discussed even more often.
Nizhny Novgorod is the largest center of river cruise
tourism in Russia. In 2016, Vladimir Putin opened a new Nizhny
Novgorod plant named after the 70th anniversary of the Victory
of the Almaz-Antey concern, which produces military equipment.
In January 2019, Nizhny Novgorod ranked first among Russian
cities and 109th in the world in terms of quality of life. The
rating was compiled by the site numbeo.com, which specializes in
statistics on the cost of living and consumer prices in
different countries of the world. On June 2, 2020, Nizhny
Novgorod received the honorary title "City of Labor Valor" for
his contribution to the Victory over Nazism.
In 2021, a
number of festive events were held in Nizhny Novgorod in honor
of the 800th anniversary of the city.
By plane
Nizhny Novgorod Airport is in the shadow of
Moscow: flying from here to other
cities is not very unprofitable. In autumn 2015, flights are operated to
Moscow (8 times a day: Aeroflot, UTair, S7),
St.
Petersburg (1 time per day, UTair),
Yekaterinburg (every other
day, UTair), Ufa (almost every day), as well as some Volga cities under
the program of regional subsidized transportation. Local transportation
is handled by Dexter air taxi. There are very few international flights.
Most likely, you will fly with a transfer through Moscow, or simply
travel from Moscow by train.
Strigino Airport (named after V.P.
Chkalov, IATA:GOJ) , Strigino International Airport (can be reached
directly by bus 11). ☎ +7 (831) 269-38-19, 8 (800) 1000-333. It is
located on the left bank of the Oka in the Avtozavodsky district of the
city, the Strigino microdistrict. From 1 (Avtozavodskaya) line "Park
Kultury" 8 km, from the center 23 km. You can get there by bus No. 20
from 1 (Avtozavodskaya) Proletarskaya line, No. 11 (or minibus No. 29)
from Avtozavodsky department store or minibus No. 46 from the center
(Gorky Square, Lyadova Square). The option with a transfer to the metro
is recommended, since a trip to the center on the "direct" minibus No.
46 can take about an hour. All routes except No. 46 stop at Kiseleva
Square, which is a 5-10-minute walk from 1 (Avtozavodskaya) line "Park
Kultury". There is no transport at night. Due to the proximity of the
airport to the city, there are no fixed taxi fares, payment by mileage:
count on 500-600 rubles for a trip to the center. An official taxi at
the airport will cost 800 rubles. The terminal building has several
cafes, free Wi-Fi, and a museum. 500 meters from the airport, a hotel
offering double rooms with private facilities at a price of 2500 rubles.
By train
Nizhny Novgorod stands on the main line
Moscow-Kirov-Yekaterinburg, one of the branches of the Trans-Siberian
Railway in the European part of Russia. Another line goes south from
Nizhny to Arzamas and
Saransk. Many trains from Moscow to
Siberia and
the Far East pass through the city, so traveling from the west or east
will not be a problem for you.
From Moscow: in addition to the
passing ones, there are several daily trains from Moscow to Nizhny
Novgorod, departing from the Kursk railway station. 3-4 times a day
there are high-speed trains "Strizh" (3.5 hours), twice a day -
"Swallows" (4.5 hours, five stops along the way). Both those and others
are seated, go during the day. The price of tickets varies several
times, the level of comfort is not so much. There is also a night train
that takes a little over 6 hours to travel, so either the departure time
or the arrival time is not very convenient. Nizhny Novgorod is quite
close to Moscow, so traveling between cities is more pleasant during the
day. If you go from Moscow and do not spend the night in Nizhny
Novgorod, then you will arrive at 10:10, and leave back no later than
20:10.
From Kirov: Mostly passing trains, travel time is about 6
hours, on average 10-12 times a day. Suburban express Kirov-Nizhny
Novgorod was liquidated, instead of it the train 010G, departure from
Nizhny Novgorod 17:20, arrival 23:00, return 06:50, arrival 12:30
From St. Petersburg: night branded train "Volga" (14 hours) and a
couple more passing.
In other directions, the transport situation
is not the most favorable. The only night train runs to
Kazan (via
Arzamas, 9 hours). Similarly, there is only one, but this time already a
daytime train to Ivanovo (5 hours) and
Yaroslavl (8.5 hours), but the
bus will leave faster. There are an average of 2 trains a day to Saransk
(7-8 hours). There is no stable rail connection to Cheboksary, although
it is possible to travel by Kazan train with a change in the Chuvash
city of Kanash.
Electric trains run along dead-end lines to
Zavolzhye, Bor (Mokhovye Gory station) and Pavlovo (Metalist station),
towards Moscow to Kovrov, towards Saransk to Arzamas, towards Kirov to
Uren station.
Moskovsky railway station (Nizhny
Novgorod-Moskovsky), pl. Revolution, 2 (1 (Avtozavodskaya) line 2
(Sormovskaya) line "Moskovskaya"). ✉ ☎ +7 (831) 248-28-00. After the
abolition of the Kazansky (Romodanovsky) station on the right bank of
the Oka in Nizhny Novgorod, only one central station remained, which is
officially referred to simply as the Station, but is still colloquially
known as the Moscow Station. It is located on the left bank of the Oka
in the middle of the Kanavino district. The facade overlooks Revolution
Square, next to the metro station, from which one stop to the center.
