NIZHNY NOVGOROD FAIR - the largest fair in the Russian Empire in the 19th - early 20th centuries. There was a connection with all the leading Russian yar-mar-ka-mi and with the Leip-tsig-yar-mar-koy - my biggest in obo-ro -tu in Europe.

Rise-nick-la after re-re-no-sa in 1817 Ma-kar-ev-sky yar-mark-ki on the left, pro-ty-in-on-false from Nizh-not th Nov-go-ro-yes, bank of the river. Oka at its confluence with the river. Vol-ga. At this place in the years 1817-1822, the treasury was built the largest in Europe in the tor-go-vy co-mp-lex - Gos-ti-ny yard (project engineer A.A. Be-tan-ku-ra; not preserved). On its ter-ri-to-rii, there were the main yar-ma-roch house and 56 two-story kir-pich-nyh kor-pus-owls, in some 2530 trading shops, as well as Spassky Cathedral (1822, architect O. Mont-fer-ran; later, in 1827, built-in-we-not-preserved-niv-shie-sya ar-m-no-gri-go-ri-an-sky church and mosque according to the project of architect A.L. Lee-ra), numerous guests-ti-ni-tsy, res-to-ra-nas, tractor-ty-ry, increasing-se-literary for-ve-de-nia and summer-te- atr.

For communication with the Nizhny Novy-go-ro-dom, every year, a flat bridge across the Oka was built. At the Nizhny Novgorod fair, there was a pro-ve-de-na ka-na-li-za-tion, which was a new element in the device-swarm-st-ve of public complexes owls in Russia; for pro-ty-in-hot-hot purposes around the Nizhny Novgorod fair, from three sides, the so-called. Be-tan-ku-rov-sky canal. Over time, behind the pre-deeds of the State-ty-no-go yard, there are wooden shops and warehouses (for example, in 1890 about 3.4 thousand), in the order of Kre-sto-voz-dvi-zhen-skaya (1852, architect A.P. Bryullov), Pe-cher-skaya (1859, architect I.K. Ko-st-ryu-kov), Ma-kar-ev-skaya (Flag-naya; 1866, architect D.I. Gu-shchin) clock-owl-no (not preserved), as well as Alek -San-d-ro-Neva Chapel (1869, architect L.V. Dal).

In co-ot-vet-st-vie with the general-ra-na-mi-plans of 1860 and 1886, the ter-ri-to-ria of the Nizhny Novgorod fair grew-shi-rya-las and b-go- us-t-rai-va-las. Establish boulevards, squares, streets and squares, they would be for-mo-shche-na. Since the 1860s, trading shops (without land) have been sold by the treasury in the property of trading-guy-schim (by the end of the 19th century, almost the whole Gos-ty-ny court became a part-but-vla-del-che-sky; more-shin-st-in affairs for the economic management of the yar-mar-koy since 1864 led you- bor-ny Yar-ma-roch-ny committee). In the 1860-1870s, Kor-pu-sa Gos-ti-no-go dvor-ra re-con-st-rui-ro-va-na, pro-ve-den in-do-pro-water (1870 year), installation-swarm-but electric installation (1885), pro-lo-same-on the tram-way line (1896), etc.

The Nizhny Novgorod fair was connected with Mo-sk-voi and Sanki-Pe-ter-burg-gom Mo-s-kov-sko-Ni-zhe-go-rod-sky railway (1858-1862 ) - one of the first railway ma-gi-st-ra-lei in the country, later - with the South of Russia.

In-built new-ve-li-che-st-vein buildings, including Alek-san-d-ro-Nevsky Cathedral (1867-1881, architect-to- ry R.Ya. Key-le-vein, L.V. Dahl), at the place of the ob-vet-shav-she-th main yar-ma-roch-no-go do-ma - re-shyon-ny in the non-Russian style, one of the largest pas-sage in Russia (1889-1890, architects K.V. Trei-man, A.I. von Go -gen and G.A. Trambits-cue). By the beginning of the 20th century, the Nizhny Novgorod fair presented-la-la with its own kind-of-different "city" with a re-gu-lyar-plan-ni-ditch: over 30 streets, 10 squares -shcha-day; about 7 thousand ma-ga-zi-nov and la wok, so-called. Big theater for 1.6 thousand seats (1878, architect Key-le-Vein), circus (1887, architect N.P. Ivanov), ip-drome (1896) (all - not saved), etc.

The Nizhny Novgorod fair was held every year, but ofi-tsi-al-no from July 15 to August 25 according to Juli-en-sko-mu ka-len-da-ryu, one-on-ko trading-la almost always lasted until September 1, and sometimes even longer. At the end of the 1850s, there were about 15 thousand people at the fair mar-ke tor-go-va-li (special fees were charged from them in the kaz-nu), including about 700 foreign -countries; service-servant-so-nal (re-mes-len-ni-ki, servant-ga, black-no-ra-bo-chie, from-cart-chi-ki, su -do-ra-bo-chee) - about 100 thousand people. The number of po-ti-te-lei is up to 250 thousand people a day at the time of the fair-mark (August 10-20) and up to 2 million people per season.

