Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin

Built between 1508 and 1515 by an Italian engineer working for Moscow, the kremlin at Nizhny is unusual among Russian fortresses for its terrain: instead of ringing a flat site, the walls run along the top of a bluff and then plunge down its face to the riverbank and back up, so the circuit changes height by about eighty metres and the towers step down the slope. The wall has thirteen towers, one of them, the Zachatskaya on the riverbank, rebuilt in 2012. It was never taken by assault. Inside are the Archangel cathedral, where Kuzma Minin is buried - the Nizhny butcher who with Prince Pozharsky raised the militia that retook Moscow in 1612 - along with administrative buildings, a Soviet-era exhibition of military vehicles and an art museum with a large Roerich holding. The full wall circuit reopened in 2021 after a long restoration, and walking it is the main reason to come: it gives the Volga and Oka confluence from height.

History

A first attempt to replace the wooden fort with stone in 1374 got no further than one tower, and the stone kremlin was begun in 1500 with the Ivanovskaya Tower and built mainly from 1508 to 1515, a wall of 2 km with 13 towers. In 2018 archaeologists found a 13th-century settlement and cemetery on the site of the church of St. Simeon Stylites, and since August 2021 visitors can walk the whole circuit inside the wall (Wikipedia, Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin).

Highlights

• The wall down the bluff - a circuit that drops eighty metres to the river and climbs back.
• The 1510s Italian work - a fortress designed by an engineer from Italy for Moscow.
• Minin's grave - the burial of the man who raised the 1612 militia, in the Archangel cathedral.
• The confluence view - the Volga meeting the Oka, seen from the wall walk.

When to go

May to September for the wall walk. Half a day. Winter closes parts of the circuit for ice.

Before you go

The wall walk is steep with many steps and is closed in bad weather. Museums inside are ticketed separately and vary in quality. The kremlin sits in a busy city centre, so the approach is traffic and administration buildings. Restoration work continues in sections.

Nearby

Bolshaya Pokrovskaya street runs south; the Chkalov stairs drop to the embankment.

Key facts