Ilyinskaya Street (colloquially Ilyinka, known as Krasnoflotskaya from 1924 through the 1990s) is one of the oldest streets in the historic center of Nizhny Novgorod, the main street of Zapochaine — the historic district beyond the Pochaina River — and runs along Ilyinskaya Hill. It stretches from Skoba to Krasnoselskaya Street, with a total length of 2,382 meters[1][2][3]. The street's alignment follows the old road to Vladimir and Moscow: Ilyinskaya formed part of the Moscow–Vladimir Post Road[1]. It takes its name from the Church of Elijah the Prophet, which, according to the date accepted in local historical scholarship, was built in 1506[2][4].

Alignment and Development

Zapochaine began to be settled in the 13th–14th centuries, and the earliest inhabitants of what would become Ilyinskaya Street were royal coachmen. By the 18th century the makeup of the population had changed: the street became a merchant thoroughfare, home to tradespeople and craftsmen, and in the 1830s it was paved with cobblestones[1].

Although Zapochaine occupies roughly one-tenth of the city's central historic territory, it contains nearly half of all of Nizhny Novgorod's cultural heritage sites[1].

The street is adjoined by The Ilyinsky Descent, and Dobrolyubov Street curves away from it in a gentle arc toward Bolshaya Pokrovskaya.

The Fire of 1839

On 22 August 1839, a fire broke out on Ilyinskaya that lasted nine hours and destroyed all of the street's wooden buildings. The government extended long-term loans to those who had lost their homes, and the street began to be rebuilt in stone according to designs by Georg Ivanovich Kizevetter, Ivan Yefimovich Yefimov, and Lev Vladimirovich Dal[2].

By 1880, Ilyinskaya had definitively taken on the appearance of a prosperous and respectable street. The ensemble of stone mansions from the Nikolaevan era that took shape at that time has survived, with alterations, to the present day[2].

The Street as Described by Khramtsovsky

The Nizhny Novgorod historian Nikolay Ivanovich Khramtsovsky described Ilyinskaya in the second part of his "A Brief Outline of the History and Description of Nizhny Novgorod," published in 1859[5].

Ilyinskaya Street begins from the same point as Pochainskaya Street, first running southwest before turning south and, at what is known as the Ilyinskaya Gate — where the city boundary and customs post once stood, called a reshetka (gate barrier) in the parlance of the time — joining Bolshaya Yamskaya. For the greater part of its length, Ilyinskaya runs uphill; along it stand two churches: that of the Holy Prophet Elijah and that of the Lord's Ascension — the first not far from the Church of Our Lady of Kazan, at the bend in the street, on the right-hand side; the second midway along Ilyinskaya, on the left.

— N. I. Khramtsovsky

On this same street stand the Mariinsky Institute for Noble Young Ladies and the First Children's Refuge.

— N. I. Khramtsovsky

The greater part of Ilyinskaya's buildings are of stone; nearly all the houses belong to merchants. Few craftsmen live here, and there is not a single tavern or eating house — in short, this street is quiet and so thoroughly respectable, like a merchant's wife paying a visit or out for a stroll.

— N. I. Khramtsovsky

Buildings

The house of merchant Afanasy Demidovich Rychin (Ilyinskaya, 65) was built in 1840 to a design by Kizevetter. The mansion, rented from Rychin, housed the early classes of a women's institute established by the Nizhny Novgorod Noble Assembly in 1842; later the Mariinsky Women's Gymnasium operated here, where Ilya Ulyanov taught. The building was subsequently extended upward, and today it serves as the main building of the University of Architecture and Civil Engineering[1][2].

The house of second-guild merchant Semyon Stepanovich Dolganov (Ilyinskaya, 50) is a federal landmark and also a work by Kizevetter; construction was completed in 1844, and the design was approved at the Peterhof imperial residence. The building remains residential[2].

The A. V. Markov Estate (Ilyinskaya, 61) was built around 1905 and evokes the Florentine palazzi of the 15th century: inside, a marble staircase, stained-glass windows, and decorative plasterwork have been preserved. The building was restored in 2008–2009 and now belongs to the University of Architecture and Civil Engineering[1][2].

The T. I. Ryabinina Estate (Ilyinskaya, 56) was built in 1799 and remodeled in the Classicist style — with pilasters and bas-reliefs in the form of women's heads. The house of N. S. Chesnokov (Ilyinskaya, 60), erected in 1895, is considered a fine example of a late-19th-century merchant mansion, with a figured attic and ornamental plasterwork[1][2].

The house of M. I. Bochkareva (Ilyinskaya, 18) was built in 1916 to a design by German architect Gustav Gельrikh, funded by a merchant's widow, as a school and almshouse for the blind; it now houses the Ministry of Education of Nizhny Novgorod Region. The city's first children's shelter (Ilyinskaya, 78) was established in 1847 through charitable donations, expanded in 1875, and has housed a polyclinic since 1923[1].

The P. F. Remler apartment house (Ilyinskaya, 88) was built in 1897–1898 under the supervision of architect V. M. Lemke; it was home to the Ilyinskaya pharmacy[6].