Pre-ob-la-da-la op-to-trade-gov-la. By the middle of the 19th century, more than 1/2 of all yar-ma-roch-no-go to-va-ro-obo-ro-ta in Russia came to the Nizhny Novgorod fair. The value of the pri-in-for-var-ditch: 24 million rubles. (1817), 246 million rubles. (1881), 195 million rubles. (1912). Trade-la-pro-from-the-di-las was mainly Russian to-va-ra-mi (3/4 of the total value of the whole pri-za), of which b . h. composition-la-whether fabric (up to 1/2 of the total supply), metal-ly and metal from-de-lia, bread, push-no- on, leather, wool, linen. From Per-sia, China, Af-ga-ni-sta-na, Central Asia, Mon-go-li, they imported tea, cotton, silk, carpets, fruits, from Western Ev-ro-py - cloth, silk and linen fabrics of the highest grades, ga-lan-te-rey, vi-no, kras-ki, in-str-ru -men-you and machines. In a degree-pen-but trading-la at the Nizhny Novgorod fair at the-ob-re-ta-la beer-same-howl ha-rak-ter (many that-va-ry began to sell-yes-vat- Xia according to samples). In 1896, within the framework of the Nizhny Novgorod fair, pro-ve-de-na the largest in the history of pre-revolutionary Russia, the All-Russian Industrial and Art Exhibition (over 8.5 thousand students) and the 4th All-Russian trade-in-industrial congress.

Yar-mark-ka on-ho-di-lased under the control of-le-ni-em of the same kind of gu-ber-na-to-ra (at the time of trading he -re-no-strength his headquarters-ti-ru in the main yar-ma-roch-ny house), and in the years 1879-1880 - special sya no-same-go-rod-sko-th temporary general-gu-ber-na-to-ra gr. N.P. Ig-nat-eva. Not-on-medium-st-ven-but de-la-mi yar-mar-ki for-ni-ma-las N-same-go-rod-skaja yar-ma-roch-naya con-to-ra at gu-ber-on-to-re (until 1833 Kon-to-ra building of the yar-ma-roch-no-go Gos-ti-no-go yard). At the Nizhny Novgorod fair, there is a seasonal exchange and a yar-ma-roch-ny stock exchange committee (ob-ra-zo-va-ny in 1848, ac- tiv-no dey-st-vo-va-li since the 1860s). 1866 no-sti, ho-da-tai-st-vo-vat before the right-wi-tel-st-vom about the “benefit and well-zh-dah” of trade and industry.

After the October Revolution of 1917, the ter-ri-to-riya yar-mark-ki became part of the Lower New-go-ro-da, from the beginning scrap in-li-ti-ki "in-en-go com-mu-niz-ma" Nizhny Novgorod fair was-la-for-cover (1918). Again dey-st-vo-va-la in 1922-1929, in the period of the NEP. Since 1990, on a part of the territory of the former Nizhny Novgorod fair, dei-st-woo-et you-hundred-voch-ny complex "Ni-zhe-go-rod-skaya yar-mark-ka" .

Additional literature:

Mel-ni-kov A.P. Essays on the howl of the is-to-rii of the N-zh-rod-sky yar-mark. N. Nov-go-rod, 1917;

Ost-ro-ukhov P.A. Ni-go-rod-skaya yar-mark-ka in 1817-1867. // Is-to-ri-che-sky for-pis-ki. M., 1972. T. 90.

The history of the Nizhny Novgorod fair has five centuries. As early as the beginning of the 16th century, trade was carried out near Kazan. Then, by order of Vasily III, the fair was organized in Vasilsursk. The mall has been rescheduled several times. The main events in the history of the Nizhny Novgorod fair date back to the second half of the 19th century - it was then that a stone guest yard was erected in the city, the like of which was not in Russia.

background

Trade along the banks of the Volga began in the 13th century. However, the merchants were chronically unlucky: they were robbed by the Tatars every now and then. An important event in the history of the Nizhny Novgorod fair is the transfer of trading floors closer to the city. Later it was moved to the foot of the Makaryevsky Monastery. It is here that the history of the Nizhny Novgorod fair begins. The description of that medieval site, however, suggests that initially it had little in common with the architectural complex built in the 19th century.

Makarievskaya Fair

Merchants from all over the country began to arrive. But in the 17th century, this trading floor was called differently. Namely Makarievskaya Fair. In those days, it looked more like a farce: randomly installed shops, shoddy goods, broken sellers beckoning buyers. A turning point in the history of the Nizhny Novgorod Fair took place in 1755.

After new pavilions were built here, it became the center of international wholesale and retail trade. At the end of the 18th century, the Nizhny Novgorod fair had more than two thousand trading shops. Russian and overseas merchants used to come here.

The history of the Nizhny Novgorod Fair is full of events, both joyful and sad. At the beginning of the 19th century, there was a fire that destroyed most of the shops. It was restored, and now it was shaped like the letter "T".

Start of construction

In the 19th century, the fair was moved to where it is today. This was due less to economic success than to lack of space. Massive construction began. Alexander I, realizing the economic value of this huge fair, even postponed the restoration of the Winter Palace.

A huge amount was allocated from the treasury for the construction of a new shopping complex. Then the fair got its present name. However, the former name, Makaryevskaya, was still used among the people for a long time.

At that time, it was impossible to imagine a more suitable place for retail space than the confluence of two rivers. From here, goods could be sent to other Russian cities and abroad. New buildings designed by the best Russian architects appeared on the territory of the fair.

Large-scale construction began in 1818. Andrey Zakharov worked on the project. Construction lasted four years. The grand opening of the Stone Gostiny Palace took place on July 15, 1822. A flurry of trade began in August. And in subsequent years, it was especially crowded here at the end of summer.

