Walk along Rozhdestvenskaya street in Nizhny Novgorod. Monument to the heroes of the Volga military flotilla That, but not that

milutkin ^ Corners of the Lower. Lower market. part I. Rozhdestvenskaya street

Today I want to talk about the middle, renovated part of Rozhdestvenskaya Street, which has preserved the merchant flavor of Nizhny Novgorod. In addition, despite the fact that Rozhdestvenskaya is not the main street, there are many excellent restaurants and cafes on it, which brighten up the life of Nizhny Novgorod residents and tourists.

Shore settlement Oki on the site of modern Rozhdestvenskaya Street began literally from the moment the city was founded. Construction progressed rather slowly. It is documented that already in the 14th century this territory was part of the border of wood-and-earth fortifications, known as Maly Ostrog. Their border ran along the line of modern Sergievskaya street

But to be absolutely precise, it was not a street in the modern sense of the word, but a narrow winding path that stretched from Zelensky Congress to the modern Vakhitov Lane. From the shopping malls located under the Kremlin hill, this "path" was called "Zaryadye".

The 17th century is a special period in the history of Nizhny Novgorod. At this time, he began to develop especially rapidly economically. And at the beginning of the “rebellious” century, the street began to be called Kosmodemyanskaya after the church of Kozma and Demyan standing in the center of Nizhny Posad (now it is Markin Square, or rather, the site of the Nizhnovenergo building).

But already after the construction of the stone Nativity Church in 1653 by the merchant-industrialist Semyon Zadorin, it began to be called Rozhdestvenskaya. This church was badly damaged by another fire, and another guest, Grigory Dmitrievich Stroganov, built an architecturally original building next to it in 1719, which still exists today.

At first, the construction of Nizhny Posad was carried out chaotically, by separate groups of buildings. But in 1770, the first regular plan of Nizhny Novgorod was drawn up, and in its subsequent revision in 1787, Rozhdestvenskaya Street was defined in straight lines. And at the beginning of the 19th century, according to the order of the engineer A. A. Betancourt, in order to avoid fires, it was decided to build up this part of the city exclusively with stone buildings, and in the course of implementing this decision, the street was, if possible, straightened due to the demolition of some dilapidated buildings.

The name of the famous builder of the Nizhny Novgorod Fair, of course, is not accidental. Rozhdestvenskaya Street since 1816 has become closely associated with fair trade. The wealthy merchants of Nizhny Novgorod are building tenement houses, banks at Rozhdestvenskaya inns - stone, solid buildings with expensive stucco decorations, which were, as it were, the calling cards of their owners, their high social status and prosperity.

The street underwent a particularly significant reconstruction in 1835-1839, when in the middle of it, on the site of the house of the famous merchant Sofronov, Sofronovskaya Square was created, which became the public and business center of the Lower Bazaar (modern Markin Square). Warehouses were demolished at the exit of the street to the Oka pontoon bridge and Alekseevskaya Square was laid out, named after the hipped chapel in the name of Metropolitan Alexy that stood here (now Blagoveshchenskaya Square, named after the neighboring Annunciation Monastery).

The All-Russian Industrial and Art Exhibition of 1896 changed the face of the city in many ways. The central streets (including Rozhdestvenskaya) were illuminated with electric arc lamps, sidewalks and roads were asphalted, and funiculars started working in the area of ​​​​People's Unity Square and the Pokhvalinsky Congress. Opposite the pontoon bridge, a power plant appeared, providing the city with electricity. A big event for Nizhny Novgorod was the opening of tram traffic on June 21, 1896. A 3.5 verst line ran from Skoba to the bridge, linking both funiculars. By the opening of the exhibition on Rozhdestvenskaya Street, the house of the merchants of the Blinov brothers (“Blinovsky Passage”) and the stock exchange were built. Both buildings adorn the modern Markina Square.

Thus, the street played the role of the business center of the city. There were six temples here. We list them, starting from the Kremlin:

• Church of the Nativity of John the Baptist (more precisely, an architectural ensemble consisting of a temple and two chapels: Spasskaya (at the altar of the church) and Tsarskaya (to the left of the porch of the temple)). preserved

• Church of St. Nicholas Mir of the Lycian Wonderworker "at the Market" (stood on the site of the modern shopping center "Ant"). Destroyed.

• Church of the Life-Giving Trinity (per. Vakhitova). Destroyed.

• 2 churches of St. unmercenaries of Kozma and Damian: old and new (modern Markin Square). Both are destroyed.

• Church in the name of the Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God (Stroganovskaya). Preserved.

Rozhdestvenskaya street(in Soviet times: Cooperative, named after Mayakovsky, folk: Mayakovka)- the second most important street in the city after Pokrovki , a hub of restaurants, bars and nightlife Nizhny Novgorod , together with the adjacent Markin area and Nizhnevolzhskaya embankment

At the same time, this is one of the oldest streets in the city, which has retained the merchant flavor and the "mercantile spirit" of the center of the business and commercial part of Nizhny.

