Nizhny Novgorod - One of the Most Beautiful Cities in Russia.

The city is situated in the center of the vast Russian Plain on the hills at the confluence of the two full-flowing rivers the Oka and the Volga. Ilya Repin, Russian landscape painter qualified it a “royal location”. In fact, the city residents call it Nizhny, as distinct from Velikiy Novgorod, another ancient town in the North-East of Russia inhabited by Novgorodians.

Nizhny Novgorod was founded in 1221 by Yuri Vsevolodovich, prince of Vladimir. In 1238 the prince died in the battlefield in an effort to protect his land from the Mongol invasion, for which he was later on canonized.

For three hundred years Nizhny Novgorod remained a frontier outpost at the extreme Eastern point of that time Rus. Beyond its border stretched the endless lands that belonged to the Bulgars, the Mordvins and the Cheremis.

In the early XVI century the city constructed its Kremlin rampart in stone, the one preserved to the present day. Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin boasts an exceptional location. There is no other equally scenic Kremlin in Russia with walls descending from an altitude of over 80 meters down the green breast of the hill. Along with two olden sites: the Annunciation Monastery and Pechersky Monastery the Kremlin of Nizhny Novgorod is one of the city main attractions.

With the Tartar Yoke, the young Russia started expanding to the East and to the South. Over time Nizhny Novgorod lost its function of a frontier outpost and lived a peaceful life of a modest town in province.

The year 1611 the city won a national scale recognition and glory, that time a local council leader named Kuzma Minin made a public call for fundraising to equip the people`s militia troops which eventually put an end to the Time of Troubles. And Minin invited prince Dmitry Pozharsky to command the militia troops. The Polish occupants were successfully booted out of the Russian lands and after a long period of interregnum and anarchy the Russian throne was assigned to the first tsar from the Romanov dynasty. The Monument to Minin and Pozharsky stands in Moscow Red Square in honor of the people to whom Russian owns its salvation and national identity. In fact, Nizhny Novgorod has a similar monument in the People`s Unity square. We may say with a good deal of confidence that the National Unity Day celebrated in today`s Russia on November 4 is a proper celebration of Nizhny Novgorod

The city name Nizhny Novgorod boomed anew in the XIX century when a big-scale Trade Fair was transferred to here, it was the largest trading site not only for Russia but also the most important one in Europe. For the next one hundred years until the Revolution the name of Nizhny Novgorod Trade Fair was widely known. In the XIX century people used to day that Moscow is the heart of Russia, Saint Petersburg is the country`s head and Nizhny Novgorod is Russia`s money pocket, thus defining the city role as the trade capital of the whole Empire. This was the meeting point for the merchants from Europe and Asia, and here came a number of famous travellers and writers, attracted by the new wonder of the world Nizhny Novgorod Trade Fair complex. Even Russian royal family would not pass over Nizhny Novgorod Trade Fair.

In the XIX century the city was adorned by top notch stone buildings, the projects by Russia`s best architects, among of them merchants` mansions, commercial rental and tenement buildings, administrative offices and cathedrals. Proper promenades with exceptional panoramic views on the Volga illimitable space were laid along the city embankments.

The ХХ century totally changed the aspect of the city downtown and the merchant Nizhny Novgorod turned into a giant industrial site. Its numerous production facilities during the Second World War years supplied about one-third of all arms and military equipment for the Red Army. Fortunately the new plants were built in the new city areas and the historical downtown was preserved intact.

Gorky Automobile Plant, the most famous factory of Nizhny Novgorod supplied the country with the popular Volga-brand cars, and this plant neighbourhood is also interesting in terms of the Soviet-time architecture of its industrial and residential quarters. Today it is often visited by the architects from all parts of the world.

Nizhny Novgorod is also known for its museums, traditional institutions work side by side with a number of contemporary sites and technology projects. The city features a number of newly opened galleries and creative space, The Arsenal Contemporary Art Center inside the Kremlin probably steals the show.

In the XXI Nizhny Novgorod demonstrates continued development, with cutting edge infrastructural projects like a cableway across the Volga River (the longest air passage in Europe) and a brand-new stadium for FIFA 2018 Football Cup.

Nizhny Novgorod people work hard to adorn and improve their city space and welcome visitors!