Nizhny Novgorod sits at the confluence of the Volga and Oka rivers, about 400 kilometres east of Moscow, and the view from the kremlin walls over both rivers is one of the finest in Russia. Founded in 1221, it grew to become one of the great trading cities of the empire — the Nizhny Novgorod Fair, held annually on the floodplain below the citadel, was once the largest in the world, attracting merchants from Central Asia, Persia, and Western Europe.
The city divides sharply between the Upper Town — a high bank of churches, mansions, and the kremlin — and the Lower Town, which spreads across the flat riverside land. The kremlin itself is the best-preserved in Russia after the Moscow one, its red-brick towers still intact. Below it, Chkalov Stairs sweep down to the Volga in a grand Stalinist cascade, flanked by the statue of pilot Valery Chkalov who stands with his arms crossed looking out over the water.
The city's chief baroque treasure is the Stroganov Church at the foot of Rozhdestvenskaya Street — one of the most ornate churches in Russia, built by the powerful Stroganov merchant family in 1703. The main pedestrian artery Bolshaya Pokrovskaya Street runs through the upper town, lined with 19th-century mansions and theatre buildings. For a stranger perspective on the city, take the Nizhny Novgorod Cableway across the Volga to the small town of Bor on the far bank — the crossing alone is worth it for the panorama.
Nizhny Novgorod has an undeserved reputation as purely industrial. Its art scene is real: Maxim Gorky was born here, the futurist architect Vladimir Shukhov built his famous rotunda here, and the Pechersky Ascension Monastery on the cliff above the Oka is one of the most beautiful monastic complexes in the Volga region.