No wonder the area adjacent to the coast Oka and Volga, called the Lower Bazaar . Banks, shipping companies, shops, guest houses, restaurants, mansions - and nearby, under the Ivanovskaya Tower Kremlin famous for stories Maxim Gorky "million" - the habitat of the bare, the "city bottom".

Epochs and styles are mixed in the former commercial and financial center of Nizhny. The metropolitan tastes brought by the exhibition of 1896 generously endowed merchant mansions with bay windows and domes, causing the envy of neighbors and the admiration of visiting guests.

The concept of improvement of Rozhdestvenskaya Street provides for dividing it into two zones: pedestrian and transport. Pedestrian traffic is organized along the territory along the even-numbered houses to the tram line. Due to the fact that the second line of the tram track was dismantled, it was possible to expand the carriageway along the houses with odd numbering. Thus, a parking area was allocated. The movement of trams will be reverse and on one track. Beautiful lamps, benches, urns and flower beds were installed along the entire street.

The houses located along the old street were not left without attention. It was decided to repair all the facades and equip each building with a unique lighting, so that architectural monuments would appear before the citizens of Nizhny Novgorod in all their glory.

An amount of 39 million rubles was allocated from the city budget for the renewal of the roadbed and the replacement of manhole hatches. Major repairs of roads were carried out using crushed-stone-mastic asphalt concrete, which has the highest resistance to destruction and durability. The old manhole hatches have been replaced with "floating" ones, which weigh much less than their predecessors, have a strong frame and can be easily adjusted in height.

Two sculptural compositions were placed on the street. In particular, one of them - a commemorative plate - is located on the site of the former cemetery of the Trinity Church in memory of the found burials of the inhabitants of Nizhny Novgorod Posad.

Another sculpture, made in the form of cast-iron shoes and a bag of salt, is dedicated to the greed of the Nizhny Novgorod merchants, recalling the activities of the merchant Fyodor Blinov. It stands on the site of the former Salt Office.

On November 2, 2012, the head of Nizhny Novgorod Oleg Sorokin, the governor Valery Shantsev and the head of the administration Oleg Kondrashov took part in the grand opening of the restored section of the street. Christmas.
The reconstruction of the entire Rozhdestvenskaya street is planned to be completed in the next few years.

Blinovsky passage

The complex, which is commonly called Blinovsky Passage, was built as the largest apartment building according to the project of the St. Petersburg architect A.K. Bruni and was completed in 1879. This house, made in the neo-Russian style, got its name from the owners - the richest Nizhny Novgorod merchant-industrialists, the Blinov brothers, who got rich mainly in the trade in bread, as well as in the transportation and sale of salt.

Of all the houses on Rozhdestvenskaya Street, this one was the most multifunctional and densely populated. A variety of offices, shops, hotels, warehouses were once located in the main building, overlooking the main facade on Rozhdestvenskaya, and in the “yard” parts of the house. The entire first floor was occupied by expensive shops with separate entrances. The shops on the second floor could be reached by internal staircases. When looking at the building from the former Safronovskaya Square (now Markin Square), it is clear that on the left side of the five-story building, the end of the block was added, in which hotels were located, “exchange rooms”. In the central part of this level was Permyakov's restaurant, famous for celebrating Maxim Gorky's departure into exile.

In the right volume there was the first telegraph office in the Volga region and the office of the oil shops of the Nobile brothers. Until 1896, the stock exchange was located in this house. On the first floor there was a passage that gave its name to the whole house.
In the Soviet years, the house still housed a post office, a telegraph office, shops, and then a court was also located. And in fact, in our time, just as little has changed - there are shops, restaurants, and various offices in the building. Therefore, we can say that the idea of ​​the Blinov brothers has fully justified itself, although now without their capital ...

The passage was built in 1876-1878 by the architect R.Ya. Kilevein, designed by the St. Petersburg architect A.K. Bruni. By order of the Blinovs, it was a huge four-story passage building, the decorative and artistic decoration of which was stylized as “Ancient Russia” using widths, a piece set, machicolations in the attic floor, etc. Contemporaries in the 80s of the 19th century noted that during the construction of the passage "there were claims for elegance ... the height is enormous, the glass is mirrored", but behind all this there were "matskin coolies, barrels of kerosene and groceries".

Blinovsky passage is considered by some experts to be a specific tenement house. Unlike tenement houses of the beginning of the 19th century, it included mainly commercial and business premises. The central volume was occupied by a restaurant, shops with offices, banks, on the top floor there was a profitable housing. In the left volume there was a hotel, in the right - a telegraph office.

The perimeter of the yards was made up of two-story shops with offices. The main central entrance led to the passage, which was part of the system of courtyard buildings and was used for trading premises and the stock exchange.

In 1864 Nizhny Novgorod was visited by the heir to the throne, Nikolai Alexandrovich, who personally honored the Blinovs and their enterprise on Sofronovskaya Square with a visit. In honor of this event, the Blinovs allocated 25 thousand rubles for the establishment of a public bank, which they called Nikolaevsky. The Blinov brothers contributed large sums to the initial capital of the bank, financing orphanages, almshouses, hospitals, gymnasiums, schools, libraries, for the maintenance of which the bank annually allocated significant financial resources. The bank also provided money for the city's economy, including the installation of water supply, sewerage, electricity, telephone network, and also allocated funds for scholarships, benefits for fire victims.