From the metro, you immediately find yourself in a pedestrian tunnel
under the platforms, where there is also a storm of trade. For the 2018
FIFA World Cup, the station was thoroughly put in order. The building
itself has two floors and a mighty mosaic panel on the worker-communist
theme. To the right of the ticket office entrance, to the left are the
waiting rooms, which are all paid as one: 35 rubles for hard seats, 100
rubles for soft seats, as well as a VIP room (150 rubles + 80 rubles per
hour). If you want for free, go to the second floor, where it is
surprisingly empty, and only the busts of prominent representatives of
the Russian merchant class - Savva Morozov and Savva Mamontov - will
keep you company. Automatic lockers (up to 6 hours: 50 rubles, 6-12
hours: 90 rubles, up to 24 hours: 120 rubles) next to paid waiting
rooms. Manual lockers are located somewhere in the underground floor of
the station.
At the Moscow railway station there is no separation of
platforms for long-distance trains and electric trains, so the
turnstiles are poked everywhere. Long-distance train passengers (and
those who see them off) are allowed through special gates on the side of
the turnstiles and only before the train departs. Passengers of
high-speed trains "Strizh" and "Lastochka" should remember that they
have special control with luggage clearance. All this is located on the
platform farthest from the station building, so the journey to the train
will take at least 3-4 minutes (if you count from the metro station,
then all 8-10 minutes).
There are several catering outlets at the
station (Burger King, etc.) You can also eat at the Respublika shopping
center across the road from the station or in the Gordeevsky market
area, which is on the opposite side of the railway: there are several
barbecue-type cafes there and they sell everything whatever you can
think of. In addition, next to the station, opposite the "Republic",
there is a Spar store. True, ramps are not everywhere, so with heavy
things you are unlikely to want to go outside the station.
Almost
all electric trains arrive at the Moscow railway station. In rare cases,
you may find yourself at one of the other Nizhny Novgorod stations:
Myza Station (Prospect Gagarin). A dead-end station left from the Kazan
railway, which ran along the right bank of the Oka to Kazansky
(Romodanovsky) station. It is located in the southern part of Gagarin
Avenue next to the terminal tram of the same name. The transport value
is minimal. It serves one intracity electric train and another electric
train in the direction of Arzamas, as well as several trains to the
Royka station in Zeleny Gorod, stopping at the Bolshaya Yelnya station
next to the Mega shopping center. Until 2013, working electric trains
went from here to Zeletsino (the city of Kstovo), but then they began to
be canceled.
Varia platform. Another dead-end station, which is the
terminal for some electric trains from the Volga region. Located in a
residential area a kilometer from the 2 (Sormovskaya) Burevestnik line.
If you happened to be here, go out to Komintern Street (aka Sormovskoe
Highway) and leave at least for Sormovo, at least towards the Moscow
railway station, at least to the city center. Walk to the subway about
7-10 minutes.
By bus
From Moscow, buses leave from the
Shchelkovskaya bus station, the journey time is about 8 hours.
There are several bus stations in Nizhny Novgorod:
Bus station
"Kanavinsky", Moscow highway, 4E (2 (Sormovskaya) line "Kanavinskaya").
☎ +7 (831) 246-20-21. Buses to Balakhna, Zavolzhye, Gorodets, Chkalovsk,
Kovernino, Dzerzhinsk, as well as all interregional routes of the
north-western direction: Ivanovo, Kostroma, Yaroslavl, etc. It is
located 5 minutes walk from the metro station "Kanavinskaya". The new
building of the bus station is located opposite the metro station.
Bus station "Sennaya", st. Bolshaya Pecherskaya, 84 (not far from the
cable car). ☎ +7 (831) 469-01-74. A small bus pier with a bus station
pavilion, closed in the summer of 2014, either for reconstruction, or
for good. Buses to Kstovo.
Shcherbinki bus station, Gagarin Ave.,
234A (Southern exit from the city towards Arzamas and Bogorodsk). ☎ +7
(831) 469-01-74. 05:30 – 22:00. Buses to
Kstovo,
Bogorodsk, Balakhna,
Lyskovo, Pavlovo, B. Murashkino and Arzamas.
Some buses and
minibuses can depart directly from the square in front of the Moscow
railway station or from metro stations.
By car
Nizhny Novgorod
stands on the M7 Volga highway, 420 km from Moscow and 400 km from
Kazan. The road between Moscow and Nizhny is mainly four-lane, with the
exception of a two-lane section of the Vladimir bypass. However, the
flow of cars and especially trucks is huge here, so get ready for a slow
and rather stressful ride. The road takes from 5-6 hours to infinity,
depending on traffic jams in the Moscow region and repairs throughout
the entire route. From the side of Kazan, the road is two-lane with rare
four-lane sections. Extremely unfavorable situation on the bypass
Cheboksary.
From the north, the P152 highway leads to Nizhny
Novgorod from Ivanovo (250 km). You can travel the same way from
Yaroslavl (360 km) or Kostroma (320 km). To the south, R158 goes to
Arzamas (100 km) and further to Saransk (290 km). Finally, to the
northeast, beyond the Volga, the P152 highway leads to Yaransk (355 km)
and Kirov (560 km) with a branch to the east of the Kostroma region, to
Sharya.
