The current interest in the problem lies in the fact that nowadays the issue of preserving the monuments of cultural and historical heritage has become very relevant. Nizhny Novgorod has a long history as a military fortress dating back as far as 1221. The town has been expanding over the time. The Nizhegorodsky Kremlin gradually became surrounded by the «Posad». They used to call this name trading and craftsmen quarters. People settled all around it to escape and hide inside its walls. In the «quiet times» people settled at a distance from the Kremlin. The part of Nizhny Novgorod Posad located on the opposite side of the Pochaina ravine was settled as early as the 14th century. A lot of craftsmen, traders, coachmen and farmers built their houses and parish churches there at that time [1; 2]. One of the most ancient streets of the town, Ilyinskaya street, for many centuries served as a core complex of the area and became the main constituent of the area plan of Zapochayanie. The street`s image reflects the basic typological features of this area. Zapochayanie is one of the most distinctive areas in the central part of the city from historical, cultural and natural landscape features. That was the reason for choosing the area as the object of the research. Our city has a long history as a military fortress established in the 1220s. Over the time the town has expanded. And it became surrounded by the trading and craftsmen quarters (Posad). People settled all around the area in case of the enemy`s raids to hide inside its walls. When the times were rather quiet the townspeople settled at a distance from the fortress, in the areas on the opposite bank of the bank of the Pochaina river (non-exiting today). The river was enclosed in an underground pipeline. There are 5 the most distinctive local objects we consider: Yamskaya sloboda (Large ravines), Nizhny posad, Milyoshka, Zaryadie, Ilyinskaya merchant`s quarter. The historical and cultural area is bounded by Maslyakov street, Pokhvalinsky ravine, Nizhny Novgorod Annunciation monastery, the Church of St. John the Baptist.
Zapochayanie occupies about tenth of central historic part of the Nizhny Novgorod city area. It is housing almost half of all cultural heritage objects of the city which were included in the list of cultural heritage entities of peoples living in Russia. The complete information of the monuments of architecture, history and structure making up the historical background of the area is given on the map of the historic area. It has preserved its historical and cultural environment, represented not only by separate buildings but the urban development complex as well. It should be noted that it makes a unique phenomenon of Nizhny Novgorod.
Nizhny Novgorod is one of the largest cities in Russia. The Rozhdestvenskaya street has preserved its merchant flavor and profit chasing spirit of a trade center of the city. The largest banks, offices, numberless stores, hotels, restaurants, and merchants` mansions were located there. As the time was passing by the engineering protection and preservation of the territories and the objects was needed. There are many geological processes on any developed area. Some of them become active but unfavorable or even dangerous for the cultural objects and eco system as well. The system of engineering protection is an essential part of the group activities for the management of hazardous natural processes and phenomena [3]. Needless to say that Zapochayanie needed proper engineering and geological studies and effective organization of engineering protection. The tunnels number 1 and 2 were installed to protect the slope from the landslides in the early and mid 1920s. Many skillful engineers such as P.P. Bykov, A.L. Golubev, I.I. Verezubov and professors A.A. Chernov and N.A. Alekseev took an active part in engineering protection of Ilyinskaya sloboda. Needless to say that the role of engineering protection of territories and the buildings was underestimated. Nowadays the situation is improving steadily.
Today the specialists in this field state that engineering protection of areas and buildings should be «oriented not only to protect of the population, but also to protection of ecosystems in a whole. Engineering protection of territories, buildings, and construction objects, along with engineering protection of people against emergencies, as well as engineering environment protection, consists of an essential set of practical safety engineering organizational and environmental activities that allow modern civilization to function normally»[4, p.52].
One of the main features of Zapochayanie is a large number of cultural heritage sites (147) of considerable historical and architectural value. It is very important component of the information system as a whole. The project Ilyinskaya sloboda initiated by the government of the region involved a big amount of restoration work on churches and temples. Almost every structure needed a detailed survey of their constructions and foundations, design of new structural elements and strengthening the existing ones. Within the project they continued the development of a basic historical architectural plan of the area containing all the historical information obtained as a result of historical and archival research, assessment of the built up areas and ground features in terms of their architectural value.
