Gruzinskaya is a street in the Historic Center of Nizhny Novgorod, in the Nizhegorodsky District: it begins at the Pochaina Ravine, crosses Bolshaya Pokrovskaya at the State Bank building, and ends at Oshara Street (Oshara). Its length is 965 meters, and along the way it is crossed by Alekseevskaya and Oshara Streets. [1] The street took shape from two lanes — Bolotov and Gruzinsky, whose boundaries were defined in 1770 — and bears the name of Prince Georgy Alexandrovich Gruzinsky (1762–1852), the leader of the Nizhny Novgorod nobility and organizer of the militia of 1812: his estate occupied two blocks between Bolshaya Pokrovskaya and Alekseevskaya. [1][2][3]
Where it runs
Gruzinskaya runs across the central upland: from the edge of the Pochaina Ravine, along the bottom of which the Pochaina River still flowed as late as the end of the 20th century, it climbs to Bolshaya Pokrovskaya, crosses it at the State Bank building, and ends at Oshara Street, which runs from the Black Pond parallel to Alekseevskaya and onward to Oshara Square. [1][2] Below, slightly to the right of its end, begins Ludilny Lane, which, climbing uphill, meets Gruzinskaya again. [2]
The street is usually divided into two unlike halves. The first, from the ravine to Bolshaya Pokrovskaya, is a dense block of 19th-century wooden and semi-stone houses, some of which have been vacated and are awaiting restoration; the second, from Pokrovskaya to Osharskaya, runs past the theater and bank buildings. [4][5] From the end of the street there is a view of the Kremlin — though at the moment the view is blocked by a construction fence, behind which a terraced park is being built in the ravine. [5] A pedestrian bridge leads across the ravine from the street.
Gruzinskaya had become an established city thoroughfare by the end of the 19th century [1][2]; its early appearance is known from city photographs of 1886–1916.
Two lanes: Bolotov and Gruzinsky
The lower section of the street, from Pochaina Ravine to Bolshaya Pokrovskaya, was Bolotov Lane. The merchant-industrialists Stepan and Ivan Bolotov settled here in 1683, when the place was nearly on the outskirts; they built a house with a large yard and laid a carriage road to Pokrovskaya. At the Nizhny Posad Market they owned eleven shops and stall spaces; they traded in iron and copper and pewter ware — both in Nizhny itself and at the Makaryev Yarmarka. The Bolotovs kept the extensive yard by the ravine in both the 18th and 19th centuries (in 1830 it was owned by Sergey Ivanovich Bolotov), and the lane's name was a matter of particular pride for the Nizhny Novgorod townsfolk. [1][2][6]
The upper section was laid out in 1770 on the stretch between Bolshaya Pokrovskaya and Alekseevskaya; under the 1799 plan of Nizhny Novgorod it was extended to Osharskaya. Bolotov Lane was defined at the same time, in 1770, in strictly drawn lines and was laid out during the city's General Land Survey by 1787. [1][2] Later the two lanes merged into a single street, and the Bolotov name disappeared from the city map — only the Gruzinsky name remained on it. [1][3]
The surname Gruzinsky in Russia was borne by descendants of two branches of the Georgian royal house: Bakar Vakhtangovich, who came to Russia in 1724, and Georgy Irakliyevich, the last king of Georgia. The descendants of the former were entered in the genealogical books of the Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod Governorates; the descendants of the latter received in 1865 the title of Serene Highness for all members of the family. [2][7]
Estate of Prince Gruzinsky
The prince began building a house on the vast plot stretching from Bolshaya Pokrovskaya to Osharskaya immediately after he was elected provincial marshal of the nobility on January 1, 1795. The estate turned out not only huge but unusual: the newly cut lane divided it in two — on the left remained the residential log house with its service and farm buildings, on the right a large orchard, which from the mid-19th century became public. [1][2]