In the passage of the Blinovs, among others, the main office of the joint-stock Nizhny Novgorod-Samara Land Bank, opened in Nizhny Novgorod in 1872, worked. The bank provided for the increased demand for mortgages at the end of the 19th century by making its financial operations throughout eastern Russia. The Blinovsky passage also housed the office of the Nizhny Novgorod postal and telegraph district, which was opened on October 1, 1886, the first in the Volga region. By the way, the Blinovs were one of the first in Nizhny to have a telephone. In total, in 1885 there were no more than 50 rooms in the city.

Profitable house of N. A. Bugrov.

A truly beautiful decoration of the city is the profitable house of Nikolai Alexandrovich Bugrov, designated at No. 27 on Rozhdestvenskaya Street. The history of its construction is closely connected with the preparations for the XVI All-Russian Trade and Industrial Exhibition in Nizhny Novgorod in 1896. Major urban transformations timed to coincide with this grandiose event directly affected the area of ​​the so-called Lower Bazaar, the actual business center of the city. Pompous mansions, shops and bank buildings were rebuilt on Nizhne-Volzhskaya embankment and Rozhdestvenskaya street. Many old houses have new facades with lush eclectic elements of decorative and artistic decoration.

Since the middle of the 19th century, the place of construction of this house belonged to the prominent merchant family of the Bugrovs, who bought it from the entrepreneurs Pyatovs. The Bugrovs carried out active stone construction here. According to the appraisal of real estate in the Rozhdestvensky part of Nizhny Novgorod (1874), Alexander Petrovich Bugrov owned two adjacent households, overlooking both Rozhdestvenskaya Street and Nizhne-Volzhskaya Embankment. The first was a three-story stone house and a one-story stone outbuilding. The second, corner, household consisted of a three-story stone house, two stone outbuildings of three and two floors, as well as stone and wooden outbuildings. These buildings were used as commercial and office buildings, rented out under contracts and brought a solid profit to the owners. So, for example, the first home ownership gave the Bugrov family a good annual income of up to 945 rubles.

Everything would be fine, but the last representative of the famous merchant dynasty, Nikolai Alexandrovich, the largest Nizhny Novgorod industrialist, financier, philanthropist and philanthropist, was not satisfied with the “modest” appearance of the houses he inherited from his father on Rozhdestvenskaya. The famous Moscow architect, academician Vladimir Petrovich Zeidler (1857 - 1914), who arrived as the main producer of works at the Exhibition, was invited to develop the design of the front building, the author of the projects of many buildings in St. Petersburg, Moscow and Anapa.

The house was originally conceived as a profitable one: with shops on the first floor, and most importantly with the office of the Nizhny Novgorod branch of the Volga-Kama Commercial Bank on the second, as evidenced by the corresponding inscriptions on the facade, preserved on the design drawings (the name of the bank, the names of the owners of shops and trading companies). It is known that by this time N. A. Bugrov had been a regular client and an influential member of the accounting and loan committee of this bank for many years.

The choice of the bank was not accidental. Perhaps the most famous bank in pre-revolutionary Russia was founded in St. Petersburg by Vasily Aleksandrovich Kokorev, a truly bright, original and amazing person. Kokorev came from the middle class - the Old Believers of the small deaf town of Soligalich, Kostroma province. One faith with the founder of the institution, and Bugrov, as you know, was an Old Believer, undoubtedly made a certain sympathy for the Nizhny Novgorod entrepreneur in this institution. But the main thing, obviously, was something else. The Volga-Kama Bank was one of the largest in pre-revolutionary Russia, it was rumored that the success of the founder passed to it.

From a poor tradesman, Kokorev managed to turn into one of the richest, most influential and famous people in Russia. His candidacy was considered for the post of Minister of Finance of the Empire. He was the initiator and organizer of the construction of the world's first oil refinery near Baku. He was a co-founder of such well-known companies as the Russian Society of Shipping and Trade, the Shipping Company "Caucasus and Mercury", the Volga-Don Railway Society, etc. He was engaged in the development of gold mining, established trade between Russia and Persia, participated in the development of a project for the liberation of peasants from serfdom , making a lot of efforts to accelerate this event. Kokorev gained great fame as a philanthropist and philanthropist. Approximately two decades before Tretyakov, Vasily Alexandrovich not only opened the first exhibition gallery for young artists, but also systematically supported and developed the talents that appeared in his field of vision. He laid the foundation for the study of national art.

Another of his offspring, the Volga-Kama Bank, Kokarev founded in 1870, the same year his branch was opened in our city. Initially, the bank entered the building on German Square, but the location turned out to be extremely unfortunate - on the very outskirts, away from business streets, next to the cemetery. After some time, the address was changed, they moved across the river to the fair, but the fair worked only one month a year, and the rest of the time the bank branch experienced the same difficulties as in the old place. From an economic point of view, the bank's move to Bugrovsky House was ideal, here, on Rozhdestvenskaya Street, big deals were made all year round and millions of contracts were signed. In this building, the Nizhny Novgorod branch of the bank successfully existed until the very nationalization in the revolutionary year of 1917.

