This category covers specific places in Nizhny Novgorod and the Nizhny Novgorod Region — from city districts, historic slobodas (urban settlements), and squares to small rivers, lakes, monasteries, settlements, and villages. It brings together both major, well-known landmarks and smaller localities whose names live on in everyday urban usage but rarely appear in official reference works.
For Nizhny Novgorod, the topic of places is inseparable from its topography: the Dyatlov Hills — a chain of hills at the confluence of the Oka and the Volga — formed the natural foundation on which the city grew. The upper and lower (riverside) parts of the city are divided not only by the river but also by their way of life: Zarechka, with its slobodas, factories, and railway stations, has historically lived quite differently from the merchant and administrative Upper Town. Ravines, hills, and the descents between them — Zelensky Descent, Pokhvalinsky, Gremyachaya Gora — shaped the street grid and gave their names to entire neighborhoods.
Among the most significant landmarks are the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin, built in the early sixteenth century on a high riverbank and never taken by storm, and Minin Square — the city's main square, which has changed its name several times over its history. Nearby are the Historic Center with its pre-revolutionary architecture, Zapochayaniye, and the The Golden Triangle, defined by three central squares and the streets between them. On the opposite bank lies Kanavino, which grew out of the Kunavinskaya sloboda and became the city's commercial and transport gateway, and the Avtozavodsky District — the most populous in Nizhny Novgorod, which emerged around a major automobile plant.
Beyond the city limits, the category includes lakes, rivers, and selos of the Nizhny Novgorod Region. Svetloyar — a lake in the Voskresensky District associated with the legend of the city of Kitezh — has long become one of the region's most recognizable symbols. Vad Lake is known for its karst origin and powerful underwater springs. Small rivers — such as the Yezhat or the Kovalikha, which has been enclosed in an urban culvert — preserve the natural framework that largely determined the place names of streets and districts.
Many of the places in this category have traveled the path from independent selos and villages to urban microdistricts: Gordeevka, Burnakovka, Vysokovo, Karpovka, and dozens of other settlements were absorbed by the city throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, yet retained their own names and often their distinct way of life. Some of them still exist as villages within Nizhny Novgorod — formally incorporated into the city boundaries but having never lost their rural character.
The category branches into subcategories: cities and towns of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, districts of the Region, monasteries, embankments, parks, squares, settlements, and descents. Related topics — streets, architecture, transport infrastructure, and the history of individual districts — round out the geographic picture of the city and the Region.