Novaya Street

Novaya Street is a street in the Historic Center of Nizhny Novgorod, in the Nizhegorodsky District. It runs from Ilyinskaya to Belinsky and crosses Gorky Square along the way — the former Novaya (New) Square, from which it takes its name. ^[3] It was laid out in the 1830s by the governorate architect Ivan Efimov and the engineer Pyotr Gotman: together with the neighboring Kanatnaya (now Korolenko Street), Novaya cut crosswise through a new city "rhombus" surveyed beyond the former city boundary. ^[3][1] A century and a half later, its two blocks at the intersection with Korolenko remain one of the most intact enclaves of Nizhny Novgorod's wooden architecture: on March 23, 2026, they were entered in the unified state register of cultural heritage sites as part of the "Complex of Urban Buildings in the Area of Korolenko, Slavyanskaya, Studenaya, and Novaya Streets." ^[4]

Where it runs and why there are so many Novaya streets

The street begins at Ilyinskaya — the section of it that Novaya meets was historically Bolshaya Yamskaya Street, and this stretch of Novaya was the last to be cut through, already after the 1881 general plan. ^[13] From there the street reaches Gorky Square and crosses it along its main axis from northwest to southeast; beyond the square it continues to Belinsky Street, the former Napolno-Monastyrskaya, which a century and a half ago was the city boundary. ^[3][1]

On its course, Novaya crosses Korolenko — and this intersection is considered the historic core of the whole neighborhood; nearby lie Slavyanskaya (formerly Nemetskaya), Studenaya, Kostina (formerly Gotmanovskaya) and Gorky (formerly Polevaya). ^[1][2] There is a single architectural landmark here, visible from almost everywhere — the stone Church of the Three Hierarchs of 1859–1860, which closes off the vista of the neighboring streets. ^[1][4]

The name "Novaya" ("New") is one of the most common in the country, and the Nizhny Novgorod street has namesakes in almost every town of the Region: a Novaya Street is listed in the address classifier in Arzamas, in Bor, in Vyksa, in Dzerzhinsk, in Sarov, and in Shakhunya. ^[18] In Nizhny Novgorod itself, however, there is only one street with this name — the one under discussion. ^[17]

A rhombus bisected by a cross

After Emperor Nicholas I visited Nizhny Novgorod in 1834, the governorate construction commission set about remodeling the city, and part of the work went "into the field" — beyond what was then the outskirts. The layout of this area was drawn up by Ivan Yefimov and Pyotr Gotman — according to some accounts in 1834–1835 ^[1], according to others the work took place in 1836–1839 ^[3]; it was fixed by the general plan of Nizhny Novgorod of 1839. ^[1][3] The solution turned out to be unusual: the territory took the form of an almost regular rhombus, bounded by Polevaya (now Gorky), Napolno-Monastyrskaya (now Belinsky), Gotmanovskaya (now Kostina) and Studenaya streets, while the rhombus itself was cut along its diagonals by Novaya and Kanatnaya streets. ^[1][3]

The route was fixed by the design plan of 1845, and the plan of 1848–1849, drawn by the topographer Lebedev, already shows established estates on both sides of the street: wooden houses along the building line, outbuildings in the yard, vegetable gardens in the depths of the blocks. On this plan Novaya is still unnamed and extends almost to the site of the future Belinsky Street, ending at the common pasture lands. ^[3] The street was driven through the vegetable gardens of outlying houses once the building lines of New Square had been determined; the work was led by the city architect N. I. Uzhumedsky-Gritsevich — to his design of 1857 the surviving house of the Gorbatov townswoman N. Bogdanova was also built on the street. ^[2]

The streets of the district — Kanatnaya, Novaya, Nemetskaya, Gotmanovskaya — finally took shape in the 1850s, and since then the planning framework has not changed: the streets were neither widened nor rerouted. ^[1][3] The plan of Nizhny Novgorod and the Yarmarka published by Ilyin in 1893 already records the names themselves: Novaya, Kanatnaya, Nemetskaya. ^[3] The street reached its familiar appearance by the early 1880s–1890s. ^[3]