House of merchant Pyatov

See the post about the house of the merchant Pyatov here http://milutkin.livejournal.com/56514.html

Trading House and Bank Rukavishnikov

Of the entire diverse range of houses on the Nizhne-Volzhskaya embankment, the profitable house of Sergei Mikhailovich Rukavishnikov stands out with an unexpected theme of "Gothic" surrounded by purely Russian architecture. The house was built in 1911-1913 by the outstanding Russian architect of the Art Nouveau era Fyodor Shekhtel.
The building has a complex silhouette, as it is designed to be perceived from the river. An interesting fact is that it was made in neo-Gothic, although Shekhtel practiced Gothic only in the 90s of the nineteenth century. It successfully combines rationalism and romanticism. Vertical impetuous lines, subject to a dynamic upward impulse, give the building a special expressiveness. This is just a stylistic association with the Gothic, which helps to reveal the frame structure of the building.

The facade combined motifs of medieval architecture and advanced building technologies of the early 20th century, with faceted turrets of various heights, completed with metal caps, forming the silhouette of the building. This technique creates a strong motive that evokes associations with a powerful organ and contributes to the perception of the image as a kind of musical work. In this case, this is not a direct copy of the Gothic of the Middle Ages, but a picturesque composition, the author's fantasy on the theme of Gothic.
Organically, this building is one with the Rukavishnikov Bank, the facade of which overlooks Rozhdestvenskaya Street. The bank was also built according to the design of Fyodor Shekhtel, but a little earlier - in 1908. At that time, Shekhtel refused to use any historical styles and designed the building in the image of a rational modernist style. Above the main entrance are allegorical sculptures by Konenkov, symbolizing industry and agriculture.

The dynasty of merchants, breeders and bankers of the Rukavishnikovs in the 19th century was one of the most famous in Nizhny Novgorod. Over time, their fame has also acquired an all-Russian scale.

The ancestor of the dynasty, Grigory Mikhailovich Rukavishnikov, originally from the village of Krasnaya Ramen, Makaryevsky district, Nizhny Novgorod province, traded in blacksmithing. Having moved in 1817 after the fair to Nizhny Novgorod, he bought several shops and began to actively trade in iron. Gradually, the number of shops grew, capital increased, and Grigory Mikhailovich built his own ironworks. In 1836, for his work, he received a medal from the department of manufactures and domestic trade.

After a fire in 1899 in the two-story stone house of the Rukavishnikovs with two industrial buildings on Rozhdestvenskaya Street, they turned to the Construction Department of the city government with a request to repair the damaged buildings. However, the restored old buildings had a very unsightly appearance, and in 1908 Sergei Rukavishnikov turned to the Moscow architect F.O. Shekhtel with a request to develop facade plans for the construction of two buildings instead, which would have main facades facing Rozhdestvenskaya Street (the bank itself) and Nizhne-Volzhskaya Embankment (industrial buildings).

The facades were designed in neo-gothic forms. On the embankment - with powerful frame blades, completed with "pinnacles", glazing of planes and wall cladding with polychrome ceramic tiles. Colored ceramics was also used in the cladding of the building overlooking Rozhdestvenskaya Street, the decoration of which widely used artistic cast iron, including round figures of a worker and a peasant woman, made according to the sketches of the young sculptor S.T. Konenkov.

After the construction was completed, problems arose: the new buildings began to “put pressure” on the nearby Merchant Bank (Rozhdestvenskaya St., 21) and the apartment building of Kudryashov-Chesnokov (Nizhne-Volzhskaya Embankment, 9), cracks appeared in the walls of which. A special commission headed by the architect A.N. was sent to the site. Poltanov. Hastily taken measures helped to rectify the situation.
Both buildings of the Rukavishnikovs are a vivid example of rational modernity. Many consider the Nizhny Novgorod banks of the early 20th century, built in the era of modernism, to be the best buildings in the city. The second half of the 19th century was the period of the highest flowering of banking in Nizhny Novgorod: new credit institutions appeared, as well as representative offices of the most famous Russian banks at that time. In 1908, the Rukavishnikov building on Rozhdestvenskaya Street housed a branch of the Russian Commercial and Industrial Bank, which was one of the largest in Russia. The Rukavishnikovs were the largest clients of this branch, so in business circles the bank was even called the "Rukavishnikovs' bank", and this is how it went down in history.

http://milutkin.livejournal.com/58025.html

On the carriage of the past

Have you ever wanted to travel back in time? It seems to me that it is interesting for anyone to plunge into the past at least for a while. I propose to go back more than a hundred years ago and see how Nizhny Novgorod has changed.

Imagine you are standing at a bus stop, waiting for your transport - and suddenly a cab pulls up in a horse-drawn carriage. You get into this disappeared mode of transport, pass the pontoon bridge that connected the two parts of the city even before the modern Kanavinsky, and find yourself on Rozhdestvenskaya Street - the main street of Nizhny Novgorod.