Gostiny Dvor

The Nizhny Novgorod fair occupied almost eight square kilometers. The Gostiny Dvor, designed by Augustine Betancourt, became the central part. This building consisted of sixty buildings and more than two thousand shops. The architecture of Gostiny Dvor was designed in the style of classicism. This house, together with the administrative buildings, formed the central point. Forty more stone buildings, intended both for trade and for the storage of goods, were built along the banks of the bypass canal.

Spassky Old Fair Cathedral

The history of the Nizhny Novgorod Fair of the 19th century is of interest primarily to connoisseurs of works of Russian architecture. In 1818, the construction of the Spassky Old Fair Cathedral began - one of the Nizhny Novgorod sights dating back to the 19th century. The cathedral was designed by Auguste Montferrand. In the summer of 1822, the decoration was completed, on which the painter Alexander Stupin worked.

Behind the Cathedral, a high bell tower was erected, designed by Anton Leer. The height of this structure was 54 meters. The bell tower served as a landmark for ships sailing to the fair. On the first floor of the building there were utility rooms. The clergy lived on the second. Most of the space on the territory of the Nizhny Novgorod Fair was occupied by the Kazan Church.

Other facilities on the fair grounds

Representatives of different religions and nationalities came here. This was taken into account by the authors of the building plan. In the 19th century, the Armenian-Gregorian church and mosque were built. On the opposite side of the Cathedral were the Chinese Rows, which were four small buildings made in the oriental style. These buildings were intended for Asian merchants who brought many varieties of tea to Russia.

An underground vaulted sewer was built here. For Russia, this was almost a unique case. Underground work at that time was carried out exclusively in Moscow. It is noteworthy that the first underground galleries in Paris appeared much later.

In 1833, Pushkin visited the Nizhny Novgorod fair. He reflected his impressions in one of the chapters of Eugene Onegin.

Fair heyday

The peak of popularity of this trading platform came in the second half of the 19th century. After the Nikolaev railway was opened, merchants raised prices several times. The fair has received international recognition. Armenians, Bukharians, Persians, Khivans and, of course, Europeans came here.

In 1946 alone, goods worth 50 million silver rubles were brought to the Nizhny Novgorod Fair. Among the products offered, woolen, silk, cotton products, metals and tea prevailed. More than two hundred thousand people came here every year, while less than twenty thousand lived in the city itself.

The popularity of the fair led to the development of infrastructure. New restaurants, taverns, teahouses, hotels appeared. On the opposite bank of the Oka River, on Rozhdestvenskaya Street, brick buildings were erected. In 1852, the Exaltation of the Cross Chapel was built on the fairgrounds. The author of the project is Alexander Belov. In 1859, the Caves Chapel was opened.

Nevsky Cathedral

In the fifties, the fair merchants decided to build a cathedral in memory of Alexander II's visit to the Nizhny Novgorod fair. Designed by Robert Keelewain. True, the cathedral could not be built quickly. At first, the merchants did not like the proposed project, then they did not have enough finances. However, the cost of construction was reduced to one hundred thousand rubles. Considered the project of a young architect Lev Dahl. But he did not like the merchants either.

Who owns the project is still unknown. The name Dahl is mentioned more often in the literature devoted to the history of the Nizhny Novgorod Fair. The photo below shows the Nevsky Cathedral.

Construction began in 1868. It went on for thirteen years. Approximately at this time, one of the Nizhny Novgorod merchants installed six hundred and fifty lanterns here. In the 80s of the 19th century, electric lighting appeared at the fair.

In 2009, it received the status of a cathedral church. In the late 1920s, the cathedral, like other Orthodox churches in Russia, was closed. The property was confiscated by the Bolsheviks. Restoration began in 1983.

Back in the middle of the 19th century, there were several wooden buildings on the territory of the fair. But frequent fires led to the fact that almost all of them were replaced by stone ones by the end of the century. Such is the history of the creation of the Nizhny Novgorod fair - an old marketplace that gained fame over 150 years ago outside of Russia.

All-Russian Exhibition

This event was financed by Nicholas II. The exhibition opened in 1896. It was such a huge platform that it took merchants and entrepreneurs at least a week to study it.

The exhibition was organized in connection with the decrease in the turnover of the fair, which caused considerable concern among the government. In addition, by the end of the century, bakery products were in less and less demand in European markets. Nizhny Novgorod was by that time a major Russian trading center. The government did not consider other candidate cities for the exhibition.

Fair after the revolution

So, by the end of the 19th century, there was a need to organize a special event that could revive interest in domestic products abroad. This exhibition became the largest in pre-revolutionary Russia and would have played a significant role in the further history of the Nizhny Novgorod Fair. Everyone remembers the summary of the school history course. Private trade and other types of entrepreneurship were banned in Russia after the revolution. However, in the late period of the history of the Nizhny Novgorod fair, there was a brief period of prosperity - the period of NEP. In seven years, the trade turnover has grown tenfold. At the fair in 1928, the products of more than two thousand firms were presented.

But the fight against the New Economic Policy soon began. The fair was called a hostile phenomenon and closed in February 1930. The architectural complex fell into decay. For decades it has been an urban slum. Until the beginning of the seventies, the government was not interested in the condition of the sights located on the fairgrounds; no events were held here.

