Balakhna is a town and the administrative center of Balakhninsky District

Balakhninsky District

Balakhninsky District is an administrative and municipal district , one of the 47 in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Russia. Its administrative centre is the town of Balakhna....

 of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast

Nizhny Novgorod Oblast

Nizhny Novgorod Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Nizhny Novgorod. Population: The oblast is crossed by the Volga River. Apart from Nizhny Novgorod's metropolitan area, the biggest city is Arzamas...

, Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

, located on the right bank of the Volga River

Volga River

The Volga is the largest river in Europe in terms of length, discharge, and watershed. It flows through central Russia, and is widely viewed as the national river of Russia. Out of the twenty largest cities of Russia, eleven, including the capital Moscow, are situated in the Volga's drainage...

, 32 kilometres (19.9 mi) north of Nizhny Novgorod

Nizhny Novgorod

Nizhny Novgorod , colloquially shortened to Nizhny, is, with the population of 1,250,615, the fifth largest city in Russia, ranking after Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, and Yekaterinburg...

. Population: 33,500 (1968).

Overview

Balakhna was founded in 1474 as Sol-na-Gorodtse . After the Khan of Kazan

Khanate of Kazan

The Khanate of Kazan was a medieval Tatar state which occupied the territory of former Volga Bulgaria between 1438 and 1552. Its khans were the patrilineal descendants of Toqa Temür, the thirteenth son of Jochi and grandson of Genghis Khan. The khanate covered contemporary Tatarstan, Mari El,...

 razed it to the ground in 1536, a wooden fort was constructed to protect the settlement against further Tatar incursions. For the following three centuries, Balakhna prospered as a center of saltworks and grain

GRAIN

GRAIN is a small international non-profit organisation that works to support small farmers and social movements in their struggles for community-controlled and biodiversity-based food systems. Our support takes the form of independent research and analysis, networking at local, regional and...

 trade. By the Time of Troubles

Time of Troubles

The Time of Troubles was a period of Russian history comprising the years of interregnum between the death of the last Russian Tsar of the Rurik Dynasty, Feodor Ivanovich, in 1598, and the establishment of the Romanov Dynasty in 1613. In 1601-1603, Russia suffered a famine that killed one-third...

, it was the 12th largest city in Russia.

Adam Olearius

Adam Olearius

Adam Olearius , born Adam Ölschläger or Oehlschlaeger, was a German scholar, mathematician, geographer and librarian...

 visited and described the town in 1636. That year several shipwrights from Holstein

Holstein

Holstein is the region between the rivers Elbe and Eider. It is part of Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost state of Germany....

 built the first Russian ships here, thus establishing Balakhna as a foremost center of national river shipbuilding. The people of Balakhna were also reputed for their skills in knitting and making colored tiles, which were used for decoration of the Savior Church (1668) and other local temples. Balakhna is one of the few Russian cities shown on the 1689 Amsterdam World Map (labeled Balaghna).

The oldest structure in the city (and in the whole region) is the tentlike church

Tented roof

A tented roof is a type of roof widely used in 16th and 17th century Russian architecture for churches. It is like a polygonal spire but differs in purpose in that it is typically used to roof the main internal space of a church, rather than an auxiliary structure...

 of St Nicholas (1552). Of all the tentlike churches built in brick, this is the nearest approach to their wooden prototypes. Another handsome church, dating from the 17th century, houses a municipal museum. The Nativity church (1675) represents an archaic monumental type of monastery cathedral. Nearby is a statue of Kuzma Minin, who was born in Balakhna.

The northwestern part of Balakhna is known as Pravdinsk

Pravdinsk, Balakhna

Pravdinsk was an urban-type settlement in Balakhninsky District of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, located a few kilometers northwest from the town of Balakhna. Pravdinsk was annexed by the town of Balakhna in 1993, although the name continues in informal usage...

, and it used to be a separate urban-type settlement

Urban-type settlement

Urban-type settlement ; , selyshche mis'koho typu ) is an official designation for a type of locality used in some of the countries of the former Soviet Union...

 before it was annexed to Balakhna. The settlement was named after the Moscow Pravda

Pravda

Pravda was a leading newspaper of the Soviet Union and an official organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party between 1912 and 1991....

 newspaper, which at some point may have been the largest consumer of newsprint

Newsprint

Newsprint is a low-cost, non-archival paper most commonly used to print newspapers, and other publications and advertising material. It usually has an off-white cast and distinctive feel. It is designed for use in printing presses that employ a long web of paper rather than individual sheets of...

 produced at the local paper mill

Paper mill

A paper mill is a factory devoted to making paper from vegetable fibres such as wood pulp, old rags and other ingredients using a Fourdrinier machine or other type of paper machine.- History :...

. A few kilometers further west, near the village of Istomino, is the Istomino Airfield, formerly known as the Pravdinsk Air Base

Pravdinsk (air base)

Pravdinsk Air Base was an air base in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Russia located 5 km northwest of Balakhna and 38 km northwest of Nizhny Novgorod . It was named after the nearby town of Pravdinsk which has since been annexed by Balakhna....

.

External links

History and monuments of Balakhna