Main entrances to the city:
Moskovskoe highway (left
bank of the Oka) comes to the Kanavino area and rests on the flyover
that leads to the metro bridge, and it is already easy to get to the
city center along it
Gagarin Avenue (the road from Arzamas, the right
bank of the Oka) rests on Lyadov Square, immediately after which the
center begins
The Kazan highway enters the city from Kstovo and, of
course, Kazan, eventually leading to Sennaya Square
Sormovskoye
highway, which is the entrance to Nizhny Novgorod from the north, is the
least trivial route to the city. Get ready for the fact that the road
from the city border to the center will take at least half an hour, and
you will end up in the area of the Moscow railway station
Bridges
across the Volga (Bor bridges) lead directly to the Kanavinsky district
to the Moscow railway station. Then look for the way to the metro bridge
or Kanavinsky bridge
There is also a Southern Bypass, which
allows you to partially or completely bypass the city when driving along
the M7 highway. This is the Nizhny Novgorod ring under construction. Now
the bypass is located along the southern border of the city. If you need
to go to Kazan, continue along local roads eastward past the oil
refinery and merge onto the M7 in the Kstovo area.
On the ship
Lots of cruise ships passing from Moscow to Astrakhan and back. Long and
expensive.
River Station , Nizhnevolzhskaya Embankment, pl.
Markina, 15A. (Any bus or fixed-route taxi to the Rechnoy Vokzal stop,
you can also take tram number 11 to the Markin Square stop, though only
in summer.). ✉ ☎ +7 (831) 431-30-01. Mon–Fri 8:00–17:00. A complex of
buildings and structures for servicing passengers of river transport in
Nizhny Novgorod. It is located on the right bank at the confluence of
the Oka and Volga. Built in 1964. Architect M. I. Churilin. It is shaped
like a river boat. During the reconstruction of 2002-2003, semicircular
rotundas were added.
Metro
Nizhny Novgorod Metro (Nizhny Novgorod Metro) , Nizhny
Novgorod, Pl. Revolution 7. ☎ +7 831 245-57-80. 05:15-00:15. 28 ₽. It
consists of two lines - red (Avtozavodskaya) and blue (Sormovskaya),
with a total length of 21.6 km. The Red line runs along the left bank of
the Oka from the Avtozavodsky district to the Moskovsky railway station,
after which it crosses the Oka and comes to the center, where the only
station on the right bank, Gorkovskaya, is located. The blue line
consists of only five stations and runs from Sormovskoye highway to the
Nizhny Novgorod stadium on Meshchera.
The fare is 35 rubles in
cash (30 rubles on a transport card with free transfers to ground
transport), payment with metal tokens with a hole in the middle or an
electronic transport card. A monthly pass costs 1,000 rubles and is
unlikely to be in demand by travelers. There are also electronic
transport cards for 90 rubles for 24 hours of travel on all types of
public transport and 28 rubles for 70 minutes.
Trains run from
5:30 am to midnight. Traffic intervals during peak hours are 2 to 4
minutes on the red line and up to 5 minutes on the blue line. During the
day, during a decline in the main passenger flow, you can expect a train
for about 6 minutes, in the evenings the intervals reach up to 8-10
minutes, so you can see what happens to the traditional clock, counting
the time from the previous train: when it reaches 10 minutes, it simply
goes out, and time stops. Especially rare movement in the evenings on
the blue line.
The Nizhny Novgorod metro is useful for those
travelers who want to visit the city center, the well-maintained
industrial Avtozavodsky district, the Sormovsky district with a large
number of pre-revolutionary and Stalinist buildings, and Meshchera with
a new stadium, while spending a minimum of time to travel by transport.
The first stations were built in the early 1980s; from an architectural
point of view, they are of little interest. Nevertheless, two of them
deserve attention: Moscow (the only one in the territory of the former
USSR with four tracks) and Gorkovskaya (the walls are decorated with
panels depicting the main sights of the city). Taking a ride between
them by train, you will see the metro bridge and, with some skill, the
panorama of the Oka River (however, the view from the bus is better).
Also of interest is the ground covered station Burevestnik, besides this
is the only station of the Nizhny Novgorod metro with side platforms.
Another interesting station is Zarechnaya, where the track walls are
decorated in the form of a river wave, and at the end of the station
there is a panel "City of Kitezh". Echoes of revolutionary themes are
found at several stations of the red line.
Since 2018, the blue
line has been extended to Strelka station, which is designed to serve
passengers during the 2018 FIFA World Cup and, in the future, for
residents of the surrounding microdistricts. Also in 2021, it is planned
to extend the red line in the Nagornaya part of the city to the Opera
Theater station. It is planned to be an interchange between the red and
promising green lines in the Nagornaya part of the city.
Ground
transport
The main type of land transport in Nizhny is PAZ
mini-buses. During rush hours in the morning and evening, the city
plunges into many kilometers of traffic jams, especially in the areas of
bridges across the Oka, so the journey can take several hours. In 2009,
the metro bridge was opened - the fourth building connecting the upland
and river parts. The second Borsky bridge has been built, so the problem
of traffic jams in the Kirov direction is a thing of the past.
Also, the city train runs around the city - an analogue of the surface
metro. It serves as an addition to the subway lines in those areas where
it has not been extended. It has 2 lines: Sormovskaya and Prikoskaya.
The fare on the Sormovskaya line is 28 rubles in cash and 26 rubles on
the Citycard transport card. Two tariff zones have been introduced on
the Priokskaya line: From Moskovsky railway station to Petryaevka
station and from Petryaevka station to Prospekt Gagarina station. The
fare in them is also equal to the cost in the rest of the city
transport, however, if you go from the Moscow railway station to the
Prospekt Gagarin station, the cost will consist of both tariff zones and
will already be 56 rubles in cash and the same amount on a transport
card.