Current state

The reconstruction of the end of the 20th century left little of the building plan of the 19th century. In the nineties, this historical monument turned into a large exhibition complex. Conferences and congresses are held here. There is a customs post on the territory of the Nizhny Novgorod Fair.

The huge building includes six pavilions, five conference rooms and the Armorial Hall. On the territory of the fair there are hotels, a bank, several restaurants and a shopping arcade. Competitors of the Nizhny Novgorod enterprise are such giants as Expocentre, VDNH, Lenexpo. For twenty years, the fair has occupied its niche in the Russian exhibition business. It has become the center of business life in the region.

In 2011, the fair celebrated its anniversary - twenty years since the revival. In 2017, the celebration of the bicentenary took place. 1817 is officially considered the year of foundation. It was then that a decision was made to move the outlets from the Makariev Monastery.

The history of the creation of the Nizhny Novgorod Fair, a description of the main attractions located on its territory - Nikolay Filatov spoke about all this in more detail in his book "Three Centuries of the Makaryevsko-Nizhny Novgorod Fair". The first part is devoted to the origin, development and flourishing of Russian bargaining. The second is a collection of essays, short stories and interesting facts from the history of the Nizhny Novgorod Fair.

The most beautiful building of the Nizhny Novgorod Fair in the style of ancient Russian architecture has been decorating the historical part of Nizhny Novgorod since 1890. The main house of Russia's largest fair of the 19th century is part of a partially preserved architectural fair complex.

Makarievskaya fair (located near the monastery of St. Macarius), founded by Grand Duke Vasily Ioannovich in 1524, was moved to Nizhny Novgorod in 1816 due to a fire that destroyed all commercial buildings. In July 1822, on the left bank of the Oka River, in the lower part of Novgorod, a real fair complex was opened with a stone gostiny yard, wooden trading and storage facilities, as well as a unique hydraulic structure, named after the designer - the Betancurovsky Canal. On the territory of the fair complex, the Old Fair Cathedral and the temple of Alexander Nevsky were built, which have survived to this day.

In the late 1880s, the main fair building became obsolete and a decision was made to build a new, multifunctional Main Fair House. In 1890, according to the project of architects A.I. von Gauguin, K.M. Treiman and A.E. Trambitsky, the building of the administrative center was erected, where on the second floor there were: a fair office, an office, a branch of the state bank, the governor's apartment, and on the first floor there was a spacious passage. The new building was erected on the site of three "Betancourt" buildings and is considered the final stage in the development of the architecture of the fair complex.

The main fair house, which is one of the largest passages in Russia, after the revolution became the place of deployment of numerous military units of the Red Army, and after 1922 "Children's World" settled in the spacious halls for a long time. Today, the historic building is the largest exhibition complex, where there are six exhibition pavilions, five conference rooms, as well as the Armorial Hall, which receives distinguished guests, a shopping arcade and much more.

The main house of the Nizhny Novgorod Fair is an architectural monument and the most beautiful historical landmark of the city.

Publications in the Architecture section

​Nizhny Novgorod Fair

The se-Russian market began on the Volga in the 13th century. After 300 years, the auctions received a permanent residence near the walls of the monastery of St. Macarius, and after the fire they moved to Nizhny Novgorod. The birthday of the Nizhny Novgorod Fair was July 15, 1822, when the main shopping center of Tsarist Russia was rebuilt.

From a familiar place - to the Strelka. At the confluence of two rivers - the Oka and the Volga - the fair was driven by a fire. Taking into account the state importance of the All-Russian Marketplace, Emperor Alexander I postponed the construction of the Winter Palace, using palace money for an economically important construction site. The project is based on the plan of the architect Andrey Zakharov, who later became the author of the Admiralty.

With the latest technology. One of the first sewerage systems in Russia, a hundred-meter-wide bypass channel and unique hydraulic structures. The fair complex was built by the engineer Augustine Betancourt. The Betancourt Canal was created in the likeness of the "water arteries" of Tsarskoye Selo and Peterhof. The bridge across the Oka, 510 meters long, became the longest floating bridge of its time.

The main building of the fair. Photo: idmedina.ru

View of the old Lower. Photo: idmedina.ru

Carousel on Samokat Square. Photo: idmedina.ru

From Pushkin's poems to Gorky's epic novel. In 1833, Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin visited Nizhny Novgorod. Even before the trip, the rumor about a large market became a fragment of "Eugene Onegin". The impression of Onegin's journey: "An Indian brought pearls here / A European is fake / A herd of defective horses / A breeder brought them from the steppes." Native Nizhny Novgorod Maxim Gorky in the novel "The Life of Klim Samgin" noted that the Makariev Fair "convincingly shouted about the wealth of the country."

All flags are welcome. More specifically, business matters. The fair in the middle of the 19th century received international recognition. Goods were brought from all over the world: Armenians, Persians, Bukharans, Khivans, Tashkenters. There were many European merchants in Nizhny Novgorod. The entire future European Union - from France to Spain, and even with the colonies. Due to the abundance of Asian immigrants among the merchants, the fair was called the Russian caravanserai.

Both tea and chintz. And perfumery from "Brocard and Co", and jewelry from Faberge. But the most popular commodity of the early 19th century was tea. The standard, the cost of which influenced the fair prices. Furs, metal, porcelain, silk were valued. Calico - high-quality Moscow and Shuya-Ivanovo factories for the Asian market "with dragons, snakes - or rather: "serpents" - and similar horrors, very easily, however, defeated by the first boiling water."

