Panskaya Sloboda was a historical settlement (sloboda) in the Upper Part, which existed on the Volga slopes in the area of the present-day Upper Volga Embankment. The sloboda is among the oldest settlements on this bank; the exact dates of its founding and disappearance are not given in the sources.
Location and disappearance
Before the systematic improvement of the city's upland part began, the Volga slopes between the last city street — Zhukovskaya — and the riverbank were occupied by kitchen gardens, bathhouses, outbuildings, the dwellings of Nizhny Novgorod's poor, and Panskaya Sloboda. The sloboda ceased to exist as a result of the large-scale works to build the Verkhne-Volzhskaya Embankment, which began in the 1830s: the ravines cutting through the bank were filled in, the slopes were levelled and reinforced with turf, and descents to the Volga were cut through — the Georgievsky and Kazansky descents — while Alexander Garden was laid out.
Connection with Alexander Garden and the Georgievsky Descent
The creation of the Verkhne-Volzhskaya Embankment together with the Otkos and Alexander Garden, dated to 1835, was the first instance of systematic improvement of the city's upland part and effectively did away with the former way of life on the Volga slopes, including the territory occupied by Panskaya Sloboda. The ensemble of the embankment and the garden was later recognized as one of the The Seven Wonders of the Nizhny Novgorod Region". The Georgievsky Descent, one of the descents to the river cut through at the same time, also passed through the former territory of the sloboda.