Ground trams run throughout the city. The longest route of
all is No. 417. It connects the outskirts of the Avtozavodsky district
with the railway station. Travel time is approximately 1 hour 20
minutes. The route runs through sleeping areas (about 75% of the way).
Also, the routes of several more trams run through the courtyards, but
in most cases, they are located in the upper part of the city. By the
way, you can get to the Upper part of the city by tram 27 or 10 directly
from the Moscow railway station.
Trolleybuses do not link the
upper and lower parts. The trolleybus network is divided into 3 parts
that are not interconnected. This:
Nagornaya trolleybus network
(connects all 3 districts - Nizhny Novgorod, Sovetsky, Prioksky) with a
turning circle on Minin Square, near the Kremlin.
Avtozavodskaya
trolleybus network (connects all remote residential microdistricts)
Zarechnaya trolleybus network (connects Kanavinsky, Moskovsky and
Sormovsky districts)
A lot of different buses. They can take you
to any part of the city, but after 18:00 - 19:00 there may be problems
with a long wait for the desired route. Bus drivers are jerks.
The fare in the metro and ground transport (including a fixed-route
taxi) is 28 rubles in cash or 26 rubles on a transport card with free
transfers. It is possible to pay by bank cards.
Cable car
station. Mon–Thu 6:45–21:00, Fri–Sun 6:45–22:00, technical break on
Mondays and Thursdays 10:45–13:00. The schedule may depend on the
season, check the website of the cable car. 100 rub. The ticket is sold
only in one direction, the return ticket is purchased at the other end
of the cable car. They accept bank cards, you can pay with a contactless
transport or bank card right next to the turnstiles.
In Nizhny Novgorod you can buy: local chocolate, Gorodets gingerbread
with various inscriptions, handicrafts: with Khokhloma painting, with
Gorodets painting; landscapes with views of Nizhny Novgorod in different
techniques, products from Chkalovsky flax, ceramic products, birch bark
products. The folk crafts for which the region is famous also include
Varnavin bone carving, Bornukovo stone carving, Gorodets gold
embroidery, and knives from Vorsma. Souvenirs can be purchased at
various specialized stores on Bolshaya Pokrovskaya Street, in
particular, "Russian Gingerbread" (house 2), "Lower 800" (house 8, room
1), "Russian Souvenirs" (house 14), " Artistic crafts” (d. 43). Albums
about the history and architecture of Nizhny Novgorod can be bought in
museum stores, for example, the National Center for Contemporary Art
"Arsenal" (Kremlin, 6), and in bookstores, for example, in the stores of
the "Airship" chain (Bolshaya Pokrovskaya st., 46, st. Belinsky, 118,
Shcherbakova st., 2) and the "House of the Book" (Sovetskaya st., 14 -
Lenin Square and Kazanskoye Highway, 6). On Bolshaya Pokrovskaya,
artists, needlewomen and craftsmen usually exhibit their paintings,
selling knitted toys, designer jewelry, leather goods, and so on.
Zarechnaya part
1 Central department store (TSUM) , st. Heroya
Filchenkova, 10 (1 (Avtozavodskaya) line 2 (Sormovskaya) line
"Moskovskaya"). ☎ +7 (831) 233-23-80. 🕑 Mon–Sun 9:00–21:00. The very
first department store in Nizhny Novgorod since 1905. At that time, the
largest shop with food was opened here. In the late 1930s, the City
Council decided to build the first Central Department Store, but due to
the Great Patriotic War that began in 1941, construction was postponed
indefinitely. The TSUM opened its doors to the first buyers only on
April 30, 1954. And, from the moment of opening, the building was
rightfully recognized as an architectural landmark of Nizhny Novgorod.
The Central Department Store is a beautiful building of the "Stalinist"
construction and is a magnificent monument of architecture of the Soviet
era.
2 Shopping center "Respublika", pl. Revolution, 9 (1
(Avtozavodskaya) line 2 (Sormovskaya) line "Moskovskaya"). ☎ +7 (831)
277-92-22. Mon–Sun 9:00–21:00. The shopping center is located close to
the Central Department Store and makes up a single architectural
ensemble on the forecourt square, or rather, its single shopping
ensemble.
3 Shopping center "Chkalov", st. Chkalova, 1V (1
(Avtozavodskaya) line 2 (Sormovskaya) line "Moskovskaya"). ☎ +7 (831)
908-17-33. Mon–Sun 9:00–21:00. Another shopping center on the forecourt
of the Revolution. Relatively inexpensive.
4 Shopping center
"Kanavinsky", st. Heroya Filchenkova, 7 (1 (Avtozavodskaya) line 2
(Sormovskaya) line "Moskovskaya"). Mon–Sun 9:00–20:00. Shopping center
converted from the former cinema "Kanavinsky". It is highly not
recommended due to the abundance of dirt on the territory, small
"covens" without documents inside the building and high prices.
5 Gordeevsky department store (GUM) , st. Gordeevskaya, 2 (1
(Avtozavodskaya) line 2 (Sormovskaya) line "Moskovskaya"). ☎ +7 (831)
241-12-90. Mon–Sun 9:00–20:00. The department store is located opposite
the suburban Moscow railway station on the Gordeevskaya side. It is
located in the former apartment building of I.S.
6 Avrora shopping
center, Sovetskaya street, 12 (1 (Avtozavodskaya) line 2 (Sormovskaya)
line "Moskovskaya"). ☎ +7 (831) 276-62-29. Mon–Sun 10:00–20:00. Shopping
center in the building of Marins Park hotel. Located opposite the Fair.