Pavilion of leather and felt products G. Adelkhanov. Photo: idmedina.ru

Pavilion S.A. Prokoviev. Photo: idmedina.ru

Pavilion of the partnership br. Nobel. Photo: idmedina.ru

Fair for all faiths. The architectural dominant of the Nizhny Novgorod fair is the Spassky Old Fair Cathedral. According to the architect Auguste Montferrand, Isaac's brother. At the fair, greatness coexisted with practicality. And the 50-meter bell tower of the cathedral also served as a guide for fair courts. Religious buildings were also built in Nizhny for guests of other religions: an Armenian-Gregorian church and a mosque.

Fair theater. Where there are guests, there is a cultural program. There was also a theater. Initially with a troupe of the serfs of Prince Shakhovsky. The best metropolitan artists also visited, including Mikhail Shchepkin. And the playwright Alexander Ostrovsky, having visited the fair, noted that the local theater is not inferior to the Moscow one. Among the speakers was a young Nizhny Novgorod resident Mily Balakirev - the future composer and head of the Mighty Handful.

"Merry Scooter". The whole street is like one big cultural and entertainment area. Balagans and circus, novelty miracles: mechanical and electric theaters - the first Russian cinemas. The second half of the 19th century brought new traditions - touring. Opera and ballet appeared at the fair. A new kind of art is being developed - photography, and the first

Nizhny Novgorod Fair is considered one of the most beautiful places in the city, admiring all guests and residents. Come and enjoy. The origins of the great periodical trade along the middle Volga go back to very ancient times. The first half of the 13th century gave preference to holding them on the Arskoye field, near Kazan. In the year 1524 from the Nativity of Christ, Tsar Vasily Ioannovich, taking into account the fact that Russian merchants were plundered by the Tatars, gives them a ban on trips to Kazan, and instead establishes fair Russian near Vasilsursk. This place was chosen very poorly, since Vasilsursk, being a border town, also served as an outpost for military actions against Kazan.

After the conquest of the Khanate of Kazan, and that was in the year 1552, the most favorable conditions for conducting trade begin to take shape. This is where education begins trade fairs not far from the monastery of St. Macarius, but no one will tell you the official date of the justification of that fair, it has sunk into oblivion. Due to its favorable location in the middle of the Volga route, the fair was characterized by rapid development. And in 1641 the tsar, already Romanov, Mikhail Fedorovich gives the monastery the right to rob merchants for one day for trade (on the day of St. Macarius, July 25) for customs duty. By 1648, Alexei Mikhailovich allowed to trade and duty-free for five days, and then only commanded to be paid a special tax. In the year 1666 fair merchants visit not only from Russia alone, but also from abroad, and the fair itself lasts two weeks.
Painfully grown fair, yes, mother captured all the banks of the Volga, and also moved to the opposite bank to the village of Lyskov. The buildings of the fair at that time were of a temporary nature, they were wooden booths, shops, and taverns. By the middle of the 18th century, many of the buildings had already fallen into complete disrepair, and on June 18, 1751, a royal decree was issued on the construction of a guest yard of stone where the old wooden one used to stand before. To this day, there are numerous projects on the redevelopment of fair buildings dating back to the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th centuries. In the year 1809, the reconstruction of the fair buildings was completed.

In August of the year 1816, and this event took place on the 16th, a fire broke out, which destroyed the entire living yard (the only exception was the stone building), as well as all the temporary booths that belonged to it. The fire fell on the time following the end of the auction (since the end was considered to be the First Savior, which, as you know, falls on the 1st of August), then there was not a single man of God within the fair, not a single bale with goods. But the loss amounted to more than 2 million rubles. This fire raised an acute question about the transfer of the fair, since there was very little space for the fair, in addition to this fact, the course of the Volga River annually washed out part of the Makaryevsky coast.

Understanding the importance of creating an economic center to replace the burned-out one forced Emperor Alexander I to postpone the longed-for reconstruction of the Winter Palace, but instead direct the allocated amount of money to build a fair in a new place. A significant amount allocated for the construction of the yard amounted to 6 million rubles of state money. The construction was entrusted to be headed by the Chairman of the Capital Committee of Buildings, Lieutenant-General Betancourt. The basis for the creation of the architectural complex was provided by the plan, which was developed in 1804 by the architect A. Zakharov (he later became the author of the plan for the Admiralty building). On February 15, 1817, construction began, which lasted 4 years.
Only 5 years and 5 months later, in July 1822, the stone Gostiny Dvor and wooden temporary premises received the first merchants. The duration of the fair exceeded a month: the flags were raised on the day of July 15, and lowered only on August 25. Real bidding began in August and continued until September.

Fair It was occupied in an area of ​​​​as much as 8 square kilometers above the left low bank of the Oka, and on a large cape, which was called the Strelka, formed by the confluence of the Oka into the Volga-mother.

The central part of the entire fair was the Gostiny Dvor that Betancourt built, which consisted of 60 separate buildings, and with two and a half thousand shops. The main house was built in the style of classicism, and the central front square was formed by the administrative side buildings. A bulk base with a height of 3 meters served as protection from spring waters flooding this place. Over 40 huge stone buildings were built along the banks of the bypass canal, serving the purposes of trade and the storage of goods.
The horseshoe-shaped bypass channel was 100 meters wide and surrounded the central part of the architectural ensemble on three sides. This creation of hydrotechnical construction was unique and it received the name Betancourt Canal. Izhe connected with the Meshchersky Lake and the Pyrsky Canal. The scale of its complex was comparable only to the hydrotechnical miracle of Tsarskoe Selo and Peterhof. And by the present day, there is nothing left of that canal and the system of bizarre bridges.