This is the historic core of the entire district – the two oldest streets

A street of people of modest means

The street's peripheral location also determined its residents: people of modest means settled here — minor officials, townspeople (meshchane), and peasants who had moved to the city. Building requirements were not the same as in the center, and the first houses were put up following "model" designs: one-story wooden structures with a three-part layout, three windows and a triangular pediment on the street facade, a side porch, and sparse decoration. In keeping with the fashion of the day, the wood was often plastered to imitate stone. ^[1]

In the 1880s–1890s the development grew denser: the one-story houses were replaced by two-story houses and outbuildings (flygels), often with a stone plinth or ground floor, containing four two- and four-room apartments that were rented out. The street facades were clad in boards and decorated with fretwork carving, carved cornices, and pilasters with applied details. The estate-like character of the development survived, while the boundaries of the properties hardly changed from the time the plots were allotted. ^[1]

In the early 20th century "wooden Art Nouveau" (modern) came to the street, although it never became widespread here: the few consistent examples include the residence of the merchant A. I. Tsylbov (No. 24, 1907) and the apartment building of the architect Dombrovsky P. A. (No. 31). ^[1] At the corner of Novaya Square and the street of the same name, a complex of buildings took shape for the Countess Kutaisova Children's Orphanage — one of Nizhny Novgorod's charitable institutions of the early 20th century. ^[20]

The houses that still stand

The surviving buildings are concentrated in two blocks near the intersection with Korolenko. Both estates that gave the street its character are here: the estate of the city architect Vladimir Lemke — the main house (No. 21/11) and the apartment building (No. 23) — and the estate of F. P. Yakhontova, later of P. I. Konstantinovsky, with its main house (No. 22A) and two outbuildings (No. 22 and No. 22B). All of them are examples of wooden architecture of the Eclectic period with elements of late Classicism. ^[3]

The house of the architect P. A. Dombrovsky (No. 31), which he built for himself to his own design, stands apart. In its original version the facade, with two bay windows and turrets, was thoroughly eclectic, but in the course of construction massive brackets and imitation half-timbering appeared beneath the bay windows — and, were it not for the lacework patterns along the cornice, the building could be considered one of the city's first wooden buildings in the spirit of rational Art Nouveau. The corner bay window projects far forward and is topped with a four-sided tented roof with a spire. ^[2][1]

From the early period of the street's development there remains the house of N. Bogdanova (No. 13), with the proportions of the era of "model" design, and from the last pre-revolutionary period, the outbuilding of the peasant P. N. Perevezentsev (No. 9), built to a 1910 design by the city architect N. D. Grigoryev: above its main entrance is a bay window on brackets with a pair of hanging pendant ornaments. ^[2]

The new development on the street has also managed to become part of architectural history: in the 1990s–2000s, leading Nizhny Novgorod architects built in this block — Aleksandr Kharitonov, Evgeniy Pestov, and others. ^[3] Building No. 15 — "A New House in Front of an Old Bathhouse" — was designed by Yuriy Bolgov, Aleksandr Korolyov, and Oleg Shaganov (designed in 1993, built in 1997). The building's four facades are all different, no two windows on them are alike, and from the outside one can tell neither the number of floors nor the layout; asymmetry, fragmentation, and irrationality are declared by the authors to be the rules of the game.

The building is now occupied by a hotel and offices. ^[16][3] The neighboring Building No. 17, from the turn of the 1990s–2000s, was built for a bank and now houses a private clinic, while Building No. 19/20 at the corner with Korolenko Street is an outright replica of the historic buildings: two floors, stucco, three window axes, semicircular windows in the tympana of the pediments, rusticated corners, blue walls, and white decor. ^[3]

What the street has lost

House No. 24 was built in 1907 by Aleksey Ivanovich Tsylbov, a Nizhny Novgorod second-guild merchant who kept shops in the tea and iron rows of the Gostiny Dvor. The previous one-story house, "three windows wide on three sazhens," had become too small for his growing family: in 1900, after his brother's death, Tsylbov took five minor nephews under his guardianship. In 1918 the property was nationalized, but the house remained residential. ^[5] In January 2007 the courtyard section of the building, which had the status of a newly identified cultural heritage site, was sent under the bulldozer; the intervention of activists, the prosecutor's office, and the state heritage protection authority halted the demolition, but by May the developer had finished tearing the building down. ^[5] A replica was built in its place, and in 2009 the merchant Tsylbov's house was removed from the register of cultural heritage sites of regional significance — the building, recreated in new materials, was no longer considered a monument. ^[6]