7 Decathlon , st. Betancourt, 3V (2 (Sormovskaya) Strelka line). ☎ +7
(831) 202-44-32. Mon–Sun 10:00–22:00. Sports store of the French company
Decathlon.
8 Metro (Metro Cash & Carry) , Meshchersky Boulevard,
3A (2 (Sormovskaya) Strelka line). ☎ +7 (831) 278-00-00. around the
clock. Network wholesale store of the company "Metro Cash & Carry".
Entry by cards only.
9 SEC "Seventh Heaven" , st. Betancourt, 1 (2
(Sormovskaya) Strelka line). ☎ +7 (831) 202-90-60. Mon–Sun 10:00–22:00.
Shopping center near the stadium "Nizhny Novgorod". Nearby is the Volga
embankment.
10 Avtozavodsky department store, ave. Oktyabrya, 2A,
Sotsgorod-I microdistrict (1 (Avtozavodskaya) line "Park Kultury", or a
combined tram and bus stop "Department Store"). ☎ +7 (831) 295-85-70.
Mon–Sun 9:00–21:00. The main shopping center of the Avtozavodsky
district. The department store is a beautiful architectural monument of
the 30s of the XX century. It was built in harmony with the Sotsgorod of
the Automobile Plant and got its place on the central square of the
district.
Upland part
11 Shopping center "Nebo", st. Bolshaya
Pokrovskaya, 82 (1 (Avtozavodskaya) line "Gorkovskaya", then from
McDonald's by any bus to Lyadova Square). ☎ +7 (831) 262-24-24. Mon–Sun
10:00–22:00.
12 Shopping center "Etazhi", st. Belinsky, 63 (Tram
number 2, tram stop "Opera Theatre"). ☎ +7 (831) 416-72-72. Mon–Sun
10:00–21:00. Large shopping center on a very beautiful street.
13 Shopping center "Fantastica", st. Rodionova, 187V (Buses and
fixed-route taxis in the direction of the Upper Pechery microdistrict.
Bus stop "Business Street".). ☎ +7 (831) 220-22-26. Mon–Sun 10:00–22:00.
A giant shopping center with a cinema in the Upper Pechory
microdistrict.
14 Shopping center "Firebird", pl. Sovetskaya, 5 (Bus
stop "Soviet Square"). ☎ +7 (831) 202-99-99. Mon–Sun 10:00–22:00. A new
huge mall in the center of the Soviet district. Located near Sovetskaya
Square and the district administration.
15 Artistic crafts ,
Bolshaya Pokrovskaya st., 43 (1 (Avtozavodskaya) line "Gorkovskaya"). ☎
+7 (831) 433-09-09. 10:00 - 20:00. A huge selection of various antiques,
decorative ornaments, memorable gifts, traditional Russian dresses and
all kinds of paintings: Khokhloma, Gorodets, Semyonov nesting dolls,
Palekh, Gzhel and much more.
Eating out in Nizhny Novgorod is not very cheap. On average, prices
here are higher than in other regional centers, but lower than in the
capitals. Network establishments from other cities practically did not
penetrate into Nizhny. There are local chains, but there are also many
original cafes that exist in a single copy.
Most cafes and
restaurants are on Bolshaya Pokrovskaya Street and around it. That part
of the center that stretches to Sennaya Square is already less
promising, but the Lower City has become, on the contrary, a kind of
club district, where there is food for every taste. If the night life in
Nizhny is quite active, then the morning life remains extremely
sluggish. Rare coffee houses open before 9 am, so for breakfast it is
better to focus on round-the-clock cafes and restaurants. There are few
of them, but in principle they are (in the center: Skuratov Coffee
coffee houses on Bolshaya Pokrovskaya 2, Bolshaya Pecherskaya 44,
Kovalikhinskaya 4A open at 6:55; from 7:00 the restaurant-bakery
"Volkonsky" on Ulyanova 13 opens).
Cheap
1 McDonalds, pl.
Gorky, 2. 7:00–23:30. temporarily closed in Russia
2 The same
shawarma on Sredny, Kostina street, 13 (Near the Sredny market and Nebo
shopping center). ☎ +7 (831) 230-00-00. around the clock. 200 ₽. Perhaps
the best kebab restaurant in Nizhny Novgorod. This can be judged by the
constant queues for shawarma, and by checking the TV show "Revizorro".
Ideal for Petersburgers to compare shawarma and shawarma. Among Nizhny
Novgorod residents there is even such a joke: “I didn’t try shawarma
from Sredny - I didn’t see Nizhny Novgorod.” Fans of gastronomic tourism
are also requested not to pass by. By right, this place can be
considered a gastronomic attraction of the city.
3 Network of
dumplings "Lepi dough" , st. Minina, 12, st. Bolshaya Pokrovskaya, 47
(city center). ☎ +7 (831) 213-80-82, +7 (831) 212-89-39. 11:00–21:00.
The first dumplings in Nizhny Novgorod. Dumplings and dumplings with
various fillings. Salads, soups, burgers, desserts are also offered.
4 Noodles "Sovok" , st. Bolshaya Pokrovskaya, 2; TRK "Sky" Bolshaya
Pokrovskaya, 82; Sun-Thu also st. Embankment of the Rowing Canal,
Judicial Tower. ☎ +7 (953) 574-38-46. 10:00–22:00. Noodles in a box,
author's drinks, soups and Viennese waffles with fillings are offered.