Large trading companies, banks, profitable houses, hotels flash by. You go to a busy square where they sell fruits, vegetables and watermelons. “We have arrived. Sofronovskaya Square, ”says an old cab driver.

That, but not that

Before your eyes is a place that every resident of the city knows - Markina Square. Everything is the same: Rozhdestvenskaya Street stretching into the distance with many offices, shops, restaurants. The same Blinovsky passage, which closes the square on the south side, and opposite it is the river station. Wait, where is he?

It is difficult to imagine the modern Markin Square without the station, but the building appeared only in the middle of the last century. Even the restorer of the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin, S. L. Agafonov, offered his own version, but the commission did not like the building with a high spire.

The architect of the modern station was the architect M.I. Churilin, which completed construction in 1964. His offspring in its forms resembled a river vessel. The figures of three mighty sailors, created by the Nizhny Novgorod sculptor P.I. Gusev.

Thus, the following picture appears to the residents and guests of our city: a huge white ship on the water is waiting for its passengers to set off along the great Volga. Sailors walk towards him with a confident step, and the wind blows the ribbons on their caps.

We can see all this today, but what was in that place at the beginning of the last century? Open water stretching into the distance.

The next thing that will surely catch your eye is the temple of God. On the site of the Gorenergo building, built by the architect A. Tyupikov in 1952, there was a church in honor of Saints Cosmas and Damian (Kozmodemyanskaya). This majestic building was erected by the son of the creator of the explanatory dictionary, Lev Vladimirovich Dal.

However, the church itself existed for a very long time, it was wooden. As a result of the fact that the temple fell into decay over time, it was decided to create a stone building. In memory of the previously existing temple, the architect managed to save the bell tower and the refectory.

Unfortunately, historians still cannot accurately date the construction of the church. On this issue, the opinions of our local historians differ: some believe that Kuzma Minin went to this church to receive God's blessing to fight the Poles, while others adhere to a different version: the temple was erected as a monument to the Nizhny Novgorod militia in 1612, and Archpriest Spaso is called the initiator of the construction -Preobrazhensky Cathedral Savva Efimiev.

However, one can say for sure: Nizhny Novgorod has lost one of the most beautiful and majestic buildings. The temple was five-domed, and inside it was richly decorated and equipped with very valuable utensils. The Kozmodemyanskaya church had a majestic iconostasis, the walls and floor were finished in marble.

However, the entire brilliance of the structure faded with the coming to power of the Bolsheviks. On the night of July 11-12, 1929, one of the most beautiful churches in the city was blown up. But this tragedy is yet to come, but for now, at the beginning of the 20th century, the temple, on the domes of which the sun's rays play, is the main decoration of the entire square.

Fountain for merchants - philanthropists

There is a fountain in front of the church. Currently, it is in the same place, but, unfortunately, it is very different from the one that stood before. It was built in honor of Nizhny Novgorod patrons and was called the "Fountain of Benefactors".

The history of this building is connected with the creation of the second water supply in 1880. Let me remind you that the first one was built in the middle of the 19th century by the architect A.I. Delvig, but as the city grew and the population increased, there was a need for additional water supply. It took a huge amount, which the city could not pull - 450 thousand rubles.

But thanks to large donations from Nizhny Novgorod merchants, the Blinov and Bugrov brothers, as well as U.S. Kurbatov, who offered money, taking into account the fact that water from the water supply system will be distributed to the residents of the city free of charge, the problem of financing was solved.

The length of the water pipeline was 42 km. This contribution was highly appreciated by the City Council, and it was decided to build a cast fountain in honor of the merchants.

The "Fountain of Benefactors" survived all the upheavals of the 20th century: the revolution, the Civil War and the Great Patriotic War. However, at the end of the 60s of the last century, by the decision of the Gorky City Council of Workers' Deputies, it was decided to dismantle it.

According to the head of the project for the development of the territory "Christmas side" Alexander Serikov, there are three versions of the liquidation of the fountain: "rusted and aged, it is a relic of imperial Russia and did not fit into the concept of the architectural space of the square. Markin".

Business center of Russia

The only building that you recognize and that has not lost its color and fits perfectly into the picture of the square to this day is the Nizhny Novgorod Stock Exchange, where a nightclub is now located.

Initially, all exchange transactions were concluded in the Blinovsky passage, but at the end of the 19th century, Nizhny Novgorod established itself as a leading center for wholesale transactions. A special building was needed, the author of which was K. V. Treiman. Subsequently, it was the Nizhny Novgorod Stock Exchange that set prices for the transportation of fuel oil, bread, salt, and timber materials by water transport throughout Central Russia.

For more than a hundred years, the building has not changed, except for the lost turret with a flagpole above the main entrance.

Thus, the current Markin Square is the former business center of Russia, Moscow City, at the beginning of the 20th century. It was our city that dictated prices to the entire country, and therefore set world prices for Russian resources.

It turns out that at the beginning of the 20th century the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin was the head, because the government of our city was located there; fair - a heart that beats and in some places increases the pace, depending on the number of goods brought; and Sofronovskaya Square - the soul, where the Nizhny Novgorod worldview, vision and idea of ​​the world around is formed.