The people paid special attention to the pontoon bridge, unique at that time, drawn across the Oka, which caused great surprise among the people. It had a length of 510 meters, being from this the longest pontoon bridge of those times

The magnificent five-domed Cathedral of the Spassky lived on an artificial peninsula, it was also called the Old Fair Cathedral, it remained one of the few buildings that have survived until the present century. The construction of this cathedral was started on August 20, 1818 in accordance with the project of Montferrand, the architect and designer, who at one time designed St. Isaac's Cathedral, and the similarity with that cathedral is quite obvious. The cathedral was designed as a centric composition, according to a square plan with sides of 25 meters and an altar, as well as three porches. The piers between the high windows at the heads of the cathedral were decorated with Ionic semi-columns, the domes were given a hemispherical shape. The total height of the building (counting the cross) was about 40 meters. In the summer of 1822, the decoration of the cathedral was completed, which was carried out by the founder of the Arzamas school of painting, academician A. V. Stupin. The cathedral was consecrated on July 25 of the same year.

And the square behind the cathedral is decorated with a high (more than 50 meters) bell tower, which was designed by the architect A. L. Leer. This building served as a kind of beacon for ships sailing to the fair. The first floor of the bell tower acquired utility rooms, the second - living quarters, where the clergy lived. The largest area was occupied by the Kazan Church. A four-tiered bell tower with a 15-meter spire crowned the upper part of the building.

The needs of diasporas belonging to other religions were also taken into account, fair acquired an Armenian-Gregorian church and a mosque. A decree for the construction of these structures was issued in 1825. The work was directed by Baus, a well-known engineer of those times. The Armenian church was made round with a base diameter of 21.5 meters. With a total height of the building, including the dome, the same 21.5 meters. The mosque was characterized by an architectural similarity with the Armenian church, the difference was in the two-story structure and the presence of a three-stage spire that served as a minaret.

Cathedral Square, its opposite side, was decorated with Chinese rows in the form of four buildings in the manner of Chinese architecture, these fruits of fantasy of skillful diplomats and peacekeepers were intended for Asian merchants, who mainly traded the latter in tea. He is highly respected by them and by our time.
unique to this trade fairs was that on its territory a whole network of sanitary facilities was developed, a real sewage system in the underground version and with vaults. Two round turrets, located between the extreme rows of the Gostiny Dvor, limited the entrance to this building in the form of two underground galleries. Each underground gallery was a long corridor with vaulted stone walls and a brick floor. In length, each gallery was more than half a kilometer with a width of 2.1 meters, the height was determined to be two and a half meters. A gutter was laid along the back wall of the gallery, which was divided into urinals with the help of partitions. Sanitary requirements were maintained by daily cleaning of the water flowing from the pipes connected to the bypass channel. In Russia, such fortifications were considered unique; until then, underground works were carried out only in Moscow, and much later, similar pleasures were erected in France in Paris.

In 1833, A. S. Pushkin visited Nizhny Novgorod with its fair, and he wrote about his impressions left from the voyage in Onegin's Journey.
The second half of the 19th century can be considered the heyday of Nizhny Novgorod Fair. By opening the Nikolaev railway (1851), the government practically tripled the prices of imported goods, they increased even more when the Moscow-Nizhny Novgorod railway was built a decade later.
Fair recognized at the international level: not only Russians traded there, there were also immigrants from Europe, Armenia, Iraq, Turkey, Azerbaijan and some other countries. In 1846, goods were brought there with a total amount of more than 57 million rubles in silver, and more than 85% of the total amount was sold in monetary terms. The main items of sale were cotton, tea, metal, wool and silk products.

Notaries, branches of banks, commercial and other offices came from the city for the period of the auction. The Nizhny Novgorod fair each year collected a fifth of a million visitors, despite the fact that Nizhny Novgorod itself at that time had a population not exceeding 20 thousand people. A similar number of visitors with the aim of visiting the fair led to an incredible development of the infrastructure of the city of Nizhny Novgorod, growing like mushrooms, hotels, taverns, restaurants and tea houses became a myriad, the service sector received extraordinary development. The opposite bank of the Oka began to be rapidly built up with quarters of well-maintained brick buildings, called Rozhdestvenskaya Street. Shipping flourished very much, and an important transport highway was laid along the left bank of the Oka, the same Moscow highway, the significance of which is foolish to deny today.

The architectural expansion continued on the territory allotted to the fair. In 1852, the Exaltation of the Cross Chapel was erected, according to the project of A.P. Bryullov, after 7 years - the Pechersk Chapel in accordance with the project of I.K. Kostryukov, another 7 years, and the project of the Petersburger and architect D. a large chapel at the fair - Makarievskaya.

