The Oka River divides Nizhny Novgorod into two parts - on the right along its course there are high banks, ravines, the Kremlin and monasteries, one of which, the Annunciation, is clearly visible from the bridge over the river. On the left - the banks are gently sloping, a relatively modern part, the station, the metro, the Gorky Automobile Plant. And the Nizhny Novgorod fair on the Strelka between the Oka and the Volga, which has existed here instead of Makarievskaya since 1817 - then engineer A. A. Betancourt, who had previously built the Moscow Manege, and the architect O. Montferrand, who then designed St. Isaac's Cathedral in St. Petersburg. Then, only temporary pavilions were built on Strelka, and the permanent and stone fair was located somewhat deeper - now the Empire cathedral in the depths of the Khrushchev quarters and, closer to the Oka, the so-called "Main House", for Muscovites most of all similar to GUM, has been preserved - where now they hold various "expo" under the trademark of the Nizhny Novgorod Fair.
The fair began to explore the Strelka space in earnest in the 1860s, when, according to the project of L. V. Dahl, a grandiose five-tent cathedral of Alexander Nevsky was built on it and several streets were laid along the Oka, one Aleksandro-Nevskaya, another Makarievskaya. Then it was the third tallest church in Russia, and the author received the title of professor of the Academy of Arts for him. It was a large-scale and spectacular project, it became a kind of "visiting card" of the city - in a pandan to the Kremlin and in the form of an architectural and town-planning reminder of the Kremlin tent-roofed temple of the early 17th century, where Kuzma Minin is now buried. Later, however, the meaning of the city instead of a fair became a car plant, it grew into new quarters full of monuments of constructivism, and Strelka turned into a cargo port - and ships sailing along the Volga now see mainly port cranes, mostly rusty, and mountains of various cargo, and only later, behind them - a yellowish cathedral.
Now they decided to reconstruct Strelka in order to turn it into a kind of Nizhny Novgorod “City”. Yuri Vissarionov's project is one of the conceptual urban planning proposals for such a reconstruction. In my opinion, it has two advantages: firstly, the project involves a very delicate restoration attitude to the heritage on Strelka, and above all to the cathedral, and secondly, despite this, a rather bold and artistic plan has been proposed for the new development, “wrapped in a radial-beam amphitheater around the cathedral. Usually it is either heritage or bold modern architecture, but here, it seems, both together.
According to Vissarionov's project, it is planned to restore not only the cathedral, but one of the preserved old streets with low-rise buildings: this is the former Alexander Nevskaya, and now Strelka street, which runs along the Oka to the cathedral. Even L. V. Dahlem, this axis was calculated for the perspective with the temple at the vanishing point, later replicated on collectible postcards. Preserving this find, the architects continue her work - they create several completely new rays, fanning out to the cathedral. One of them goes to the very "nose" of the Strelka, which is slightly lengthened by the construction of a congress hall, partially overhanging the water, accentuating the natural sharpening of the cape. In a similar way - in consoles over the river - three other beams are continued, extending from the cathedral to the Volga bank: along them, extended hotel buildings are conceived, the northern parts of which also go beyond the border of the coastline, as if winning additional space for themselves, but in fact - designing a species attraction for hotel visitors.
By the way, there are several different "attractions" with the participation of water, which must be recognized as quite logical, given the location of the complex between two famous rivers. On the Volga there is a yacht club pier, along the Oka there is a park with cafes and restaurants, again "floating", hanging over the river on thin supports. It is planned to dig a pond in front of the western facade of the cathedral, and along the radial rays - channels flowing into it. Thus, in addition to the grid of streets, a duplicate network of canals appears, which saturates the space with water and makes walks pleasant, and also has a curious background.
The fact is that when engineer A. A. Betancourt designed and built the fair in 1817-1822, he arranged a horseshoe-shaped canal around it, taking water from the large Meshcherskoye Lake - in the vicinity historically there were many different inland waters, streams and lakes. Somehow the old fair used this Betancourt Canal, but then, after its reconstruction, at the very end of the 19th century, it was filled up, like most of the streams. The area remained damp, but lost open water. Vissarionov's project "restores justice" by letting water out - his pond turns out to be, if not a direct, then a landmark successor of the Betankurov Canal, however, it will turn out to be a little further north.
In the center of the site, in some places overhanging the pond and canals, a horseshoe-shaped shopping complex is planned - forming a kind of amphitheater surrounding the cathedral from the west. Further from the temple, buildings rise, growing in the south-western corner of the quarter into a group of "dancing" glass skyscrapers - the City itself. As a result, the composition of the theatrical show is built - the semicircular complex turns into a parterre, an artificial reservoir in front of which opens up like an orchestra pit, and all the audience's attention is directed to the stage where the main character - the cathedral - appears against the background of the sky, the park and the confluence of two rivers.
