Time and Old Iron Structures in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, by Roberto Conte

05/02/2018. [Nizhny Novgorod - Strelka] Russia
metalocus, JORGE FERRER

This threatened constructions on the Volga bank in Nizhny Novgorod are a unique monument of Russian engineering from the last third of the 19th century.

December 2017, series Nizhny Novgorod. Photograph © Roberto Conte

December 2017, series Nizhny Novgorod. Photograph © Roberto Conte

January 2018. Photograph © Zoya Ryurikova

Bird-eye view of the 1882 exhibition grounds. Plate from the book «All-Russian Art and Industrial Exhibition in Moscow, 1882», published by Hermann Hoppe. Courtesy of Open Strelka.

Main entrance of the manufactory department at the 1896 exhibition. Plate from the book «All-Russian Art and Industrial Exhibition of 1896 in Nizhny Novgorod», published by Hermann Hoppe. Engraved by V.K. Seipel after a photo by M. P. Dimitriev. Courtesy of Open Strelka.

Interior of a pavilion of the main building at the exhibition of 1896. Plate from the book “All-Russian Art and Industrial Exhibition in Nizhny Novgorod, 1896”, published by photographers’ firm “Scherer Nabholz & Co.” Courtesy of Open Strelka.

Façade of the main entrance of the exhibition of 1882. Plate from the book “All-Russian Industrial and Art Exhibition of 1882 in Moscow”, published by photographers’ firm “Scherer Nabholz & Co.” Courtesy of Open Strelka.

Main building at the exhibition of 1896. Plate from the book “All-Russian Art and Industrial Exhibition in Nizhny Novgorod, 1896”, published by photographers’ firm “Scherer Nabholz & Co.” Courtesy of Open Strelka.

Postcard with a view of a wharf at the Strelka in Nizhny Novgorod (1896-1917) by the photographer and publisher Vasily Breyev. Courtesy of Open Strelka.

These iron structures are fragments of the central pavilion of two national exhibitions, designed by engineers Hermann von Pauker and Ivan Vyshnegradsky, and are currently a restricted industrial area. Italian photographer Roberto Conte’s shots series to Nizhny Novgorod captures these extraordinary visions of monuments of engineering and architecture threatened by the impending FIFA World Cup.

Description of project by Marina Ignatushko (journalist and leader of the "Open Strelka" association in Nizhny Novgorod), translated from Russian to English by Nina Frolova

Threatened constructions on the Volga bank in Nizhny Novgorod are a unique monument of Russian engineering from the last third of the 19^th century. It was then that edifices with iron framework became widespread, and their openwork pattern, material, riveted joints turned into a symbol of progress. These constructions are the frame of packhouses in the former cargo port at the Strelka, the confluence of the major Russian rivers Oka and Volga. But they were not created specifically for these warehouses: their origin is linked to two All-Russian exhibitions: the 15^th All-Russian Industrial and Art Exhibition of 1882 in Moscow and the 16^th All-Russian Industrial and Art Exhibition of 1896 in Nizhny Novgorod, the landmark events in the national history.

These metal structures are fragments of the central pavilion of these two exhibitions, designed by the engineers Hermann von Pauker and Ivan Vyshnegradsky (it has been taken to pieces in 1882 and reassembled in 1896). Following the exhibition of 1896, the pavilion was dismantled, its framework was sold part by part. For more than a hundred years some of these parts had been a frame of packhouses: first at the Nizhny Novgorod Fair’s wharves, later in the port built during the Soviet period at the Strelka, a restricted industrial area then.

Only in 2015, at the start of the Strelka’s renovation in preparation for the 2018 FIFA World Cup (a new stadium has been built there), the architectural community discovered the origin and the significance of these metal structures. They managed to secure their preservation and obtain the state protection for them. However, during the planning of the Strelka’s landscaping for the World Cup the authorities decided to dismantle the packhouses, leaving their historical framework without its envelope and any conservation. At the same time, the port’s and the Nizhny Novgorod Fair’s layout was destroyed in order to create new parking lots and driveways for football fans.

At the moment the fate of the 19^th century openwork iron frame is uncertain, despite the hypothesis by Professor Tatyana Vinogradova that these structures were – first in Russia – created specifically for the gigantic exhibition building.