The Georgievskaya Tower is one of the thirteen surviving towers of the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin, built in the early sixteenth century during the construction of the stone fortress. It is located on the upper section of the fortress wall, on the side facing Minin and Pozharsky Square. It is one of the Kremlin's round combat towers, which reached a height of 30 meters at the time of construction.[1][2]
Architecture and Purpose
All the towers of the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin fall into two types: square gate towers and round combat towers. The square towers had gates and served both for defense and as passages into the city; the round ones were used exclusively for defense. During the construction of the Kremlin, the principle of alternating towers of these two types around the perimeter of the walls was strictly observed.[2] As a round combat tower, the Georgievskaya Tower had no gate.
The tower was named after the Church of St. George, which once stood next to it. In the nineteenth century the tower was used as a salt warehouse, which earned it the unofficial nickname "the Salt Tower" (Solyanaya).[1]
The Kremlin Moat
According to historical records, a fortress moat 30 meters wide and more than 5 meters deep was dug at the base of the fortress wall. The moat began precisely at the Georgievskaya Tower and ended at the Koromyslova Tower. It was filled with groundwater, which made it impossible to tunnel under the Kremlin wall and substantially strengthened the fortress's defenses. When the moat was filled in and a boulevard was laid out in the late 18th to mid-19th century, the tower's first tier ended up underground and became a basement; originally the tower stood several meters taller. In the 1950s–1970s the tower underwent a large-scale restoration under a design by the architect S. L. Agafonov, during which it was returned to an appearance close to the original.[5][6][2]
Current state
The tower is part of the museum complex of the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin. Near it, on Minin Square by Kremlevsky Boulevard — between the arch of the Georgievsky Gate into the Kremlin and the tower itself — there are parking spaces for museum visitors with limited mobility.[3]
The section of the fortress wall between the Georgievskaya and Borisoglebskaya Towers is used as a screen for light projections during city events. In 2026, a light show was projected onto this wall as part of the "Capital of Sunsets" night run.[1]
Construction of the tower in 1500–1512 was led by the Italian master Pyotr Fryazin. In the 1620s the gate was walled up; there is no reliable information on whether it ever fully functioned.[6][5]
The tower stands at the corner where two sections of the fortress wall meet: the southeastern one, facing Minin Square, and the northeastern one, descending along the slope to the Volga embankment.[6]
Sources
- agerasimov.ru — Contrary to the common division of the kremlin's towers into round and square ones, the Georgievskaya Tower is a square gate tower: it has four tiers and originally
- posmotretnn.ru — The tower stands at the corner where two sections of the fortress wall meet: the southeastern one, facing Minin Square, and the northeastern one, descending along the slope to the
- vfokuse.mail.ru — Towers of the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin: History, Legends, and Interesting Facts (archive)
- nsportal.ru — A tour of the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin — A video lesson in local history on the topic: — Educational social network
- ngiamz.ru — Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin — Official museum website (archive)
- travel.yandex.ru