Speaking about the structures dated back as the 17th century it should be stressed that they are worth paying special attention to. «Orthodox churches can be divided into several groups, depending on the differences related with the functional features of the temples, their types, volumetric layout design, wall materials and the capacity»[5, p.103; 6;7]. Less than twenty stone residential merchant houses (palaty) have been preserved. Three of them are in our city: Chatygin`s, Olisov`s and Pushnikov`s. The establishment of the Maryinsky Institute for Noble Maidens (today the building of Nizhny Novgorod University of Architecture and Civil Engineering) was initiated by nobility of the city to mark the marriage of Alexander II. The name to the Institute was given in honor of the tsar’s bride. The project Ilyinskaya sloboda involved a big amount of rehabilitation and restoration work on churches and temples of the area [8; 9]. Almost every building was in need to be surveyed in detail and design new structural elements. Grandiose work has been done on landscaping, leveling and engineering protection of the sites. The golden cupolas of the Zapochayanie churches symbolize the continuity of historical development of the past and future of our city. The square of National Unity became a great recreational spot for the residence and the guests of Nizhny Novgorod.
The tzars of Russia Catherine the Great, Nicolas I, Alexander II paid the attention to the image development of the city. The original planning structure of Zapochayanie (dated back from the end of the XVII th century) was signed by Catherine the Great. The fire happened in 1839 burned down more than 30 houses in Ilyinskaya street, the reconstruction was financed from the state budget by the decree of Nicolas I. The design of the town ensemble was carried out by the famous architect G.I. Kizevetter. This ensemble remains its originality even today. To promote the city sightseeing and attract more visitors to the cultural objects it is essential to create more educational programs and teach more people who are keen on local lore studies and create tourist hematic excursions [10;11;12].
Some features of the Nizhny Novgorod streets (composition of a silhouette, ensembles of the buildings, partitioning of the facades, coloristic harmonies, etc.) give originality to the city. However during architectural and construction activity there is a constant danger of loss the valuable architectural heritage. Development the concepts of «old» and «new» coexistence in city`s architectural appearance in general is possible on the basis of the system analysis to form the shape of its structural elements, in particular such as historical street. Now the new town-planning strategy has been proceeding considering the value of the historical environment and its preservation as an information system, demanding carrying out the policy of «protection of the historical cities» with the measures of protection, preservation, reconstruction, renovation, restoration of heritage, its adaptation to the modern conditions.
The special features to identify the architectural appearance of the historical streets depending on social and economic, town-planning, space-planning, morphological regularities of the city`s development are:
– economic – stratification of society; change of the buildings streets functions; technical progress in processing construction methods; fashion for styles; architectural and construction regulations;
– reflection by the plan of 1769 the irregular picturesque planning of Nizhny Novgorod, by the subsequent plans such as straightening the sections of the streets; reductions of a city framework to regularity at the maximum maintaining of the historical structure of the streets;
– preservation of the central planning kernel of the city – the Kremlin; transformation of metro rhythmic composition of a silhouette of the streets XVII – the middle of the ХХ th centuries to the metric (the composition of a silhouette developed due to the combination of low rise housing construction with religious architecture and it has changed with the loss of dominants);
– presence on the cities` streets the greatest number of historical constructions of the end of the ХIХth century. Due to this fact Ilyinskaya street is an example of the greatest preservation of the environment fragments of that epoch; constructions of the end of the ХVIII th century are present only on the Bolshaya Pokrovskaya and Rozhdestvenskaya streets; new buildings of the end of the XX th – the beginning of the ХХI st centuries mostly on the Belinskaya street; the limited number of such constructions are on the Rozhdestvenskaya street; today the image of the Belinskaya street is being formed by the most dynamic way;
– development of the Nizhny Novgorod architecture had the same tendencies as the Russian architecture in general. Its peculiarities are following: ensemble construction of the XX th -XXI st centuries; transformation of the rhythmic composition of a silhouette to the metric due to the loss of church ensembles and erection on their place 4-5-storey buildings of the 1950s; to standard building of the 1960-80s;copying the architectural forms; search of the additional territories to develop street functions.
People coming to Nizhny Novgorod shouldn`t miss the Rozhdestvenskaya street because many excursions start from this spot and show the historical value and background of the old city. To draw a conclusion, it should be stressed that architectural and cultural heritage of the city of Nizhny Novgorod is a unique reflection of the major events in the social and cultural history of the country. The reconstruction of the territory of Zapochayanie gives ample grounds to consider this site as one of the main tourist attractions. The authors note that such historical objects as Ilyinskaya sloboda should be paid special attention.