The prince bought the estate's outbuilding (fligel) in 1816 from the general's widow A. V. Kupriyanova — it alone, of all the estate's buildings, has survived to the present day, though it is now listed on Alekseevskaya Street and is known as the Frolov house. The prince's own house has not survived; the orchard was cut down long ago and built over. [1][4][8]
Later the estate passed to the prince's daughter, Countess Anna Georgievna Tolstaya. Her house and garden were described by the Nizhny Novgorod local historian Nikolay Ivanovich Khramtsovsky. [1]
The estate then passed to the Bugrovs: according to some publications, Anna Georgievna sold the house together with the garden to the Nizhny Novgorod merchant and miller Aleksandr Petrovich Bugrov (1809–1883) after her father's death in 1852; according to others, she ceded her share to him in 1862. [8][6] Bugrov built a two-story rental building here with cellars: the first floor was taken up by seven shops with vaulted cellar storerooms, the second floor was rented out as housing, and at the back of the garden the owner set up a large lumberyard. Later the building housed a teacher training institute, and then a children's tourism center. [8][6]
The prince remained in Nizhny Novgorod's memory as a harsh and contradictory figure. He was called the "Volga Tsar," was elected marshal of the nobility seven times, and held that post for more than twenty years; his contemporaries spoke of him as a man of a hard temper. Assessments differ: local-history guidebooks call him a despot, a bribe-taker, and a villain [9], while Nizhny Novgorod publications add that he was wealthy, well educated, generous, and remained a patriot of Russia. [1][3][6]
In 1812, Gruzinsky was one of the first to speak of a people's militia and headed it. At the Makaryev Yarmarka he bought, with his own money, 710 rifles, 504 pistols, 400 sabers, and other equipment worth 16,643 rubles 50 kopecks, added money for horses and carts, and sent with the militia his Lyskovo physician A. G. Medvedev — the future archimandrite of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, Anthony. After the war, a home for invalids was established in Nizhny Novgorod with his funds, 21,702 rubles. [8]
The prince spent most of his time on his own estate in Lyskovo, which drew its income from the neighboring yarmarka; according to legend, Gogol was a friend of his daughter Anna Tolstaya, visited Lyskovo, and drew from it the plot of "Dead Souls." [4][6] Another story is also retold: that when the governorate authorities complained to Paul I about the prince's arbitrary rule, he paid a large sum to have himself given a lavish funeral and "was listed as dead" until Alexander I ascended the throne. [3]
The countess's house stands on a small rise, set back somewhat from the street; it is one story, but its dimensions, for a wooden building, are enormous, one might say. One glance at it gives the idea that this was once the dwelling of a grandee from the age of Catherine. The main facade of the house is adorned with a terrace, in front of which grows a row of birches. Countess Tolstaya's garden, with its shady avenues of lindens and birches and its many fruit trees, is separated from the house by Gruzinsky Lane and covers more than a verst in circumference. In the 1830s it was a place of promenade for the Nizhny Novgorod public; it had a confectioner's shop; in its vauxhall, later destroyed by fire, music played on holiday evenings and the educated class of Nizhny Novgorod danced
To His Excellency the Actual Chamberlain and Cavalier Prince Georgy Alexandrovich Gruzinsky and his heirs… a wooden house on a stone foundation, with its various outbuildings, land, and garden, as recorded in the deeds of sale and the plan, situated in Nizhny Novgorod in the Pokrovsky parish on the newly laid-out Alekseevskaya Street, with the exception of the wooden bathhouse located deep in the garden
Houses and Residents
The built environment took shape mainly in the 19th century and survived the 20th almost entirely intact: Gruzinskaya has wooden, semi-masonry, and masonry houses, and the quarter lived on crafts and petty trade — there were smithies, carriage yards, schools, and watchmakers' workshops. [2][10]