Opposite the Dombrovsky house stood the one-story House No. 30, of modest Classicist architecture, with an unusual design of wooden brackets supporting the canopy over the entrance. Here the Arctic and Antarctic explorer Pavel Afanasyevich Gordienko often stayed for long periods with relatives — in 1948 he and three other polar explorers reached the North Pole and measured the depth of the ocean there; they were the first people indisputably to have reached the Pole on foot across the Arctic ice. A plaque on the façade attested to the house's memorial character. The house was demolished in 2006, and where the plaque ended up has been unknown ever since. ^[2][7]

House No. 46 — the very "house with the belvedere" — received a positive conclusion from a state historical and cultural expert review in 2014: the expert A. I. Davydov proposed entering "The Urban Estate Ensemble: 1. Main estate house with belvedere; 2. Stone shop" in the register as a monument of municipal significance. The same review did not confirm the widespread version that it was the house of the Burmistrov merchants: according to the tax assessment books, the present wooden house was rebuilt along the building line by 1890–1891 by the townsman M. G. Nikolaev, and the stone outbuilding by the next owner, the peasant I. P. Shein. ^[13] The press, however, continued to call the house a structure of 1846 and to link it with the merchant and patron of the arts Burmistrov. ^[12] For decades the house was kept in good order by its owner, L. A. Davydova-Pechyorkina, who privatized the building in 2006; Yu.

A. Vedenin, E. Yu. Genieva, N. O. Dushkina, A. I. Komech, N. V. Sipovskaya, A. V. Tolstoy, D. O. Shvidkovsky, and others spoke up for entering the estate in the register. ^[13] In January 2015 the house was demolished almost entirely; the prosecutor's office issued a warning and the work was stopped, but only the shell of the building remained. ^[12]

The most high-profile loss came in 2021. The site with buildings No. 16, 16A, and 18/22 — the estate of A. A. Pakhomov (F. I. Kurepina) and the outbuilding of the estate of the peasant A. P. Kulikov — had been transferred as early as December 2014 to the company Fregat under a developed-area redevelopment agreement; the investor put about 40 million rubles into resettling the residents and planned to build on the site an administrative and hotel complex styled to imitate the historic buildings. At the insistence of activists from the Wooden Cities movement, the houses were added to the list of identified cultural heritage sites, and construction was suspended. ^[8] In September 2020, the state heritage protection department refused to include the buildings in the register and at the same time removed them from the list of identified sites: the report submitted by Georgy Smirnov, an expert from the State Institute for Art Studies, was rejected as not complying with the law and the regulations on state expert review. ^[8] In August 2021, the houses began to be dismantled — the developer described this as relocation to another site, although there was no relocation project and no marking work had been done. ^[9]

The heightened decorativeness of the facade, the picturesque treatment of the silhouette, and the lively outline of the attics of the two projecting bays make it possible to feel the character of provincial Art Nouveau

These houses are in one of the best-preserved historic districts of the city

Volunteers with Paintbrushes

Since 2018, the quarter has been repaired by Tom Sawyer Fest — a festival at which historic houses are put in order by volunteer residents; Nizhny Novgorod residents began with house No. 18 on Korolenko Street, and the money for materials comes from partners and entrepreneurs. ^[14] In the summer of 2019, over four months, the three oldest houses in the quarter were renovated: No. 22A and No. 20/13 on Novaya Street and No. 16 on Korolenko Street. Most of the work fell to house No. 22A — the facade was cleaned, primed, and painted, the annex, porch, and staircase were rebuilt, and the lost carving was replaced on the canopy, window frames, and pilasters; the owners, the Nachinkin family, worked alongside the volunteers all summer and re-roofed the house at their own expense. At house No. 20, the Komlev family put up a wooden fence around the house in the style of the protected quarter. The three houses cost 800 thousand rubles. ^[15]