After a while, the old cabman will come for you again. Sit in his stroller, he'll take you home. You ask: "Why is this square called Sofronovskaya?". Looking ahead, he will answer: “Yes, this place used to be the house of the merchant Sofronov. That's where it started."

Back to the present

Walking along Rozhdestvenskaya Street, I often think: do the leaders and participants of the project "Christmas Side" and the head of the city administration Oleg Kondrashov make such trips into the past?

At the end of September of this year, news was heard that the "Fountain of Benefactors" could be restored. “Currently, this issue is under study. However, already today, Vodokanal OJSC expresses its readiness to restore the fountain,” Oleg Kondrashov, head of the administration of Nizhny Novgorod, said then.

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We will dedicate the next walk to the Lower Bazaar, located at the confluence of the Oka and the Volga.

Nizhny bazaar, also known as Nizhny Posad, consists of a couple of streets, a wide Nizhnevolzhskaya embankment and several lanes that abut against the steep slope of the Dyatlovy Mountains. Under the tsar-father, two funiculars were built in Nizhny Novgorod, connecting the Lower Bazaar with the Kremlin and the upland part of the city. But under Soviet rule, both fell into disrepair and eventually collapsed. So we went down the stairs, and went up on a regular bus.

In front of the Kanavinsky Bridge, which leads to the main street of the Lower Bazaar, called Rozhdestvenskaya, there is a stele with the arms of the Lower Bazaar. The noble deer on the coat of arms is called the “merry goat” from time immemorial.

Almost every house on Rozhdestvenskaya Street is interesting. Unfortunately, not everyone got into the lens - it was cold, however. Yes, and there is nowhere to warm up 🙂 - on the occasion of the New Year, all (!) Establishments were closed. It was possible to get on the sightseeing tram, but the route does not start on the Christmas, but ends. And taking pictures from the windows is inconvenient.

A solid three-story house at the end of Rozhdestvenskaya Street belonged to the merchant I. Sobolev. It was built by the architect Uzhedumsky-Gritsevich in 1860-62. In the wing there were trading baths, and in the front building there was a hotel, which was considered one of the best in the city. In 1869, Leo Tolstoy stayed there.

The sights of Nizhny Novgorod also include two luxurious manor estates that belonged to the barons Stroganov and princes Golitsyn. The main house and outbuildings of the Stroganov estate, built in 1826, face the street. The Golitsyn estate was built by Domenico (Dementy Ivanovich 🙂) Gilardi in 1837. Its front facade faces the river, and inconspicuous outbuildings overlook the street.

A spectacular three-story red building adjoins the Stroganovs' estate. The architraves, pediments, arched pediments, cornices and rustication of the first floor are highlighted in white. This is not a palace and not even an apartment building, but ... a factory of the Dobrov and Nabgolts company, built in 1885-86. He produced steam engines for the flour mills of the merchants Bashkirovs and Bugrovs. It was Emelyan Bashkirov who supplied flour to the famous Moscow baker Ivan Maksimovich Filippov.
It also produced equipment for water pipes, including for the entire (!) Trans-Siberian Railway.

Opposite is the brightest attraction of Rozhdestvenskaya Street - covered in legends.

While admiring the temple, do not forget to look at the elegant mansion with a mezzanine, standing at the back of the site. It is listed along Suetinskaya Street, which runs along Zapochaini. The house stands on the farmstead of Grigory Dmitrievich Stroganov. In the chambers that stood on this site, the owner of the ironworks received Peter I himself, who celebrated his fiftieth birthday in Nizhny in 1722. The current house was built by Nizhny Novgorod architects Ivan Efimovich Efimov and Anton Lavrentievich Leer in 1828-31. Here lived the manager of the “salt and iron caravans” of the Stroganovs.

Not far from the Stroganov Church there are a couple of bronze sculptures representing Nizhny Novgorod types. It's a peddler boy with a tray full of pretzels and bagels

and a gentleman-artist in a blouse and a beret, standing in front of an easel.

The artist “paints a city landscape from life” with the house of the merchant Smirnov, built by the already familiar architect Ivan Efimovich Efimov in 1823. This is a typical provincial classicist mansion with a mezzanine, a triangular pediment and a pilaster portico.

Opposite is another classic mansion of noble proportions. The basement floor is highlighted in rich terracotta color, the mezzanine facade is decorated with pilasters and elegant shells in arched sandriks. The architect Anton Lavrentievich Leer built this house for the Esyrev Merchants in 1832.

The neighboring house is a little younger than the Esyrevs' mansion. He is “only” about 160 years old. It was built by Nikolai Ivanovich Uzhedumsky-Gritsevich, the author of the hotel of the merchant Sobolev, in 1853. At the very end of the 19th century, the merchant Aristarkh Andreevich Blinov ordered to rebuild it in the eclectic style that was fashionable at that time. Wide windows and decorative domes appeared in 1898.