| Building | What it is | Date |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | The estate of the peasant Grigory Samsonov, which passed to his son Ivan; in Soviet times it held apartments, and its windows are now boarded up, but the carved window surrounds of the second floor have survived [5] | — |
| 4 | The house of the Belyaev blacksmiths; the smithy stood on a rise nearby. Besides blacksmithing, the Belyaevs made droshkies: they bought only the leather and fabric, and forged and assembled everything else themselves [2][6] | 19th century |
| 5 | The Nizhny Novgorod Synagogue, the only one in the city [1][3] | 1881–1883 |
| 7 | The house of the titular councillor's wife A. D. Vorobyovskaya; it was later bought by the merchant Grigory Polyak, who opened a Talmud Torah there — a school for boys from poor families [1][5] | First half of the 19th century |
| 7B | The outbuilding of the town estate of the Nizhny Novgorod guild member M. F. Telogreev, one of the city's finest jewelers and watchmakers [1][5] | Mid-19th century |
| 9, 9V | The town estate of N. S. and A. F. Tarasov: the main house and a red-brick outbuilding. In 2022 the main house suffered a major fire and was covered with a false façade [5][11][12] | Mid-19th century; outbuilding — 1905 |
| 11, 13 | The houses of the peasant Vasily Shnyrov; he and his son Yakov were well-known cab drivers in the city, and the yard held a carriage shed with dozens of carriages and a stable for almost thirty stallions [5] | Late 19th – early 20th century |
| 17 | The residence of the staff of the Nizhny Novgorod branch of the State Bank, with a gallery and three wrought-iron gates, designed by the architect V. A. Pokrovsky; part of the ensemble of bank buildings [2][12] | 1913 |
| 23 | The former Commercial Club, built with money from the Rukavishnikovs; since 2000, the Komediya Theater [1][3][13] | 19th century |
| 24 | The apartment building of A. Ya. Keyzer, an example of rational Art Nouveau: in the early 20th century it housed a private girls' gymnasium, and in the 1920s–1960s actors of the Nizhny Novgorod Drama Theater lived here [12][7] | 1903–1904 |
| 24/22 | The house of the townsman F. E. Prispeshnikov at the corner of Bolshaya Pokrovskaya; the editorial office of the newspaper Nizhegorodsky Listok [2][7] | Late 1840s, additions 1873–1875 and 1894 |
| 26 | An outbuilding on a stone half-basement with a mezzanine, built with funds from Lieutenant's wife Varvara Sokolova to a design by the architect A. A. Stavasser; its main façade, with four Ionic pilasters, faced the estate of the Princes Gruzinsky [2] | Design 1846, built in summer 1847 |
| 30 | The house of F. A. Rumyantseva: Count Nikolay Petrovich Rumyantsev began building it to a design by I. E. Efimov, and after his death his widow completed the finishing work; the monuments register names I. E. Efimov and Kizevetter as the architects. The house is two stories, on vaulted cellars, with eleven windows across the main façade [1][2][14] | 1830, 1837 |
| 33 | The house of V. I. Ignatyeva, designed by Nikolay Borisovich Feldt; behind the house were stables and outbuildings, now replaced by an apartment building [1][7] | Around 1864 |
| 34 | The house of the merchant Kupriyan Pavlovich Polushkin — wooden, with a tent roof over the main roofline and a tall gable; a fruit orchard belonged to the house [14][7] | 1911 |
| 35 | The house of A. A. Sternova [12] | 1864 |
| 41 | Behind the house grows an old willow, known to the whole neighborhood [3] | — |
| 44 | The house of the Brotherhood of Cyril and Methodius; until 1917, a dormitory for poor students of the provincial gymnasium [3][6] | Founded in 1894 |
The Synagogue and the Jewish Quarter
The synagogue was designed by a junior architect of the Nizhny Novgorod Governorate Administration, Neyman Ivan Fyodorovich; according to his concept, the facade was meant to resemble a Torah scroll. Construction was completed in 1883, and the first prayer service was held on August 29, 1884. Because of the synagogue, the quarter was also called the Jewish Quarter; a large menorah stands beside it. [1][5]