The restored window frame from house No. 22A, before being returned to its place, had time to serve as an exhibit at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum — as a symbol of cultural heritage preservation; among those who painted it at the forum were Tina Kandelaki and Konstantin Ernst. ^[15] In 2020, the festival took on the outbuilding of the Berdnikova estate (No. 20A) — the house had sunk, the roof was leaking, and some of the logs had decayed: it was raised with a hydraulic jack, leveled, set on posts, and given a drainage apron. Under the brick foundation, logs from the base of the old outbuilding, demolished by the new owners after 1859, were found — the wood had neither rotted nor gone soft. That same summer, volunteers renovated the outbuilding of the Yakhontova estate (No. 22) and the main house of the Lemke estate. ^[14]

The Protected Quarter

The first attempts to protect this piece of the city date back to Soviet times. In the 1970s, the plan was to demolish all the historic buildings and cut new cross streets with high-rise accents through the living urban fabric; part of the scheme was carried out — on the north side of Gorky Street, slab buildings and accent buildings by the architect Yu. N. Bubnov (1975–1985) were erected, as a result of which Studenaya was torn in two. ^[1][3] In 1985, the Moscow institute "Spetsproektrestavratsiya" proposed establishing protection zones, including within the boundaries of the intersecting Korolenko and Novaya streets, and in 1989–1990 a competition was held for a project to preserve the protected territory, won by the project of the architects Alexander Dekhtyar and Vasily Bondakov. ^[1][11] A compromise won out as well: repair and restoration of the buildings along the red lines of Novaya, Korolenko, and Slavyanskaya streets — and new construction only in the courtyards and gardens, behind the wooden houses. ^[3]

By Resolution No. 281 of the Legislative Assembly of Nizhny Novgorod Region of November 18, 1997, the area of Slavyanskaya, Korolenko, and Studenaya streets was included in the historic territory "Old Nizhny Novgorod" as a separate historical and cultural protected zone. ^[1] In 2005, the research documentation of the research and design enterprise "Etnos" proposed recognizing the "Area of Korolenko, Slavyanskaya, and Novaya Streets" as a notable place of regional significance: of the 65 objects of the historical and urban-planning environment, 6 already had monument status, 27 were proposed for inclusion in the register, and 19 were recognized as valuable elements of the environment — 83 percent of the buildings fell into the category to be preserved. The toponymy itself was also included in the subject of protection: the streets Studenaya and Novaya. ^[1]

The final point was put twenty years later. On September 26, 2025, by Order No. 230 of the State Protection Department, the "Complex of Urban Buildings in the Area of Korolenko, Slavyanskaya, Studenaya, and Novaya Streets" was entered into the list of newly identified objects; on October 26, 2025, the expert A. V. Malysheva signed the report of the state historical and cultural expert review, which found the inclusion justified — object type "notable place (fragment of settlement layout and buildings)," dating "second half of the 19th century — early 20th century," category regional. ^[3] On March 23, 2026, the quarter was entered into the unified state register of cultural heritage objects, and the department approved the boundaries of its territory; the quarter contains about thirty architectural monuments, three of them — associated with the names of Maxim Gorky and Vladimir Korolenko — of federal significance. ^[4]

Both Nizhny Novgorod residents themselves and tourists love to relax here away from the bustle of the city. Cultural heritage site status for the quarter is absolutely well deserved.

15–20 years ago, of course, much more could have been preserved there. It could have been much better, but it could have been the opposite too — thank God at least this remains.

The Street Today

The street's main purpose has remained the same — residential — and most of the buildings here are still homes; to this have been added cultural and educational roles, and the quarter has become a place for excursions and strolls. Quiet, tree-lined side streets, light traffic, and the absence of high-rise buildings in the main part of the district preserve a coherent overall impression, and the road surface is being adapted to the historic setting. ^[1][3]

The intersection of Korolenko and Novaya Streets, however, is still a vacant lot: on the site of the demolished buildings at Nos. 16, 16A, and 18/22, a hotel is under construction, and on July 28, 2026, the state heritage protection authority put up for public discussion the expert review of the section on ensuring the preservation of monuments for the project "Hotel Building with an Underground Parking Garage, Located Within the Boundaries of Belinsky, Korolenko, and Novaya Streets." ^[3][19] The stretch of the street from Korolenko to Belinsky is lined with new buildings and has lost almost all of its historic character; from Korolenko to Gorky Square, much of it has survived. ^[2]