Churches

The Church of Elijah the Prophet stands at the beginning of the street (Ilyinskaya, 9) and gave it its name[1]. It was built in 1506 to commemorate the repulsion of an attack on Nizhny Novgorod by the Kazan tsar Makhmet-Amin the year before. The church was dedicated to the prophet Elijah as the heavenly patron of thunder and lightning — contemporaries associated these with the cannon fire that decided the outcome of the battle. Both the street and the hill along which it runs took their names from the church[4].

The Church of the Ascension of the Lord (Ilyinskaya, 54) is documented as early as 1621–1622; in the nineteenth century it housed an almshouse and an orphanage, and thanks to merchants' donations it was considered the wealthiest church in the city. In 2015 a small park with a monument to Sergius of Radonezh was laid out beside it[1].

During the Soviet era both churches were closed and converted into warehouses and production facilities; they were restored in the early 2000s[2].

Names

In 1918 nearly all the private houses on Ilyinka were nationalized and taken over by Soviet institutions — primarily those serving the Volga Flotilla[3]. In 1924 Ilyinskaya Street was renamed Krasnoflotskaya ("Red Sailors' Street") in honor of the river sailors who had taken part in the Civil War[2][3]; it appears under this name in the city directory of 1972 as well[7]. The historic name was restored in the 1990s[2][3].

In the early years of Soviet Power, Bolshaya Yamskaya — which had previously extended the street toward the city tollgate — was merged with Ilyinskaya into a single street, giving it its current length of 2,382 metres[3]. The name Bolshaya Yamskaya — the street's second historical name — came from the Yamskaya sloboda (coachmen's quarter): coachmen lived here, and nearby lay Malaya and 3rd Yamskaya Streets[8].

The place of Ilyinskaya in the broader history of municipal renamings is covered in the article "Renamings of Streets and Squares of Nizhny Novgorod."

Losses

The merchant Kotelnikov House (Ilyinskaya, 64), built in 1870 and listed under state protection, was demolished to its foundations in June 2024. Following a fire in 2023, the building was sold at auction to a private company that had obtained a permit for preservation works; the works ended in demolition[9].

The Street Today

The list of cultural heritage sites includes 32 buildings on the street: provincial eclecticism predominates, but classicism, Art Nouveau, and retrospectivism are also represented, and many stone houses from the first half of the 19th century were built to designs by municipal architect Georg Kizevetter[3]. Over the past two decades, streetscaping and façade restoration have taken place here[2].

City authorities have been planning to reconstruct the road section of the street and the neighbouring Plotnichny Lane since 2022. The client terminated the first contract — worth 988.1 million roubles — in July 2025: in March of the same year, the design proposals for both roads received negative conclusions from the state expert review. On 26 November 2025, GUMMiD announced a new procurement — design and construction works covering 1.1 kilometres of Ilyinskaya and 0.5 kilometres of the lane — with a starting price of 1.1 billion roubles and a completion deadline of 29 December 2027; the regional budget for 2026 allocates 434 million roubles for the reconstruction[10].

In March 2026, the regional Ministry of Property Relations began the compulsory acquisition of six buildings on Ilyinskaya that had been allowed to fall into disrepair. Two of them are cultural heritage sites: a 19th-century wooden manor at No. 44, damaged by fire, and the stone house of A. P. Pugovkin with a mezzanine at No. 68. Also subject to acquisition are Nos. 141 and 139 — brick merchant buildings concealed behind false façades — and the plots at 109a and 115b, which contain the ruins of former structures. After acquisition, the listed monuments are intended to be restored and transferred to investors[11].

Links

Sources

  1. KP — Nizhny Novgorod — The Story of One Street: Ilyinskaya — A Portal to Nizhny Novgorod's Merchant Past. Irina Shvyrkaeva, April 1, 2025 (archive)
  2. Nizhegorodskaya Pravda (archive)
  3. Nizhegorodskaya Pravda — 2,382 Meters of History and Contrasts: A Walk Along Ilyinskaya, Nizhny Novgorod's Merchant Street (archive)
  4. nizh-nne.ru — Nizhny Novgorod Deanery — Church in Honor of the Holy Prophet of God Elijah (archive)
  5. Khramtsovsky N. I. — A Brief Outline of the History and Description of Nizhny Novgorod. Part 2: Description of the City. — Nizhny Novgorod, 1859
  6. bibl.nngasu.ru — Ilyinskaya Sloboda (Zapochaine): Bibliographic Index, NNGASU Library, 2004 (archive)
  7. universalinternetlibrary.ru — Streets of the City of Gorky: A Reference Guide, 1972 (archive)
  8. biblmr.r52.ru — Centralized Library System of Moskovsky District — A Virtual Tour of the Streets of Nizhny Novgorod: History, Old Names, and Legends (archive)
  9. Kommersant (Volga Region) — A "Merchant Kotelnikov's House" Sold for 15 Million Rubles Has Been Demolished in Nizhny Novgorod (archive)
  10. nn.aif.ru — AiF — Nizhny Novgorod — GUMMiD Has Announced a New Procurement for the Reconstruction of Ilyinskaya and the Lane, November 26, 2025 (archive)
  11. GIPERNN — GiperNN — Mass Requisition: Which Houses Are Being Seized in Central Nizhny Novgorod and Why, March 13, 2026 (archive)