Embankments of Nizhny Novgorod.
These streets, important for the city, were designed as part of the general system of urban-planning transformations of the city in the 1830s, by architects I. E. Yefimov and P. D. Gotman.
Verkhne-Volzhskaya Embankment
Before it was built, the first street from the river was Zhukovskaya (now Minina Street). Kitchen gardens with bathhouses ran down into the ravines of the Dyatlovy Hills. On the separate terraces stood the log houses of the Panskaya Sloboda, and the stone Petropavlovskaya and Pyatnitskaya churches.
The project called for cutting back the slopes and laying out a wide Verkhne-Volzhskaya Embankment, along whose building line only stone houses with their main facades facing the river were permitted. A landscaped boulevard was meant to connect the beginnings of the Kazansky and Georgievsky descents. A public garden was planned for the slope. This created a "grand facade" of Nizhny Novgorod facing the Volga (disambiguation). The cut-back slopes were not only turfed evenly but also planted with trees and shrubs.
The project was approved in 1835. The construction of the embankment together with the descents was directed by engineer-captain A. I. Podnozov, who had 844 hired workers at his disposal. In 1836 the embankment's boundaries were set, and by 1839 it had been leveled, filled in, paved with cobblestone, and fenced along the line of the drop.
From the 1840s the Verkhne-Volzhskaya Embankment and the Otkos became a favorite place of leisure for Nizhny Novgorod residents and visitors to the city.
Nizhne-Volzhskaya Embankment
Earth for filling the bank was taken from the digging of the Zelensky and Pokhvalinsky descents. Work began in 1836.
Dmitriev (disambiguation). To keep the fill from being washed away by the floodwaters of the Oka and Volga (disambiguation) at the Zelensky descent, it was decided to face the bank with cobblestone. On 6 April 1836 Klimov contracted to carry out the stone facing of the embankment.
In 1841 a flood damaged 111 sazhens of the embankment. D. Klimov carried out the repair. No damage of such extent to the embankment was ever observed again. In 1909-1911, in the area of the Stroganov and Golitsyn estates, the bank was built up with fill and faced again with cobblestone.
Nizhne-Okskaya Embankment
It was created at the same time as the laying out of the Nizhne-Volzhskaya Embankment as its continuation. The work was carried out directly by the city, under the supervision of engineer Dmitriev. Earth for filling the bank was taken from the digging of the Pokhvalinsky descent.
In the spring of 1836 piles for reinforcing the bank and white stone for paving the fill near the pontoon bridge across the Oka were delivered to the site. The facing of the bank slopes with cobblestone, after a roadway had been laid along the river in 1838, was undertaken by the merchant-contractor D. Klimov under the supervision of engineer N. I. Lik. By 21 October of that same year 800 square sazhens had been laid, and by the end of 1839 about 2000 square sazhens.
Despite the reinforcement of the bank with piles, part of its cobblestone facing was destroyed by floodwaters every year. In 1854-1856 the reinforcement of the bank slopes of the Nizhne-Okskaya Embankment was carried out by the architect L. V. Fostikov, and in the early 20th century by the engineer K. G. Ivanov.