5 The bakery of the Pechersky Monastery (on the territory of the
Pechersky Monastery). 🕑 Mon–Sun 9:00–19:30. Tea, coffee beans, buns and
pies with various fillings.
Average cost
6 Papasha
Billy link=https://vk.com/papa_billy email= , st. Rozhdestvenskaya, 22
(opposite the River Station). ☎ +7 (831) 210-55-56. Mon–Sun 12:00–00:00.
Hot dishes: from 400 rubles. Country styling, American-Mexican cuisine.
WiFi.
7 Cafe "Library", st. Bolshaya Pokrovskaya, 46, 3rd floor (in
the city center, it is more convenient to go from Gorky Square). ☎ +7
(831) 433-69-34. Mon–Sun 11:00–22:00. The menu is based on Italian
cuisine. The cafe is small, located on the 3rd floor of the building,
where the first and second floors are occupied by departments of the
large bookstore "Airship" (you can buy various books, souvenirs). The
discount card of the store also provides a discount in the cafe. There
are not very many places, in the summer a small queue of people who want
to get into the cafe usually accumulates at the entrance.
8 Club
"Mate" - tea club , st. Rozhdestvenskaya 40. ✉ ☎ +7 (831) 430-32-54.
Mon–Sun 12:00–22:00. from 300 ₽. Cozy, esoteric interior. Very friendly
staff. For a relatively small price, you can try more than 30 types of
Mate, the tea drink of the Indians. Also on the menu there are many
other drinks (except for alcoholic ones - they should not be consumed
with mate), hookahs and dried fruits. Everything costs about 300 rubles
per person, but the unique atmosphere of the institution pays for
everything.
9 Restaurant Khurma , st. Bolshaya Pecherskaya, 26. ☎
+7 (831) 435‒23‒46. 🕑 Mon–Sun 11:00–23:00. business lunch from 440
rubles, average check - 800-1000 rubles. Restaurant of Azerbaijani and
European cuisine, there is a vegetarian menu. Good food with fancy
decor. You can pay by card, there is Wi-Fi.
Expensive
10 Kladovaya tower Wikidata element, Kremlin, 12A (1 (Avtozavodskaya)
line "Gorkovskaya"). ☎ +7 (831) 439-12-68. Mon–Sun 10:00–20:00. The cafe
is located in the Kremlin's Pantry Tower, on the left side of the
central (Dmitrievskaya) tower. Tasty and expensive.
11 Literary cafe
"Bezukhov", st. Rozhdestvenskaya, 6 (Lower City). ☎ +7 (831) 433-87-63.
around the clock. Amazing atmosphere but very expensive. Beginning
writers are clearly too expensive, although they like to go to this cafe
for poetry evenings or film screenings. Reviews about food vary greatly:
perhaps you should look elsewhere for dinner.
12 "Tarelkin"
restaurant, st. Bolshaya Pokrovskaya, 8. 10:00–23:00. Hot dishes:
300–600 rubles (2014). Claims for a merchant style are justified in the
interior, but they are unlikely to be reflected in the menu, which is
more than standard here and creates the illusion of Russian cuisine for
foreigners. It's nice to sit on a special veranda in the courtyard lined
with antique utensils, but the main hall (in the basement) looks cramped
and gloomy.
Coffee-club "Insomnia" , st. Osharskaya, 1/2. ☎ +7 (831) 411-82-46,
+7 (831) 419-44-26. around the clock. The nightlife is bustling, as the
name suggests, but there is also a rather quiet restaurant area serving
good food until late at night: this is one of the few 24-hour
establishments in the Upper Town.
The Top Club (The Top) ,
Nizhne-Volzhskaya Embankment, 16. ✉ ☎ +7 (910) 388-22-22. Fri–Sat
23:00–6:00. From 1000 ₽. The most fashionable nightclub in Nizhny
Novgorod. Located in the historical building of the stock exchange on
the Nizhne-Volzhskaya embankment. For those who like to retire from the
noisy hall, a magnificent view of the Oka and Volga Spit opens from the
balcony of the 2nd floor.
Cheap
1 Gorky Hostel (Hotel "Gorky"), B. Pokrovskaya 5/6 (1
(Avtozavodskaya) Gorkovskaya line, entrance from the courtyard, from
Pozharsky St.). ✉ ☎ +7 (831) 439-09-00. From 450 ₽ per day.
2 Happy
Holiday Hostel, st. Grebeshkovsky Otkos, 9a. ☎ +7 (831) 282-04-44. 🕑
around the clock. From 400 ₽ (bed in 8-bed room). Excellent hostel, many
rooms, including a separate double room with its own bathroom. At the
reception desk you can order breakfast from the evening, which will be
delivered at the right time in the morning. The only inconvenience is
that the nearest public transport stop is about half a kilometer away.
Average cost
3 Marins Park (Marins Park) , Sovetskaya st., 12
(1 (Avtozavodskaya) line 2 (Sormovskaya) line "Moskovskaya"). ✉ ☎ +7
(831) 211-55-00. around the clock. From 1500 ₽. One of the first luxury
Gorky hotels in the Soviet Union. Previously, it was called the Central
Hotel. Its windows offer a magnificent view of the Fair, the Alexander
Nevsky Cathedral and the Nizhny Novgorod stadium. Convenient location
close to the city center. The rooms are different, from deeply Soviet
(where the last renovation was in the 1980s) to modern ones. Dec 2019
4 Hotel Russian capital , st. Mineeva, 29. ✉ ☎ +7 (831) 295-99-12. 🕑
around the clock. From 2000 ₽. The hotel is located on the outskirts of
the Avtozavodsky district of the city, which, for some reason, does not
make it cheaper.
