Many consider Minin Square the heart of Nizhny Novgorod. It's the historic center, home to many of the city's famous landmarks. Here too is the main entrance to the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin, where the city began to grow in 1221. The city's main pedestrian street, Bolshaya Pokrovskaya, leads to the central square, and this route is devoted to it. On the tour you'll see buildings of different eras and styles, learn intriguing legends and facts about the street, take great photos, and get to know the city.
Oktyabr Cinema
💭🌱 Pause and reflect · 📜 Historic site
Oktyabr Cinema
Points will be available after purchasing the route
City Duma Building
📸 Take photos · 🏟️ Architectural landmark
Point 1
💭🌱 Pause and reflect • 📜 Historic site
In October 1963 residents watched as construction was completed on the Oktyabr (October) cinema, the likes of which had never been seen before: the first widescreen cinema. It was designed by Lyudmila Rozhdestvenskaya, a graduate of the Gorky Institute of Civil Engineering.
The architects gave the cinema the features of modernity: simplicity, elegance, and austerity. It looked like a giant cube. Stained-glass windows and a spacious square in front of the entrance emphasized its solemnity and severity. At the center of the composition they placed large figures of a worker and a collective-farm woman symbolizing progress, as well as a girl with a dove illustrating the striving for peace. The composition was executed in sgraffito, a technique in which the design is scratched into layered plaster. The auditorium seated 710, and the wall in front of it was taken up by a huge screen 7 meters (23 feet) high and 17 meters (56 feet) wide. Eleven stereo speakers were installed behind the screen and on the side walls to make viewers feel they were right in the thick of the action. The first films shown in the new cinema were the widescreen color pictures “The Story of the Flaming Years” and “The Court of the Mad.”
In 2000 the Oktyabr was renovated, but like many other Soviet-era cinemas it ultimately failed to survive the challenges of the new times. No films have been shown there since 2016. A coffee shop, restaurants, and other businesses opened in the building. Many locals still remember watching “I Walk Around Moscow,” “Fantomas,” and other films there.
Point on route “In the Heart of Nizhny”
Point 1
💭🌱 Pause and reflect • 📜 Historic site
In October 1963 residents watched as construction was completed on the Oktyabr (October) cinema, the likes of which had never been seen before: the first widescreen cinema. It was designed by Lyudmila Rozhdestvenskaya, a graduate of the Gorky Institute of Civil Engineering.
The architects gave the cinema the features of modernity: simplicity, elegance, and austerity. It looked like a giant cube. Stained-glass windows and a spacious square in front of the entrance emphasized its solemnity and severity. At the center of the composition they placed large figures of a worker and a collective-farm woman symbolizing progress, as well as a girl with a dove illustrating the striving for peace. The composition was executed in sgraffito, a technique in which the design is scratched into layered plaster. The auditorium seated 710, and the wall in front of it was taken up by a huge screen 7 meters (23 feet) high and 17 meters (56 feet) wide. Eleven stereo speakers were installed behind the screen and on the side walls to make viewers feel they were right in the thick of the action. The first films shown in the new cinema were the widescreen color pictures “The Story of the Flaming Years” and “The Court of the Mad.”
In 2000 the Oktyabr was renovated, but like many other Soviet-era cinemas it ultimately failed to survive the challenges of the new times. No films have been shown there since 2016. A coffee shop, restaurants, and other businesses opened in the building. Many locals still remember watching “I Walk Around Moscow,” “Fantomas,” and other films there.
14 points
2 km
3 hours