The house of Aristarkh Blinov overlooks Sofronovskaya Square, renamed in Soviet times as Markin Square (commander of the Volga Flotilla during the Civil War). The eastern side of the square is occupied by the passage of the Blinov brothers. He still attracts attention. Imagine what impression he made in 1878 immediately after the completion of construction?
The author of the passage building is the St. Petersburg architect A.K. Bruni, and it was built by the Nizhny Novgorod architect Robert Yakovlevich Kilevein. The building housed shops, warehouses, offices, including the Nobel Brothers Association, a hotel and taverns. For some time, the Nizhny Novgorod exchange, post office and telegraph were located here. On the ground floor there was a shopping arcade - it was he who gave the name to the building.

The famous artist Konstantin Yegorovich Makovsky stayed at the Blinovsky Passage Hotel while working on the painting Minin's Proclamation.
In November 1901, in one of the local restaurants, the liberal intelligentsia of Nizhny Novgorod escorted A.M. Peshkov (Maxim Gorky) to Arzamas exile.
The passage belonged to the three Blinov brothers: Fedor, Aristarchus and Nikolai. The Blinov brothers, together with the no less famous grain merchants Bugrovs and Ustin Savvich Kurbatov, donated 250 thousand rubles for the construction of a city water supply system with the only condition: “The use of water from the new water supply system must be free for all estates of Nizhny Novgorod forever.” In memory of the benefactor merchants, a luxurious fountain with a memorial plaque was installed on Sofronovskaya Square, which was destroyed by the decision of the "partkhozaktiv" in the 1960s.
On the south side of the square, in addition to the house of Aristarkh Blinov, there is the Nizhny Novgorod Stock Exchange, built for the All-Russian Exhibition of 1896 by architect Karl Gustavovich (Vasilyevich) Treiman.

The old and new churches of Kozma and Damian, which stood on Sofronovskaya (Markina) Square, have not been preserved. In their place, a gloomy Stalinist box was built, occupied by Nizhnovenergo.

But the merchant houses of the end of the century before last are distinguished by their bright festive appearance.

Especially good is the profitable house of Nikolai Alexandrovich Bugrov, the grandson of the founder of the famous merchant dynasty Pyotr Yegorovich Bugrov. The house was rebuilt by the architect V.P. Zeidler in 1893. It housed a branch of the Volga-Kama Bank, where Bugrov took out loans to develop his grain business.
N.A. Bugrov was greatly revered in Nizhny Novgorod. Half of his income, and in case of natural disasters and up to 80%, he spent on charity. Bugrov, for the first time in the Russian Empire, established an eight-hour working day at his mills, established a pension fund for sick and elderly workers and an interest-free mortgage for those in need of housing. Millers were fed free of charge, given overalls, they lived in free houses at mills. On holidays, workers received gifts of food or money.

The house of N.A. Bugrov stands at the corner of Troitsky (Vakhitov) Lane. On the opposite corner stands the house of a merchant of the 1st guild, Honorary Citizen of Nizhny Novgorod Ivan Stepanovich Pyatov.
Pyatov traded in iron and at his own expense set up an Iron Row at the Nizhny Novgorod Fair in Kanavino, which won him a special favor with the engineer August Betancourt. It was Betancourt that Nicholas I entrusted with the arrangement of the Fair, which was transferred from Makariev after a devastating fire. In 1819, August Betancourt built a house for Pyatov, decorated with an Ionic colonnade on the facade. A figured attic with two domes and decorative vases in niches was added by well-known Nizhny Novgorod homeowners I. Kudryashov and N. Chesnokov.

The neighboring house is one of the best examples of Art Nouveau in Russia. This is the creation of the brilliant F.O. Shekhtel - the Russian Commercial and Industrial Bank of Sergei Mikhailovich and Mitrofan Mikhailovich Rukavishnikov, representatives of the famous “damned family” of Nizhny Novgorod industrialists. The building on Rozhdestvenskaya Street was built in 1908 in the forms of a rational modernist style. It is distinguished by wide window openings, a combination of decorative plaster and ceramic facing tiles.

The cast-iron sculptures of a worker and a peasant woman were made by the then little-known sculptor Sergei Timofeevich Konenkov. They represent industry and agriculture.

The former property of the Rukavishnikovs stretches from Rozhdestvenskaya Street to the Nizhnevolzhskaya Embankment. The second building of the ensemble, designed by F.O. Shekhtel in the Art Nouveau style with neo-Gothic elements, overlooks the embankment. The building overlooking the embankment was intended for a department store. It was built in 1913-1916. In Soviet times, a factory was opened there.

At the very beginning of Rozhdestvenskaya Street there is another Art Nouveau building. This is the former home of Fyodor Petrovich Pereplyotchikov, the owner of rope manufactories, a public figure and a major philanthropist. In 1845, he bequeathed two of his houses to the city so that the income from them would go to the benefit of the poor. House number 6 on Rozhdestvenskaya was built by Ivan Efimovich Efimov in 1822. During the All-Russian Exhibition, visiting merchants stopped here. Even then it became clear that the house needed renovation. In 1902, the house was built on and rebuilt by the architect Anatoly Ivanovich Shmakov, a native of the serf counts Sheremetyevs.

Shmakov decorated the facades with many mascarons in the form of female heads entwined with flowers. Vertical rods in the piers of windows, the pattern of platbands, stucco molding in sandriks are also characteristic of the provincial Art Nouveau.