5 "Oktyabrskaya" hotel, Verkhnevolzhskaya
embankment, 9a (located in the city center, close to the Kremlin on
foot, view of the Volga. The nearest bus stop is "Academy of Water
Transport" (3 min.), Buses 19, 40, 45, 52 and others. ). ✉ ☎ +7 (831)
432-80-80. from 2700 rubles. Three Stars. The main advantage of the
hotel can be called the location in the city center, on the
Verkhnevolzhskaya embankment: from the windows there is a beautiful
view, immediately upon exiting you get to the embankment, close to the
Kremlin, the Chkalov Stairs. Near the hotel there is a monument to the
pilot Pyotr Nesterov in the park named after him, the temple of the icon
of the Mother of God Joy of All Who Sorrow. Nearby museums are the
Rukavishnikov Estate, the Nizhny Novgorod radio laboratory, a branch of
the Art Museum, the House of the Architect.
Expensive
6 Grand
Hotel Oka, 27 Gagarina Ave. (Bus stop Hotel Oka). ☎ +7 (800) 100-04-77.
around the clock. From 390 ₽. New, modern, it has a lot of things for
leisure and business communication. There is also a restaurant, a
banquet hall and a karaoke hall.
7 Wolna , Lenin Ave., 98 (1
(Avtozavodskaya) line "Kirovskaya"). ✉ ☎ +7 (831) 295-19-00. around the
clock. From 4230 ₽/day. The elite hotel in the Avtozavodsky district of
Nizhny Novgorod was built back in the days of the Soviet Union and has
been keeping the brand ever since. The best hotel if you want to enjoy
the views of Sotsgorod Avtozavod.
City code +7 831. Several mobile operators operate in Nizhny
Novgorod.
1 Megafon , st. Nartova, 6 (Central office in Nizhny
Novgorod. Combined tram and bus stop "Medical street"). ☎ +7 (800)
550-05-00. Mobile communications, 4G Internet on the street and in the
subway.
2 MTS (Mobile Telesystems) , st. Maksim Gorkogo, 121 (1
(Avtozavodskaya) line "Gorkovskaya"). ☎ +7 (800) 250-08-90. Mobile
communications, 4G Internet on the street, as well as GSM and 3G in the
subway.
3 Beeline , st. Kovalikhinskaya, 8 (1 (Avtozavodskaya)
line "Gorkovskaya". World Trade Center). ☎ +7 (800) 700-06-11. Mobile
communications, 4G Internet in the street and in the subway.
4 Rostelecom , st. Bolshaya Pokrovskaya, 56 (1 (Avtozavodskaya) line
"Gorkovskaya"). ☎ +7 (800) 100-08-00. Mobile communications, 3G Internet
on the street and in the subway
5 Yota , st. Betancourt, 1 (2
(Sormovskaya) Strelka line. Central office). ☎ +7 (800) 550-00-07.
Mobile communications, 4G Internet on the street and in the subway.
6 Tele2 (Tele2) , st. Bolshaya Pokrovskaya, 58 (1 (Avtozavodskaya)
line "Gorkovskaya"). ☎ +7 (831) 291-16-11. Mobile network, 3G internet
on the street and partly in the subway.
Like all large Russian cities, Nizhny Novgorod is quite safe in the center, but on the outskirts the situation is different. For example, in the old part of the Kanavino district, which is between the Oka and the railway station, it is better not to walk in the dark, because there is very poor street lighting and broken pavements, there is a high risk of stumbling or getting lost. In the evening, in the sleeping areas, there are a lot of idle staggering local people, and if you don’t know how to behave, it’s better to inspect the outskirts during daylight hours, and return to the center by dark. Avtozavodsky, Kanavinsky and Leninsky districts are considered the most dangerous in terms of crime, while Prioksky, Sovetsky and Moskovsky are considered safest. In the area of the Kremlin and Bolshaya Pokrovskaya Street, life does not stop even after midnight. In summer, the viewing platforms of the Fedorovsky Embankment are also crowded: you can safely walk there at any time of the day, especially since the night view of the Strelka is very conducive to this.
Nizhny Novgorod is located at the confluence of the two largest
waterways of the European part of Russia - the Volga and Oka rivers. The
city is divided by the Oka into two parts: the eastern elevated
Nagornaya, located on the right banks of the Oka and Volga at the
northwestern tip of the Volga Upland - the Dyatlovy Gory, and the
western (on the left bank of the Oka and the right bank of the Volga)
lowland, beyond the river.
The area of the city itself is 410.68
km². The area of the urban district, which, in addition to the city
itself, includes 20 more settlements (after the accession of Novinsky
Village Council in 2020) is about 515 km², including 465.82 km² of
territory within the boundaries until 2020 and 48.74 km² of territory
the annexed Novinsky village council (according to the website of the
city administration, the former area of \u200b\u200bthe urban district
was about 460 km², according to Rosstat - 410.68 km² without village
councils and a resort village). Before joining the urban district of
Novinsky Village Council in 2020, 13 settlements were subordinate to the
city.
The length of the city is 20 km along the Oka, and about 30
km along the Volga. There are 33 lakes and 12 rivers on the territory of
the city.
The height of the upland part is from 100 to 200 m
above sea level. The left bank has a height of 70-80 m above sea level.
