The historical center of Nizhny Novgorod, located in the mountainous part of the city, has preserved many historical civil buildings of the 18th – early 20th centuries, including numerous monuments of wooden architecture.
See also: Subtleties branded short guide on where to go in Nizhny Novgorod if you are in the city for the first time.
The main entrance to the Kremlin is the Dmitrovskaya Tower on the Bolshaya Pokrovskaya pedestrian street, which originates from Minin and Pozharsky Square. The street itself is notable for two or three-story buildings of the early – mid-20th century, many cafes, museums, shops and restaurants.
Even on Bolshaya Pokrovskaya, literally every 50 meters, charming sculptures sheltered – either a cat climbing along the ledge after a dove, or a photographer filming the passing public. There are figures of a postman, a policeman from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a couple in love and a coquette admiring themselves in the mirror.
All the details are on the page ” Sights of Nizhny Novgorod “.
Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin
The Kremlin is one of the most perfect Russian medieval stone fortresses: deaf towers in several tiers, impregnable walls with narrow slots of loopholes. He has exactly 13 towers: Dmitrievskaya, Powder, Georgievskaya, Borisoglebskaya and Zachatievskaya (both dilapidated), Belaya, Sentry, Ivanovskaya, Severnaya, Tainitskaya, Koromyslovskaya, Nikolskaya and Kladovaya. Having bought a ticket to the Dmitrievskaya Tower, you can go around the entire Kremlin during a tour of the fortress wall. On the territory of the Kremlin, the Mikhailo-Arkhangelsk Cathedral of the mid-16th century has been preserved.
Panoramic view of the Kremlin is best from the water – from the deck of the boat, plying from the River Station to the pier of the city of Bor. Travel time is 25 minutes, departing almost every hour. In addition, there are plenty of pleasure boats during the season.
Nizhny Novgorod Fair
Today, only one restored building has survived from the fair, everything else was demolished and destroyed. And at one time, the Nizhny Novgorod fair thundered not only throughout Russia – throughout Eurasia, it was one of the largest and most popular in all of Russia and the Volga region. Merchants flocked here from China, Mongolia, Scandinavia and, of course, from all over the Russian Empire. A lot of interesting facts from the history of this place can be read from Gilyarovsky.
Churches and temples
Notable medieval monasteries in Nizhny Novgorod are Pechersky (14th century) and Annunciation (13th century). The latter is located especially picturesquely, on the slopes of the Dyatlovy Mountains, on the banks of the Oka River. An excellent panorama opens from the opposite bank, where the Moscow railway station and the Nizhny Novgorod Fair are located, next to which the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral rises. And at the expense of the merchants Stroganovs in Gordeevka (modern Kanavinsky district), the Baroque Church of the Cathedral of the Most Holy Mother of God (Rozhdestvenskaya, 1719) and the Smolensk Church (1694–1697) were built.
Museums and theaters in Nizhny Novgorod
There are many museums and theaters in the city: the Museum of A. M. Gorky, which includes the Literary Museum, the scene of the autobiographical story “Childhood” – Kashirin’s House, a museum-apartment, where the writer worked on several works. The city also houses the only Museum of N. A. Dobrolyubov in Russia and his house-museum in the wing of the Dobrolyubov estate, where critics spent their childhood and youth, the Museum of A. S. Pushkin, the Museum-Apartment of A. D. Sakharov, the Russian Museum photographs and many others.
The Schelkovsky Farm Museum is also noteworthy – an ethnographic complex of wooden churches, houses and buildings of the 17th-19th centuries, brought here from all over the area.
Nizhny Novgorod for children
The first in the list of children’s attractions in Nizhny can be safely put the Limpopo Zoo. This is one of the largest private zoos in Europe, where about 1000 animals of 220 species live and regularly give birth. The coolest thing is that animals roam free in Limpopo: there are no cages here, and the safety of visitors is ensured by reliable barriers in the form of ditches. Among the inhabitants of the zoo are wolves, bears, giraffes, lynxes, African ostriches, bison, Japanese macaques and many other monkeys, tigers and alpacas, raccoons and aardvarks… Limpopo also has a petting zoo, an amusement park and a cafe.
The Children’s Railway in Nizhny Novgorod is an unusual place, where everything is fake and everything is real: a wonderful mint-green railway station (a real masterpiece of architecture), ticket offices and a waiting room, miniature rails and operating trains to match them. The length of the lines is several kilometers, the trains depart strictly according to the schedule, and the children themselves act as drivers and conductors. By the way, the original KP-4 train from the 1950s still runs here.
The interactive, informative and very fun Museum of Entertaining Sciences “Kvarki” is located in the Main Fair House on the banks of the Oka River. Its incredible exhibits will visually and fascinatingly tell about the laws of physics and chemistry, acoustics, electricity and gravity, help to understand the place of man in nature, and our planet in the Universe. Here you can stand in a roof-topping inclined room, tie a sea knot, blow a huge soap bubble, operate a tower crane, try yourself as a giant and a dwarf, fall into a Black Hole and take a picture in the “frozen” light.
In the Nizhny Novgorod Planetarium, your child will not only be able to learn a lot about stars, planets, comets and meteorites, but also independently determine their position on the starry sky map, which is broadcast on a spherical dome by an ultra-modern projector. And there is also the only space simulator in Russia that simulates the docking of the Soyuz with the ISS.
The Puppet Theater presents more than 30 magical performances about kindness, loyalty and friendship to the strictest audience. Unique puppets “play” here, and the capabilities of each are revealed by skillful puppeteers.
You can also go to the Nizhny Novgorod exotarium, where amphibians and reptiles live, ride the rides in the Switzerland park or the Children’s Park. Sverdlov and take pictures at the wonderful monuments on Bolshaya Pokrovskaya – a cheerful goat, a shoe shiner, a nickel, a fashionista, a photographer, and even Gromozeka himself! Do not forget about the cable car and boat trips – and your vacation with a child in Nizhny Novgorod is guaranteed to be a one hundred percent success.
Weather
The climate of Nizhny Novgorod differs from that of Moscow: it is colder in winter and hotter in summer. There are also more sunny days here than in Moscow, which adds to the attractiveness of summer holidays on the banks of the Volga. The air humidity here is quite high, which is especially felt in the cold season: strong and piercing winter winds from the Volga are not uncommon in the city. However, the same Volga successfully softens the summer heat in late July – August. See Citypopulationreview for weather information.
On a trip to Nizhny in the off-season, you should take woolen clothes and windproof windbreakers with you. And the unpredictable Central Russian weather can play a trick on lovers of early summer holidays: sunny days in April and May are by no means a guarantee of a pleasant air temperature for lovers of shorts and T-shirts.
On the northern, Zarechny bank of the Oka, it is always slightly warmer than on the southern Nagorny: its flat, low-lying relief allows the air to warm up more evenly.
