Nizhny Novgorod is located at the mouth of the Oka River in the Volga as one of Russia’s largest cities. The town was founded as a small fort in 1221 by Grand Duke Jurij II. The fort was located on the eastern border of the then East Slavic territory, and originally the city around the fort was called the new city, Novgorod. It was nicknamed Nizhny to distinguish it from Veliky Novgorod, and thus it came to be called Lower Novgorod. 

Mongols attacked Vladimir-Suzdal, where Nizhny Novgorod was located, and they captured the fort on the Oka and Volga on the death of Yuri II in 1238. By agreement with the Mongols, Nizhny Novgorod became part of Vladimir-Suzdal again in 1264, and in 1350 it became the administrative seat for Suzdal moved to the city, and Grand Duke Dmitry sought to make the city a worthy competitor to Moscow. That is why Dmitry built a stone citadel and several churches in Nizhny Novgorod in the 14th century.

In 1392, Nizhny Novgorod became part of the Grand Duchy of Moscow, but the Mongol-Muslim emir Edigu burned the city down in 1408. After that, Moscow rebuilt the city of Nizhny Novgorod as a fortress against the Muslim Tatars in Kazan to the east, and the city’s great Kremlin was mainly built 1508-1511. It withstood sieges by the Tatars in both 1520 and 1536, before Moscow defeated Kazan in 1552. In 1612, Kuzma Minin of Nizhny Novgorod assembled the so-called national militia in the city, which, under the command of city resident Dmitry Pozharsky, liberated Moscow from Polish occupation, ending the Troubled Times in Russia with the introduction of Mikhail Romanov as the new Tsar. 

The new times brought growth in the country and in Nizhny Novgorod, which was chosen by the wealthy Stroganov merchant family as the seat of their business. Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, the city also became known for architecture and icon paintings from the so-called Stroganov school.

Nizhny Novgorod continued its growth, and in 1817 the city’s importance increased further, as the great Makaryev fair was moved here. The annual fair was one of the largest of its kind in the world, and the fair emphasized Nizhny Novgorod’s position as the leading trading city of the Russian Empire. Alongside trade, the city’s industries grew, including a large truck and tractor factory that Henry Ford helped establish in the 1920s. 

At this time, the first permanent bridge over the city’s rivers was also opened. Nizhny Novgorod changed its name to Gorky in 1932, marking Maxim Gorky’s return to the Soviet Union at the invitation of Joseph Stalin. During World War II, Gorkij’s factories were bombed several times by Germany, and after the war, the city’s important production continued for the military, which is why Gorkij was a closed city during this period. Nizhny Novgorod got its original name back in 1990.

Today, Nizhny Novgorod is a city with a beautiful location and many interesting sights. In the center of the city lies the Kremlin along the banks of the Volga. Nizhny Novgorod’s Kremlin is like a city within a city, with one beautiful building after another behind the walls of the vast complex. Following its military importance, after the fall of Kazan, the Kremlin was set up as the administration of both Nizhny Novgorod and the region around the city. Today one can walk along the impressive walls and enjoy the sight of all 13 towers with Dmitrievskaya Bashnya/Дмитриевская башня as the main entrance from the city south of the Kremlin.

Within the walls you can see several interesting buildings. The oldest is the Archangel Michael Cathedral/Михайло-Архангельский собор, which in its current form is from a reconstruction carried out in 1628-1631. Kuzma Minin is buried in the church. Together with Dmitry Pozharsky, he became a Russian national hero for his role in Russia’s defense against Poland-Lithuania’s attack and invasion at the beginning of the 17th century. In the area north of the cathedral stands a memorial to Minin and Pozharsky, and the eternal flame burns at a monument to those who fell during Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union and thereby Russia during World War II. From the area you can also enjoy a panoramic view of the Volga.

If you want to take a stroll along Europe’s longest rivers, there are several ways to get down to the Volga. The most pompous is by the Chkalov stairs/Чкаловская лесница. The stairs start at the monument to the test pilot, pioneer and Hero of the Soviet Union, Valery Chkalov, who was born near Nizhny Novgorod. From the monument there is a magnificent view of the Volga, and from here you can take the many steps down the stairs to the river. There are 560 steps on the stairs, which were built from 1943 and opened in 1949.

From Nizhny Novgorod you can also choose to cross the river Oka, and at the mouth of the Oka in the greater Volga lies the area of ​​Strelka/Стрелка. From Strelka you can enjoy the view of the confluence of the rivers and the view of the city center. You can also visit the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral/Собор Святого Александра Невского, which is a Russian Orthodox church that was built from 1868 and consecrated in 1881. Next to the church, you can see the Nizhny Novgorod Stadium/стадион Нижний Новгород, which was one of the arenas during the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Looking over the Oka, you can see the beautiful Rozhdestvenskaya Tserkov/Рождественская церковь, a church consecrated in 1719 with distinctive colored domes.

From Strelka you can walk along the Oka to the south, and soon after you pass the Nizhegorodskaya Yarmarka/Нижегородская ярмка building. It is a former market building of the famous market, whose history started in the city of Makaryev in the 16th century and which moved to Nizhny Novgorod after 1816. The market building was built in the Russian 17th century style in an impressive size. Today it houses a museum about the city’s history. To the south of the building you can see the Lenin Monument/Памятник В.И. Ленину, and in the axis to the west stands the Transfiguration Cathedral/Спасский Староярмарочный собор, built in neoclassicism from 1816.