The year 1858 is remarkable in that the fair merchants expressed their wish to build a new cathedral dedicated to the memory of the visit of the fair by Alexander II, Tsar of Russia, and by 1864 this project was brilliantly executed by the provincial architect R. Ya. Kilevein. Unfortunately, the project had to be revised due to the insufficient strength of the structure, as well as the lack of funding. It was decided to reduce the cost of the construction project by half, down to 100,000 rubles. The new project, proposed by the young talented architect and academician L.V. Dahl, was not destined to be established. The most interesting thing is that the author of the final version of the project could not be identified. Some experts are of the opinion that the authorship belongs to none other than I. S. Vishnevsky, a bright representative of architectural talent. 1867 was marked by the visit of Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich Makaryevskaya trade fairs, which was present at the consecration ceremony of the place where it was supposed to lay the cathedral. Basically, the construction of the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral started on August 18, 1868, it was protracted and took 13 years. The cathedral lacked the traditional pile foundation. It was a centric building of a monumental nature, having five octagonal tents, the central tent was given a height of 72.5 meters. The decor of the facade combines elements from various architectural trends. The plan of the cathedral was given an eclectic character. On July 20, 1881, the construction was put to an end, and the cathedral was consecrated with due solemnity in the personal presence of Alexander III, the Russian emperor, his wife, and Tsarevich Nicholas was there.

Fires were frequent, and this naturally led to the fact that most of the buildings began to be built of stone, this undertaking was greatly facilitated by a decree allowing the transfer of a stone-built building into ownership.
A little later, finally, engaged in illumination. In the Nizhny Novgorod merchant E. Schmit, 650 lanterns were installed on the territory allotted to the fair; in 1885, lighting of buildings by means of electricity came to the fair at all, and streets were added a little later. And between these undoubtedly remarkable events, a water supply system with fountains appeared at the fair, located in front of the Spassky Cathedral and not far from the Main House, to ensure the proper functioning of the system, it became necessary to build a water tower, which was satisfied as soon as possible.

By the beginning of the 90s, the Main Fair House was noticeably obsolete, and a special commission decided to completely reconstruct it. It took less than a year to put the plan into practice, the project developed by a group of architects K. V. Treiman, A. von Gauguin and A. Trambitsky was successfully completed. The building is made in the old Russian traditions. The building should serve as an administrative center, for the duration of the fair there is an apartment for the governor, his office, the building includes a fair office and a committee, there is a branch of the state bank and other, in modern terms, offices. The first floor is occupied by a beautiful arcade where retail trade takes place in a rather brisk manner.

1896 brings the opening of the All-Russian Exhibition not far from Nizhny Novgorod Fair, the commissioning of the tram service was timed to coincide with this event.

Developed capitalist relations naturally led in Russia to a rapid growth in the number of banking institutions. The territory of the fair was inhabited by the State, Siberian Trade, Kazan Merchant, Volga-Kama Commercial, Moscow Trade, Moscow Merchant, Moscow Azov and Moscow Commercial and Industrial Banks.

If the first half of the 19th century passed on fair under the total monopoly of tea supplied from the centers of trade with China from the city of Kyakhta at prices for Kyakhta tea, which actually determine the prices of all other goods of the fair, by the second half the tea dictatorship had lost its irresistible power. Perhaps this is due to the fact that on April 30, 1861, a decree was issued allowing trade with China directly, already in 1862 it was allowed to transport tea across the Russian border, and this lowered exotic tea to the level of an ordinary commodity.

Anyone would envy the assortment of fair goods, but in the second half of the 19th century they traded mainly tea, cotton, cotton products, metals, fish, salt, bread, furs, wine.

As soon as the monopoly on tea disappeared, there was an incredible demand for ordinary peasant products, primarily cotton products. According to some reports, the peasant reform of 1861 can be considered the cause of this phenomenon. Fair replenished with cotton products mainly in three ways, there were Moscow, Vladimir and Kostroma directions. Their specificity was such that high-quality products were brought from the Moscow region, while the rest were supplied with lower-grade chintz, an important part of the deliveries was assigned to the products of the Shuya-Ivanovo cluster factories, oriented towards Asians. The drawing is all in dragons, which caused bewilderment or even fear in a Russian person, easily defeated, according to eyewitnesses, with the very first boiling water.)) It means that the fabric was of such low quality that the very first wash in hot water completely destroyed the drawing.

As you can guess, sales of cotton and dyes had a close connection with cotton products. It must be said that despite the agrarian way of life in Russia, cotton was imported from Asia and even America. Serfdom, of course, did not disdain the labor of overseas slaves. Among paints, madder was more important than others, then it was replaced by artificial mineral dyes: aniline and alizarin.

Among the metal, iron was in great demand, it was delivered along the Volga, from the Urals, mainly. The iron trade was tightly controlled by several large capitalists who paid in advance and established exclusive rights to purchase iron for themselves, then the metal was resold to other buyers. The iron that was not sold during the fair lay in the warehouse, being used as needed by the iron processing factories of the Nizhny Novgorod region. With the exception of iron and copper, the trade in metals at the Makaryev fair was not very bright. Food products were only basic, traded mainly in fish, bread and wine. More complex culinary products did not enjoy such success.

The large mass of people attracted by the fair has contributed to the growth of the entertainment and entertainment industry within the fair grounds. The original plan for building the fair itself already included a theater building.
The owner of the theater was Prince Shakhovskoy, the troupe was filled with serfs who performed on the stage until the 30s. Every year the theater was visited by the best artists from Moscow and St. Petersburg: Mikhail Shchepkin, Shumsky, Martynova and others. A. N. Ostrovsky visited the fair in 1845, he wrote that the local theater would not yield one iota to the Moscow one.