After the revolution, religious activity was banned, and in 1938 the synagogue was closed; for almost half a century the building was used for other purposes and suffered heavy damage. Restoration began in the late 1980s, and the synagogue was officially reopened on April 17, 1991. Today the building houses the Nizhny Novgorod Jewish community: it runs a school and summer camps and publishes a newspaper. [1][2][6]
"Nizhegorodsky Listok" and Gorky
The corner building at 24/22 grew up gradually. The meshchanin (urban commoner) F. E. Prispeshnikov, a native of Makaryevo, bought a two-story stone house here dating from the late 1840s; in 1873–1875 he added a two-story wing to it, and in 1894, to a design by the architect N. D. Grigoryev, he added another story to the wing and built a three-story red-brick block, giving shape to the corner of Bolshaya Pokrovskaya and Gruzinskaya. On the ground floor was the "Wine, Delicatessen and Colonial Goods Shop of F. I. Kubasov," and the second floor housed an editorial office. [7]
The editorial office of Nizhegorodsky Listok", one of the most widely read city newspapers, was here from 1896 to 1904, and among its staff was Alexei Maksimovich Gorky — which is how the site is named in the heritage protection register: "The building that housed the editorial office of the newspaper 'Nizhegorodsky Listok,' on whose staff Gorky Alexei Maksimovich worked from 1896 to 1904." [1][3][12] According to local-history accounts, the editorial office occupied the second floor from 1895 to 1917, and Gorky worked there for seven years. [7]
The Theater on Gruzinskaya
On the site of today's theater stood the Commercial Club, built with money from the Rukavishnikovs (the family name is also tied to the Rukavishnikov Estate and the Rukavishnikov Bank Complex in the city). During the reconstruction of the late 1990s, the rich stucco decoration of the old building's street façade, with its horizontal rustication, was preserved. [1][3]
The Komediya Theater itself has existed since 1947; it was founded by the director A. N. Lyubansky, the actress Yu. Daminskaya, and her daughter A. Dobkevich. The theater received the building at 23 Gruzinskaya in 2000: an auditorium of 460 seats, three foyers, and a café. [13][6] Today it is one of the most elegant buildings on the street. [1]
The Soviet Era
The twentieth century treated the street unevenly. The synagogue was closed in 1938 [4]; Polushkin's house was converted to room-by-room occupancy, which persisted into the twenty-first century, while the corner building at 24/22, with its communal apartments, survived almost without repairs until the mid-1980s [7]; in the Nepryakhin property on Ludilny Lane, where the owners had previously lived upstairs and rented out the ground floor, the tenants became the holders of the rooms, and the owners had to squeeze in. [2]
On Ludilny Lane, at the foot of the street, before the revolution there stood the workshops of the Chernovs and the Eryshevs, tinsmiths well known in the city — they lived right there as well. According to the Nizhny Novgorod local historian Mila Smirova, in the old days convoy horses that accompanied prisoners sent in transit to Siberia were reshod here; the convicts spent the night right on the spot — some in a cart, some on the ground. This "transit" workshop burned down in the 1930s. [2]
As late as the 1980s the Pochaina still flowed along the bottom of the ravine, and the residents of Gruzinskaya's wooden houses went down to it to rinse their laundry. The houses on the slope were demolished when living there became dangerous because of spring landslides; the last one, pressed against the cliff, was called the "Swallow's Nest" by locals. [2]
In the 1950s, at the corner with Bolshaya Pokrovskaya, a building was constructed for employees of the Krasnoye Sormovo Plant — the very one through whose archway one enters the old quarter. The ground floor housed a boys' choir chapel; since the renovation of 2018 it has been the boarding school of the Nizhny Novgorod Choral College named after L. K. Sivukhin. The façade and the archway are decorated with stucco bas-reliefs with plant motifs. [5]
Preservation and the Present Day