The historical center of the city is located in the mountainous part. In
the course of historical development, most of the suburban villages and
villages became part of the city itself. The borders of the city come
close to Bor (the border runs along the fairway of the Volga), Kuzminka,
Nikulsky, Afonino, Utechino, the village of Ankudinovka, the village of
Ankudinovka, Experienced, the village of Cheremissky, the village of
Cheremissky, Sadovsky, Rumyantsevo, Novinka, Dzerzhinsk, Bolshoi Kozino.
The Nizhny Novgorod agglomeration also includes the cities of Kstovo and
Bogorodsk.
The urban district of Nizhny Novgorod borders on Bor
in the northeast, Kstovsky district in the southeast, Bogorodsky
district in the southwest, Dzerzhinsky in the west and Balakhna district
in the northwest.
Nizhny Novgorod is located 400 km east of
Moscow, and a transport corridor has developed between the two cities.
Nizhny Novgorod is located in the MSK time zone (Moscow time). The offset of the applicable time from UTC is +3:00. In accordance with the applied time and geographic longitude, the average solar noon in Nizhny Novgorod occurs at 12:04.
Nizhny Novgorod was built at the confluence of two rivers: the Oka and the Volga. This location made the city the most important shipping center of the country. Oka divides the city into two halves - upper and lower. The Volga separates Nizhny Novgorod from Bor and its environs. Before the strengthening of the banks, in the spring the rivers flooded huge areas at the Nizhny Novgorod Fair and Nizhny Posad.
In 1834, the first weather station was opened in Nizhny Novgorod. A
century later, it was transformed into the Gorky Department of the
Hydrometeorological Service, since 1978 - the Upper Volga Department for
Hydrometeorology and Environmental Control.
The climate in Nizhny
Novgorod is temperate continental, with cold, long winters and warm,
relatively short summers. Due to the large differences in the terrain in
the riverside part of the city, it is somewhat warmer than in the
upland. Precipitation on it, on average, falls by 15-20% more per year.
Average monthly long-term temperatures in lowland areas vary from
−11.6°C in January to +18.4°C in July, in mountainous areas from −12°C
in January to +18.1°C in July. The average annual temperature is +4.8°C;
wind speed - 2.8 m/s; the average annual air humidity is 76%. The city
is located at the confluence of two large rivers in a swampy area, so
there are very frequent fogs and high relative humidity in summer.
The sun in Nizhny for a year shines for about 1775 hours. The
maximum duration of daylight hours in June is 17 hours 44 minutes, the
minimum is in December, 6 hours 52 minutes. Cloudiness in winter is
quite high: 75-80% of the time the sky is covered with clouds, and from
April to August the probability of a clear sky is already 49-56%. In the
autumn-winter period, the sky is often covered with clouds in the
morning, and in the afternoon the weather clears up. In spring and
summer, on the contrary, it is mostly cloudless in the mornings, by the
middle of the day powerful cumulus clouds appear, which disappear in the
evening.
Due to the greater continentality of the climate, the
temperature in Nizhny Novgorod is slightly higher in summer than in
Moscow, and lower in winter. In spring, the positive temperature is
usually set around April 5 and remains until the end of October.
Precipitation averages 653 mm per year, the largest amount - in July,
the smallest - in March. On average, there are 180 days of precipitation
per year. Snow begins to fall in October, but a stable snow cover falls
in late November and breaks up by mid-April. As a rule, the air
temperature in winter fluctuates slightly and amounts to −10…−20°C.
Winter thunderstorms are occasionally observed (in particular, such
thunderstorms were observed on November 27, 1940, November 30, 1951,
February 14, 1960 and December 3, 1962). Precipitation in spring is less
frequent than in other seasons. Spring passes quickly, the snow begins
to melt in the second half of March, and usually completely disappears
by the end of April. Summer comes at the beginning of June, when the
stable temperature is around +15°C. The maximum heat is usually observed
in the third decade of July. The average temperature in summer is
+15…+20°C. In summer, rains fall mainly in the form of short-term, but
intense showers, usually there are about 20 days with thunderstorms.
Thunderstorms may be accompanied by strong winds. In September, the
temperature drops sharply and by the 20th it drops below +10°C. In
autumn it rains often and for a long time. In the tenth of October,
plant growth stops and there is a transition to late autumn. In late
autumn, the weather becomes cloudy and rainy.
Parks, forests and slopes occupy one fifth of the city's territory.
Mixed forests predominate.
Gardens, squares, boulevards, parks
and forests occupy one seventh of the entire green zone of Nizhny
Novgorod - about 1,400 hectares. The largest park is "Switzerland", it
occupies 380 hectares.
There are more than 15 parks in Nizhny
Novgorod, and maintenance enterprises have been established for eight of
them. The most famous parks are Sormovsky, Avtozavodsky, "Switzerland",
Pushkin, Kulibin, May 1, "Dubki".
On the outskirts of the city
there are forest park zones (for example, the forest park Shchelokovsky
farm in the upland part and Striginsky forest in the river) and forests
adjacent to the city, which are recreation areas.
In Nizhny Novgorod, as in any other large industrial center, there is a problem of environmental pollution. Groundwater is polluted, small reservoirs, the main sources of water intake - the Oka and Volga rivers are subject to strong anthropogenic impact. Due to the built hydroelectric power stations and the discharge of sewage, high bacterial contamination is observed in the Volga, which does not allow it to be used for recreational purposes and forces chlorination of drinking water with increased doses. This circumstance leads to an aggravation of the problem of the formation of carcinogenic organochlorine compounds.