Sormovskiy Park of Culture and Leisure — a park on the border between Sormovo District and Moskovsky District Districts of Nizhny Novgorod. Sormovskiy Park is one of the favorite recreational spots for Nizhny Novgorod residents. It is located in Sormovo District of Nizhny Novgorod.
On the territory of the park there is an open-air venue for summer discos, a pond with swans, and Trud Stadium; numerous cafés, rides, and a children's playground are also in operation. The park is also home to Limopopo Zoo.
About the park
Under the name "Zhdanov Park of Culture and Leisure," it was founded in the 1920s simultaneously with the construction of the Palace of Culture of the Krasnoye Sormovo Plant. Its area was 180 hectares, and its foundation was an old woodland — the Daryinsky Forest.
In the 1930s, prominent Soviet architects worked on the park's design — professors of the Moscow Architectural Institute E. V. Shervinsky and L. S. Zalesskaya. According to the design, Sormovskiy Park was to feature numerous pavilions, gazebos, a reading room, a bandstand, a dance floor, an open-air theatre, a rose garden, a children's playground, a sports ground, a pneumatic shooting range, various rides, and a hall of mirrors. The park had a regular layout, which has been preserved to this day in its historic section. It is the largest park in the city. The park's area is 146 hectares. Its shape resembles a slightly irregular egg. One of the park's distinctive features is its landscape. Hills — some formed by nature, some created by human hands — give the park additional character. The territory contains a pond with swans and Trud Stadium, while cafés and rides operate across three separate areas. Approximately half of the park's trees are relict pines. In addition to these, there is an oak grove, linden, elm, and birch alleys, as well as a wide variety of other tree and shrub species.
Park plantings
Approximately half of the park's trees are relict pines. In addition to these, there is an oak grove, linden, elm, and birch alleys, as well as a wide variety of other tree and shrub species.
In the stories of Nizhny Novgorod residents
The Ghost of Sormovskiy Park
A strange incident
Imagine a warm, quiet, sunny day — a Saturday, late May, around 11 o'clock in the morning, the mid-1980s.
After a game of football, I am cycling home unhurriedly on a Tourist bicycle through Sormovskiy Park, coming in from the Yaroshenko Street side. I ride along the central alley, past the lake where swans usually swim. I barely remember, but it seems there are no people around. I approach closer to the main entrance of the park. On the left I can hear children's rides operating and the quiet voices of people relaxing. Opposite the rides, on the central alley, standing with her back to me, is a young woman — more of a girl, really — dressed appropriately for the weather, with a small child spinning around her. No one else is nearby. The girl has a magnificent figure and beautiful hair, but I cannot see her face. An immediate, clear, and strong (presumably natural) desire arises to find out whether her face is as beautiful as what I have already seen. (No other thoughts crossed my mind.)
And then the girl turns toward me, as if on cue! I had been looking unobtrusively, in passing — that probably helped me. The more she turned, the more uncomfortable I felt. Instead of the face of a young, beautiful girl, what appeared before me was the face of a devil — a young, female devil, with small horns, everything as it should be. My reaction was ambivalent. To some extent I was frightened; at the same time there was a vague suspicion of a trick. My natural defence mechanisms kicked in. I could no longer look at the girl — my eyes turned away of their own accord. I pretended not to notice anything strange, rode past as calmly and composedly as I could, looking to the side, and headed straight for the main gates of the park and out through them, with no desire whatsoever to go back and figure out what I had seen. I didn't understand it, and I — a young man of 26 — was mildly frightened.
Afterwards I put it down to a strange, inexplicable incident or some kind of trick, and forgot about it — though I didn't go to the park for some time. Recently, in a conversation with colleagues at work, I remembered and recounted the story. And one woman who works with me and lives somewhere in Sormovo District told me that she had already heard a similar story back around the time it happened to me. The same thing had happened to a man in her building — a doctor. He had been badly frightened and even fell ill. Neighbourhood boys had told her that in Sormovskiy Park, a young woman who had a child had been raped and murdered. And now she takes revenge on all the young men who visit the park by frightening them with the face of a devil. Before that I had never told anyone about this, and I had heard nothing of the sort myself, and her words made a strange impression on me. For my own part, I have never deliberately done anything bad to any woman in my life.
………….
I wonder whether she found those she was looking for.
It would be interesting to know what people think about this little story.
See also
Links
Website of the entertainment centre in Sormovskiy Park.