The block around Gruzinskaya Street and Universitetsky Lane is one of the few that has kept the atmosphere of the old city: it contains eleven cultural heritage sites of regional significance and valuable elements of the historic environment — urban estates, a synagogue, and nineteenth-century residential buildings. [10]
On September 30, 2022, four buildings were added at once to the register of cultural heritage sites of regional significance: the house of titular councillor's wife Vorobyovskaya (No. 7), the outbuilding of the urban estate of the guild master Telogreev (No. 7B), the main manor house of the Tarasov family (No. 9), and the outbuilding of the Tarasov estate (No. 9V). The status prohibits demolition and any action harmful to the buildings, as well as excavation, exterior utility installation, major construction, and advertising structures on facades; restoration and adaptation to modern use are permitted. [11]
- On October 3, 2022, the Shternova house partially collapsed: the mezzanine fell inward, and the wall of the main facade tilted and was held up only by the false facade covering the building. [15] Later, the state heritage protection department approved the scientific and design documentation for its preservation. [12]
- In November 2025, it was decided to seize the Polushkin house (No. 34), together with its 261-square-meter plot, from its owner: the building has been declared hazardous and is subject to reconstruction, and the owner will be paid compensation. [16]
- The state heritage protection department sought to have buildings No. 7b, 9v, and 11 taken from their owner through the courts: all of them are monuments of regional significance, and their condition left much to be desired. [1]
- Since 2023, the block has been part of the "Protected Blocks" program: work began on a pre-concept for its development, with scenarios for redevelopment and adaptation of the monument buildings, a design code for the block, and a landscaping project — linking it with the Studenaya and Trekhsvyatsky blocks. [5][17]
| Site | Address | Date | Document |
|---|---|---|---|
| Synagogue | Gruzinskaya, 5 (lit. A, A1, A2) | 1881—1883 | Decision of the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Council of People's Deputies of August 31, 1993, No. 288-m [18][14] |
| House of titular councillor's wife A. D. Vorobyovskaya | Gruzinskaya, 7 | First half of the 19th century | Protection obligation — order of the Cultural Heritage Sites State Protection Department of November 13, 2023, No. 31 [12] |
| Outbuilding (fligel) of the urban estate of Nizhny Novgorod guild member M. F. Telogreev | Gruzinskaya, 7B | Mid-19th century | Protection obligation — order of August 12, 2026, No. 57 [12] |
| Main manor house of the urban estate of N. S. and A. F. Tarasov | Gruzinskaya, 9 | Mid-19th century | Protection obligation — order of November 14, 2023, No. 33 [12] |
| Outbuilding (fligel) of the urban estate of N. S. and A. F. Tarasov | Gruzinskaya, 9V | 1905 | Protection obligation — order of August 12, 2026, No. 60 [12] |
| Residential building | Gruzinskaya, 11 | Late 19th — early 20th century | Protection obligation — order of August 12, 2026, No. 58 [12] |
| Residential building | Gruzinskaya, 13 | Late 19th — early 20th century | Protection obligation — order of August 12, 2026, No. 59 [12] |
| Staff house with a gallery and wrought-iron gates (three) as part of the ensemble of buildings of the Nizhny Novgorod branch of the State Bank | Gruzinskaya, 17 | 1913 | Acts of the state historical and cultural expert review, 2025 [12] |
| Building that housed the editorial office of the newspaper Nizhegorodsky Listok | At the intersection of Bolshaya Pokrovskaya and Gruzinskaya, 24/22 (lit. A1) | Late 19th century | Inspection program of the Cultural Heritage Sites State Protection Department [12] |
| House where the actors of the Nizhny Novgorod Drama Theater V. A. Sokolovsky, N. A. Pokrovsky, N. A. Levkoev, and others lived | Gruzinskaya, 24 (lit. A) | 1903—1904 | Protection obligation — order of September 11, 2023, No. 27 [12] |
