The Nikolskaya Tower is a gate tower of the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin, built in the 16th century. It is located in Upper Part between Kladovaya Tower of the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin, above the Zelensky Descent. It is a cultural heritage site of federal significance (registration No. 521410066380036).[1]

Description and origin of the name

The tower has a rectangular base and is named after the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, which once stood on Bolshaya Pokrovskaya Street, on the opposite side of the Zelensky Congress. The church and the adjoining Orthodox burials have not survived; the site where they stood has been recognized by Nizhny Novgorod Region as the "Nikolskoye Cemetery" historic preservation zone. In 2013, a chapel-church was built on the site of the church (now Pozharsky Street)).[1][2]

The tower is directly adjoined by the pedestrian bridge over the Zelensky Descent, built in 1982 on the site of an old timber bridge constructed using a log-cabin ("cage") technique.[1]

Defensive significance

Like all the gate towers of the Kremlin, the Nikolskaya had gates with a protective portcullis grille — a "gersa" — and a drawbridge Pochainsky Ravine.[2] Together with the Koromyslova and Taynitskaya Towers, built along the slope down to the Pochaina, it served as a gunpowder storehouse; in the ravine itself stood the Zeleyny Dvor ("Fiery Concoction Yard") — a plant with a windmill that produced "fiery concoction" (gunpowder), which gave the Zelensky Descent its name.[1][2] In firepower the Nikolskaya Tower was inferior to the Dmitrievskaya Tower of the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin, but served as an important strongpoint in the defense of the fortress. Its defenders were armed with three copper handguns; the largest of them — the "Kazan" gun — fired shot weighing 1.8 kg.[2]

History of rebuilding

In 1785–1790, Nizhny Novgorod Governor Ivan Mikhailovich Rebinder carried out a large-scale reconstruction of the Kremlin, during which the embrasures of the Nikolskaya Tower were replaced with ordinary rectangular openings, and the battlements were half removed.[2] In the 18th and 19th centuries the tower was used to store provisions. During the 1837 reconstruction, the structure lost the white-stone facing of its lower walls, which had reached the height of the half-round batter.[2] Until 1956, the tower's interior housed utility rooms of the military department; in the late 1950s another reconstruction was carried out.[2]

In December 2025, the Nikolskaya Tower became the central image on the obverse of the redesigned 1,000-ruble banknote dedicated to Nizhny Novgorod and the Volga Federal District, part of a series devoted to Russia's federal districts; the 2025-issue banknote entered circulation on 26 December 2025.[5]

Sources

  1. Wikipedia (ru) — Nikolskaya Tower (Nizhny Novgorod) (archive)
  2. putidorogi-nn.ru — Nikolskaya Tower of the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin: history, description, photos
  3. KP — Nizhny Novgorod — Nizhny Novgorod became the face of the redesigned 1,000-ruble note — In December 2025, the Nikolskaya Tower of the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin became the central image on the obverse of the redesigned… (archive)
  4. experience.tripster.ru — Unusual excursions and tours around the world (archive)
  5. cbr.ru — Bank of Russia issues redesigned 1,000-ruble banknote. Press release, 26 December 2025 (archive)