The middle of the 19th century can be considered a period of upsurge in the activity of the theatre. Concerts were held in the hall in the Main Fair House. Among the speakers was the young M. A. Balakirev, who later became a conductor and composer, the head of the well-known "Mighty Handful".
Since the 1960s, opera and ballet troupes began touring. In 1868, Italian opera singers honored the stage with a visit. They performed the popular "The Barber of Seville". Rigoletto and Faust.
In addition to the theater, the territory of the fair had a circus and many temporary booths.

The First World War, of course, had an economic impact on Nizhny Novgorod Fair. No, the fair was not closed, but the trading season was characterized by a certain recession, the territory of the fair began to receive refugees and combat units. Soldiers and refugees were equipped at the expense of property that was left in empty trading buildings.

The established Soviet power did not touch the fair for some time, but on January 17, 1918, the Nizhny Novgorod Council of Deputies annexed the territory of the fair to Nizhny Novgorod, and the meeting of authorized fair merchants and the fair committee was ordered to dissolve.
The economic policy pursued by the government of the USSR did not allow the functioning of normal trade relations. In 1918, it was supposed to exchange goods only for natural bread, no payments in money. As a result, sales amounted to only 28 million rubles, and one and a half times more goods in monetary terms remained in warehouses. Against 80% of sales in tsarist Russia.

The introduction of the New Economic Policy in the country allowed the fair to quickly gain momentum. Trade was conducted from 1922 to 1929, the trade turnover showed an unprecedented growth to a third of a billion rubles. The fair itself was awarded the status of an all-Union exhibition. The year 1928 brought more than two and a half thousand firms to the fair. The participation of representatives of the Middle East, Afghanistan and China in trade is remarkable.

The fair was last held in 1929. The measures taken to destroy the NEP eliminated the fair as a hostile phenomenon through a decree dated February 6, 1930.

For the next 40 years, the territory of the fair and the buildings located on it were used as ordinary housing. Religious buildings with the exception of two cathedrals were destined to perish. The area was actually turned into a slum.

New trends were destined to appear in the 70s, then they adopted a plan to transfer the city center to the lower part, located on the left bank. The global reconstruction left little of the buildings of the 19th century. More or less, only Aleksandro-Nevskaya Street, renamed Strelka, remained the same. The main fair house got the restructuring, then the "Children's World" was opened there. Who remembers Soviet times, of course, knows what it is.

In the spring of 1990, it was decided to conduct an advertising campaign "Prologue", six months later, the directorate of the fair was created, it was headed by V.V. Bessarab. The new organization was given the name All-Russian CJSC "Nizhny Novgorod Fair", which at that time had an authorized capital of 54,515 thousand rubles.
Today it is a modern exhibition complex, which has everything necessary to hold conferences, exhibitions and congresses. The territory of the fair hosts a customs post. Fair boasts 6 exhibition pavilions, 5 conference halls, the Armorial Hall, which hosts relatively high-ranking guests. The complex includes the Fair Bank, a hotel, several restaurants and cafes, a casino and even a shopping arcade.

Every year, over 60 exhibitions are held to present innovative technologies and various latest developments in the scientific field. Any sphere of human activity can be compared with the corresponding topics of the forum or exhibition. They are dedicated to healthcare and education, information technology and banking, the automotive industry and agriculture, architecture and art, ecology and the defense industry.
Exhibitions on Nizhny Novgorod Fair give the visitor a chance to get acquainted with the latest technologies, compare the quality of Russian and foreign products, take advice from a specialist in a field in which there is a special interest. The fair was provided with the infrastructure necessary for holding such events. There is modern demonstration, communication equipment, as well as communication facilities, therefore a high level of customer service and ensuring decent work for participants in any exhibition project is simply guaranteed. The halls of the Fair are used for events of national and even international importance.

In 2005 Nizhny Novgorod Fair, the only organization throughout the country, took part in another international project. The World Association of the Exhibition Industry was established. At the same time, the Fair is the only Russian exhibition company that is a member of UFI in 2 nominations at once: as an international exhibition complex and as an organizer of international exhibitions.

Now active Nizhny Novgorod Fair owns some national exhibitions in the following countries: Great Britain, Finland, Bulgaria, India, Italy, Germany, France, African countries. Exhibitions organized abroad deservedly received high marks from the international business community, bringing success to the participants in the economic and political spheres.
The Nizhny Novgorod fair is rightfully considered a center of innovation: forums were the first to be held here, combining the congress part with the exposition part.
In 2005 same year Nizhny Novgorod Fair acquired 10 canvases depicting the most famous architectural monuments of the city, which are made in the frame unit art style. The image is composed of a large number of fragments, each of which is a small photograph with dimensions of several centimeters. If you look closely, you can see views from the cities of the region there. The total area of ​​the canvas is more than one and a half hundred square meters, including (!) 100,000 fragments. The creator of the project is photo artist Igor Pshenitsyn. The project was supported by the Governor of the region and the Plenipotentiary of the President in the Volga region.
Historically Nizhny Novgorod Fair all the newest, all the best that is available in the Russian Federation is concentrated, therefore, the exhibition business is predicted here to see unremitting progress of regional and federal significance. Thanks to its Fair Nizhny Novgorod is now open to the whole world, while the Nizhny Novgorod region is now considered an economically profitable region, attractive to investors.

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