Nizhniy Novgorod

 

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Nizhny Novogorod is divided by the Oka River into two distinct parts. The Upper City (Russian: Нагорная часть, Nagornaya Chast) is located on the hilly eastern (right) bank of the Oka. It includes three of the eight city districts into which the city is administratively divided:

 

- Nizhegorodsky (the historical and administrative center of the city); Prioksky; Sovetsky.

 

The Lower City (Russian: Заречная часть, Zarechnaya Chast) occupies the low (western) side of the Oka, and includes five city districts:

 

- Kanavinsky (the site of the Nizhny Novgorod Fair and the location of the main train station); Moskovsky (home of the Sokol Aircraft Plant and its airfield); Sormovsky (where Krasnoye Sormovo and the Volga Shipyard are located); Avtozavodsky (built around the GAZ automotive plants); Leninsky.

 

All of the today's lower city was annexed to Nizhny Novgorod in 1929-1931.

 

Much of the city downtown is built in the Russian Revival and Stalin Empire styles. The dominating feature of the city skyline is the grand Kremlin (1500-11), with its red-brick towers. After Bolshevik devastation, the only ancient edifice left within the kremlin walls is the tent-like Archangel Cathedral (1624-31), first built in stone in the 13th century.

 

Other notable landmarks are the two great medieval abbeys. The Monastery of the Caves features the austere five-domed cathedral (1632) and two rare churches surmounted by tent roofs, dating from the 1640s. The Annunciation monastery, likewise surrounded by strong walls, has another five-domed cathedral (1649) and the Assumption church (1678). The only private house preserved from that epoch formerly belonged to the merchant Pushnikov.

 

 

There can be little doubt that the most original and delightful churches in the city were built by the Stroganovs in the nascent Baroque style. Of these, the Virgin's Nativity Church (1719) graces one of the central streets, whereas the Church of Our Lady of Smolensk (1694-97) survives in the suburb of Gordeevka, where the Stroganov palace once stood.

 

There is also a mosque in Sennaya Square, where the muslim populations of the city go for Friday prayers, Islamic activities and activities which are organised by the mosque. There is also a small shop to buy halal meats. Most of the muslims in this city are Tatars.

 

The city has many industrial suburbs, such as Kstovo, Dzerzhinsk, and Bor. The town of Semyonov, to the north of Nizhny Novgorod, is known as a craft center for Khokhloma wood painting. Another suburb, Balakhna, is noted for its medieval architecture.