Nizhegorodsky District is the central historic district of Nizhny Novgorod. It is situated in the Upper Town of the city, dominating the confluence of the Oka and the Volga River.
Nizhegorodsky District today is a construction and scientific hub, a concentration of educational and healthcare institutions, commercial centers, and government offices — "business Nizhny." Gorky Square, Bolshaya Pokrovskaya, Fedorovsky Embankment, Minin Square, the Kremlin, the The Chkalov Staircase, Verkhne-Volzhskaya Embankment — these are favorite leisure spots for Nizhny Novgorod residents and the venues of mass public festivities.
The district's area (including the resort settlement Zelenyy Town) accounts for approximately 13.7% of the total territory of Nizhny Novgorod — 67 sq. km (including the resort settlement Zelenyy Town at 33 sq. km).
District boundaries
The district boundary runs along the middle of the Volga River River to the boundary of the sloboda of Podnove and the village of Kuzminka, skirts the village of Kuzminka, follows the newly established city limits to the Kazanskoye Highway, skirts the collective gardens near the village of Afonino, turns north at the Kova River, runs along the middle of the Kova River to Belinsky Street, then along the middle of Belinsky Street and Krasnoselskaya Street, northward along the middle of Barminskaya Street to a ravine and down to the foot of the Oka Slope, along it to the Molitovsky Bridge, then along the middle of the Oka River to the middle of the Volga River River. The resort settlement of Zelenyy Town is also part of Nizhegorodsky District.
Nature of the phenomenon
The district was established by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR dated 9 December 1970: an amendment was made to the administrative-territorial division of City of Gorky, and the entire territory of Nizhny Novgorod as it was known before the 17th century was placed on the map of the newly formed Nizhegorodsky District, which became the administrative, historical, and cultural center of the million-strong city.
History
By order of Grand Prince Yuri Vsevolodovich, a fortress was built in 1221 at the mouth of the Oka — a location of long-standing economic, political, and military-strategic importance — to serve as a bridgehead for the defense of the Russian lands. The city consisted of a wooden fortress and two posady (trading settlements): the "Upper" and the "Lower." In 1509, construction of a stone fortress began. Its walls, measuring 2,045 meters in perimeter, protected an area of 2.7 hectares and met the military fortification requirements of the time.
In 1521, the city limits followed the Great Ostrog. It began on the bank of the Oka River above Blagoveshchensky Monastery (the wall with towers ran along what are now Vorobyeva Street, Zvezdinka Street, and along Zagorsky and Semashko Streets) and reached the Volga, enclosing a territory of 314.6 hectares.