Russia is not limited to Moscow and St. Petersburg. There are many other interesting places worth visiting. This time we will make a short trip to a city called NN.
In Russia there are 2 cities that have the word Novgorod in their names. The first is Veliky Novgorod, the second is Nizhny Novgorod.
Today our destination is Nizhny Novgorod, or simply Nizhny, as this name is often abbreviated in Russia.
NN is located 400 km east of Moscow on the Volga River.
I go to Nizhny NovgorodN by Lastochka, which departs from Vostochny Station in Moscow. This is a new station (more precisely, a mini-station), it was built in 2021 in order to unload the central stations of Moscow. The road to Nizhny Novgorod takes a little less than 4 hours and on the way the train stops in the city of Vladimir, which was founded in 990.
The city is located at the place where the Oka River flows into the Volga.
The historical center is on the right high bank of the Oka. Here is the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin. Many foreigners think that in Russia the Kremlin is only in Moscow. This is wrong.
In Russia, up to 20 kremlins (including wooden ones) have survived to one degree or another.
Well preserved until our days-12. One of them is the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin. The Kremlin acquired its modern forms at the beginning of the 16th century, when a stone Kremlin was built instead of a wooden fortress.
The Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin differs in its architecture from other similar structures in Russia and is more reminiscent of an Italian fortress. The project was developed with the participation of the Italian architect Pietro Francesco , whom Tsar Vasily 3, the father of Ivan the Terrible, asked to build a stone fortress to protect against Tatar raids.
It should be noted that the Italian architectural school is well represented in many cities of Russia, especially in St. Petersburg and Moscow.
The Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin was a subject to numerous sieges by the Kazan Tatars, but had never been captured.
Not far from the Kremlin is the central pedestrian street of Nizhny - Bolshaya Pokrovskaya.
Previously, the nobility settled here. Today it is a place where local residents and tourists like to take walks. Beautiful architecture (bank), a large number of cafes and restaurants.
A little further there are so called Protected Quarters. Once these streets were located on the outskirts of the city, but gradually turned into a center of cultural life, as representatives of the creative intelligentsia began to settle here. In late Soviet times, many of the wooden houses fell into disrepair and only recently have local activists of the movement Tom Sawyer Fest started to restore them step by step. If you want to enjoy the atmosphere of the late 19th century, then this is the right place! For example, the Russian and Soviet writer Maxim Gorky lived in this house .
Just 200 meters from the theater and you have a chance to see a creation of another era.
A residential building in the constructivist style was built in 1929-32. It is called "The cultural revolution". The premises of the house are connected by passages at the level of the 2nd and 5th floors. Some of tgem have been demolished. The house also has specially allocated communal blocks. In the 20s of the last century in the USSR, and not only, the ideas of collectivism and life in the commune were strong. Therefore, it was assumed that personal space is required by residents of the house only for sleeping. Cooking, eating, washing, communicating with neighbors had to be done in specially designated areas.
Today this house is not in the best shape, although people still live in it. I hope that the NN authorities will restore this house so that it can also take its rightful place in the architectural ensemble of the city.
In Rozhdestvenskaya, life is in full swing, and this street looks more natural than Bolshaya Pokrovskaya. And I personally like it more. Ignore the fact that many summer verandas are empty - this is not because people do not have money to go to restaurants (a common stereotype that I sometimes find in comments from foreign people). No, it’s just that in central Russia the season of verandas opens in May and they are being prepared now. In general, there are a lot of people in cafes and restaurants, despite the fact that I was in Nizhny during the week.
On the opposite bank of the Oka River from the center is Strelka, the place where the Oka flows into the Volga.
Previously, there was a fair well known all over the country and a port - one of the largest river ports in Russia.
00:00-Introduction
01:11-Train to Nizhny Novgorod
01:25-The city center and the Kremlin
04:37-The constructivist style building
06:35- Wooden buildings area
08:06- Along the Volga river
10:14- The Strelka area