See also

• Korolenko Street
• Slavyanskaya Street
• Belinsky Street
• Ilyinskaya Street
• Gorky Square
• Church of the Three Hierarchs
• Wooden Architecture of Nizhny Novgorod
• Chechenkov P.V. "A City Outskirt a Hundred Years Ago: An Excursion Through a Vanishing Nizhny Novgorod (the Church of the Three Hierarchs Area)"

References

• Official website (archive) (relax88-apart.ru)

Sources

1. opentextnn.ru — Open Text — research documentation of the "Ethnos" Research Enterprise on the historic territory "Old Nizhny Novgorod," volume 10 (archive)
2. opentextnn.ru — Open Text — local history tour by historian P. V. Chechenkov of the Three Saints Church quarter (archive)
3. ugookn.nobl.ru — Department for State Protection of Cultural Heritage Sites of Nizhny Novgorod Region — report of the state historical and cultural expert review by A. V. Malysheva, October 26, 2025
4. nobl.ru — Government of Nizhny Novgorod Region — announcement of March 23, 2026 — The Three Saints Church quarter in Nizhny Novgorod has been added to the register of cultural heritage sites of the peoples of the Russian Federation (archive)
5. opentextnn.ru — Open Text — note by historian A. I. Davydov on the demolition of the merchant Tsylbov's house, 2007 — A New Loss in the Cultural Heritage of Nizhny Novgorod Region (archive)
6. web.archive.org — NTA-Privolzhye, October 27, 2009 (web archive copy) — The Previously Destroyed House of the Merchant Tsylbov Will Be Removed from the Register of Cultural Heritage Sites of Nizhny Novgorod Region (archive)
7. opentextnn.ru — Open Text — review of losses of the quarter's historic buildings, 2007 — Chechenkov P. V. Down to the Foundations, but Why… (Returning to the Topic) (archive)
8. nn.rbc.ru — RBC-Nizhny Novgorod, September 29, 2020 — Houses on Novaya Street Removed from the List of Identified Cultural Heritage Sites (archive)
9. Govorit Nizhny — Govorit Nizhny news agency, August 13, 2021 — Relocation or Destruction? Houses Stripped of Protected Status Are Being Dismantled on Novaya Street (archive)
10. Govorit Nizhny — Govorit Nizhny news agency, August 18, 2021 — interview with art historian Georgy Smirnov
11. Govorit Nizhny — Govorit Nizhny news agency, March 27, 2026 — interview with architectural historian Aleksey Davydov — Cultural Heritage Sites on Korolenko, Novaya, and Slavyanskaya Streets — a Reservation for Urban Preservationists (archive)
12. nn.aif.ru — AiF-Nizhny Novgorod, January 13, 2015 — The "House with a Belvedere" in Nizhny Novgorod Has Been Almost Completely Demolished (archive)
13. opentextnn.ru — Open Text — report of the state historical and cultural expert review by A. I. Davydov and a letter from the jury of the Aleksey Komech Prize (archive)
14. V gorode N — V gorode N news agency, October 23, 2020 — How Architecture Is Being Saved in Nizhny Novgorod Without Budget Crutches (archive)
15. NIA "Nizhny Novgorod" — September 23, 2019 — Three Houses Renovated by Volunteers of the "Tom Sawyer Fest" Festival in Nizhny Novgorod (archive)
16. art.nnov.ru — Archoteka of the Volga Branch of the National Center for Contemporary Arts — guide to Nizhny Novgorod architecture of the 1990s — A New House in Front of an Old Bathhouse
17. kladr-rf.ru — State Classifier of Addresses (KLADR) — list of streets of Nizhny Novgorod — Nizhny Novgorod, Nizhny Novgorod Region — code 5200000100000 (archive)
18. kladr-rf.ru — State Classifier of Addresses (KLADR) — address objects of Nizhny Novgorod Region — Nizhny Novgorod Region — code 5200000000000 (archive)
19. ugookn.nobl.ru — Department for State Protection of Cultural Heritage Sites of Nizhny Novgorod Region — materials of the public discussion of the state historical and cultural expert review, July 28, 2026
20. opentextnn.ru — Open Text — brief guide to the holdings of the Central Archive of Nizhny Novgorod Region — Brief Guide to the Holdings of the CANO (Fond 1755 (archive)