Rozhdestvenskaya street led us to the former Gostiny Dvor. Unfortunately, almost nothing is left of it. However, according to the U-shaped building of the Flour Rows, this place is still called “Skoba”.

Sights of Nizhny Novgorod. “Skoba” or National Unity Square

On the right remains the Church of the Kazan Icon of the Virgin, rebuilt in a modern cult style. It was erected a few years ago on the site of an earlier church that was lost during the Soviet era.

Commercial and industrial Christmas ends. Further along the Ivanovsky congress and Zhivonosovskaya (Kozhevennaya) street was the city "bottom", which was also a kind of "landmark" of Nizhny Novgorod.
On a hillock under the walls of the Kremlin stands the famous lodging house of Alexander Petrovich Bugrov, designed to receive 500 people. It opened in 1883. On its facade was the famous inscription “Do not drink vodka, do not sing songs, be quiet!” The guests of the rooming house could count on a free pound of bread and a mug of boiling water once a day. It was in the Bugrovskaya rooming house that Gorky heard how a certain ragamuffin called himself “Baron”. Later, the writer made the character of the baron one of the main ones in his play “At the Bottom”.

The son of Alexander Petrovich, Nikolai Alexandrovich Bugrov, invested 30 thousand rubles in the bank. The interest went to the upkeep of the lodging house. In 1885-89, Bugrov built a trading building nearby, the proceeds from which were also used for an overnight stay.

The Church of the Nativity of John the Baptist, which has existed since the end of the 16th century, was rebuilt in stone in 1683 at the expense of the townsman Gavrila Dranishnikov and restored in 2005 after Soviet destruction. At the walls of the wooden church of the same name, Kozma Minin addressed the people of Nizhny Novgorod with his famous appeal.

The modern sights of Nizhny Novgorod include a copy of the monument to Minin and Pozharsky, installed in 2005. It was made by the famous copyist sculptor Zurab Tsereteli.

This place has received the pretentious name "National Unity Square". In 2005, a belfry chapel with a 6-ton alarm bell appeared between the church and the North Tower of the Kremlin.

Houses along Zhivonosovskaya (Kozhevenny) Street and the neighboring Kozhevenny Lane are reminiscent of the Nizhny Novgorod “millionka”. So mockingly called the place of accumulation of tramps, ragamuffins and other unfortunate people.
The stone buildings of the merchant Fyodor Gushchin, built in 1869-71, are perfect for the scenery of the play “At the Bottom”.

On Kozhevennaya Street there is the famous tramp tea house “Pillars”. Georg Kizevetter built this house for Fyodor Petrovich Pereplyotchikov, already familiar to us, who at that time was the mayor. In 1839, the work of Georg Kizewetter was awarded the following resolution of the Sovereign Emperor Nicholas I:

"Kizevetter to declare royal pleasure for the beauty of this facade."

This is one of the best houses in Nizhny Novgorod, built in the style of classicism. In 1901, it was acquired by the steamer Dmitry Vladimirovich Sirotkin, an Old Believer and a member of the City Duma. Like other Nizhny Novgorod rich, he was actively involved in charity work and, at the request of Maxim Gorky, provided this house for a folk tea house. The money for its arrangement was allocated by the already known to us Nikolai Alexandrovich Bugrov. Tramps, in a common folk manner, called the tea house “Pillars” because of the columns on the facade.

Here people could sit warmly. They gave them a portion of tea for two kopecks, a pound of bread, organized a small library, put up a piano and arranged concerts on holidays ...

Up to 500 tramps gathered here for musical matinees. Nizhny Novgorod doctors opened a free outpatient clinic and a pharmacy in Stolby.

The neighboring two-story building is much younger than the "Pillars". This is the former Izvolsky hotel, built in 1905.

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One of the most unusual museums in Moscow is located in the historical part of the city, in a former tenement house, which belonged to the merchant Kuzma Kolupaev since the end of the 19th century. Here, not far from the Butyrskaya prison, next to the police station, during the days of the First Russian Revolution of 1905-1907, there was a deeply secret illegal printing house where revolutionary leaflets and the Social Democratic newspaper Rabochy were published. She worked under the guise of the Kalandadze Wholesale of Caucasian Fruits store. This is the only illegal printing house in Russia, which was never discovered by the tsarist police due to the high professionalism of the conspirators. The museum has existed since 1924. Its organizers were those who at one time created a secret printing house and worked in it. That is why the exposition with extraordinary accuracy reproduces all the details of the bygone past. The memorial and museum complex consists of the interiors of the trading hall, the apartment of the store manager. In the basement of the shop, disguised as a warehouse, at a depth of three meters, a "cave" was dug. In this part of the exposition, you can see the reconstructed underground printing house with the American printing machine. The museum gives an idea not only of the conditions and environment in which the underground workers worked, but also of the life and life of Moscow philistines and middle-class citizens of the late 19th - early 20th centuries. The museum hosts interchangeable thematic exhibitions dedicated to memorable dates in Russian history. The museum also shows feature films "American" (USSR, 1930) and "House on Lesnaya" (USSR, 1980).