| House of F. A. Rumyantseva | Gruzinskaya, 30 (lit. A, A1) | 1830, 1837 | List of cultural heritage sites of regional significance [14] |
| House of K. P. Polushkin | Gruzinskaya, 34 (lit. A) | 1911 | List of cultural heritage sites of regional significance [14] |
| House of A. A. Shternova | Gruzinskaya, 35 (lit. A) | 1864 | Protection obligation — order of May 26, 2023, No. 18 [12] |
Street Art and Everyday Life in the Neighborhood
While the buildings await restoration, their walls have become a canvas for street artists — Gruzinskaya has long been on the routes of those who go looking for Street Art in Nizhny Novgorod (the city even has a dedicated festival for it — Mesto (street art festival)). On building 11, Katya Gushchina painted a map of the neighborhood with all its historic buildings and most famous residents; on the Shnyrov house there was a horse by Maria Shlyk, which has since been lost. On a former 19th-century stable that belonged to Pavel Zelenetsky, a priest of the Pokrovskaya Church, artists depicted a cart with a coachman, horses, and a dog, and decorated the facade with wrought-iron lanterns; now iron "horses" stand in the courtyard — it has been turned into a parking lot. [5]
A few years ago, "old-fashioned" house number plates were put up on the neighborhood's historic buildings. Nearby are the city's main pedestrian street (Bolshaya Pokrovskaya: Two Centuries of the Main Street) and the terraced park under construction in Pochaina Ravine, and the neighborhood could link the two walking routes. [5]
Sources
- Nizhegorodskaya Pravda — regional newspaper — The Princely Trail: The Contrasts That Make Gruzinskaya Street Surprising (archive)
- subscribe.ru — Svetlana Vysotskaya, mailing list "History of Nizhny Novgorod" (extra-n.ru, newspaper "City Day. Nizhny Novgorod") — The Street of the Princes Gruzinsky (archive)
- NN.RU — Nizhny Novgorod online publication — The Story of One Street: Strolling Along 250-Year-Old Gruzinskaya Street (archive)
- NN.RU — Nizhny Novgorod online publication — Creator of the Militia. The History of an Old Street in Central Nizhny Where Prince Gruzinsky Lived (archive)
- V gorode N — Photo report: What the Gruzinsky Quarter in Central Nizhny Novgorod Looks Like and What Draws People to It (archive)
- web.archive.org — Local history project "I Discover Nizhny Novgorod", copy in the web archive — A Walk Through Old Nizhny. Gruzinskaya Street (archive)
- web.archive.org — Local history project "I Discover Nizhny Novgorod", copy in the web archive — The Street of the Princes Gruzinsky (archive)
- web.archive.org — Local history project "I Discover Nizhny Novgorod", copy in the web archive — Gruzinskaya Street (archive)
- biblmr.r52.ru — Centralized Library System of the Moskovsky District of Nizhny Novgorod, A. S. Pushkin Library (archive)
- anoasiris.ru — ANO "ASIRIS" — operator of the "Protected Quarters" project — Historic Environment. Protected Quarters (archive)
- Kommersant (Volga Region) — "Kommersant Nizhny Novgorod" — Four Buildings on Gruzinskaya Street Recognized as Cultural Monuments (archive)
- ugookn.nobl.ru — Department for the State Protection of Cultural Heritage Sites of Nizhny Novgorod Region — official website, documents — Orders and Acts on Sites on Gruzinskaya Street
- culture.ru — "Culture.RF" — portal of the Russian Ministry of Culture — Nizhny Novgorod "Komediya" Theater (archive)
- opentextnn.ru — "Open Text" — online periodical, section "Old Nizhny Novgorod" (archive)
- Kommersant (Volga Region) — "Kommersant Nizhny Novgorod" — Historic Sternova House Partially Collapses on Gruzinskaya Street in Nizhny Novgorod (archive)
- domostroynn.ru — DOMOSTROYNN.RU — Nizhny Novgorod real estate publication — Two Cultural Heritage Sites on Gruzinskaya and Nesterov Streets to Be Seized for Reconstruction in Nizhny Novgorod (archive)
- strategy.nobl.ru — "Development Strategy of Nizhny Novgorod Region" — portal of the regional government — Protected Nizhny Is Growing: Old Quarters Are Given a Second Life (archive)
- base.garant.ru — Decision of the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Council of People's Deputies of August 31, 1993, No. 288-m (archive)