Address: Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin, between Dmitrievskaya and Georgievskaya towers
Start of construction: 1508 year
Completion of construction: 1511 year
Coordinates: 56 ° 19'42.5 "N 44 ° 00'26.2" E
Content:
Brief history and description
The round tower, called Porokhovaya, faces the Minin and Pozharsky square. If you move to the left of the Dmitrievskaya tower along the outer side of the fortress wall, then the Powder Tower will be the first on this path.
The name of the building speaks for itself: in the 17th century, a warehouse of gunpowder and cannon ammunition was arranged in the tower. In the scribe's book dated 1621, the Powder Tower is recorded as "Spasskaya round, standing between the St. George's Tower and the Dmitrievsky Gate." Directly behind the Spasskaya tower was the Cathedral of the Transfiguration of the Lord.
View of the tower from the opposite side of Minin and Pozharsky square
This temple was founded by Prince Yuri Vsevolodovich a few years after the construction of the first Nizhny Novgorod fortress. The cathedral was plundered by the hordes of Mamai Tatars, burned down and was rebuilt several times. Before the revolution of 1917, the main shrine of the cathedral church was the icon of the Savior Not Made by Hands, brought in 1352 by Prince Constantine from Suzdal.
In 1930, the Transfiguration Cathedral was blown up and the House of Soviets was built in its place, within the walls of which the city council sits today. Historical documents also mention another name for the Powder Tower - Streletskaya, which comes from the nearby Streletskaya Sloboda, where the archers (infantrymen) settled.
View of the tower from Minin and Pozharsky square
Until the restoration of 1952, the Powder Tower was considered to be three-tier, until researchers discovered the fourth underground tier.... On both sides of the underground room of the lower tier adjoins the walls (walls) equipped with loopholes. Interestingly, lime stalactites had grown on the ceilings of the battle chambers by 1952, as if in a real cave. The lower floors of the Powder Tower, devoid of frontal loopholes, are adapted for caponiers for conducting artillery fire, flanking the approaches to neighboring fortifications. The upper tier has 11 combat windows. In 1621, on the Powder Tower, there were three small-caliber squeaks, firing cannonballs weighing 0.3 kg each.
View of the tower from the walls of the Kremlin
The lower part of the tower shows traces of numerous repairs carried out in 1786 and in the 19th century. In 1975, to the 30th anniversary of the Victory, a memorial plate was installed in the fortress wall between the Powder and Dmitrievskaya towers in memory of the military units formed in the city of Gorky and fought at the front during the Great Patriotic War.
