(Source: http://www.photogorky.ru/photo/192869)

Balakhna is hiding on the banks of Volga 34 km away from Nizhny Novgorod. Compared with the city where life rages, Balakhna seems to be asleep under a layer of a strong provincial web. Dense forests surrounding the town muffle the signals of civilization.

Balakhna is one of many ancient Russian cities which draw attention due to loud occasions like anniversaries, for example, the 400th anniversary of the events of 1612.

The city is famous, first of all, for being the birthplace of Kuzma Minin, one of the leaders of the People’s Militia in Nizhny Novgorod that saved the Motherland. And the village of Yurino neighboring Balakhna was the patrimony of another militia hero - Prince Pozharsky.

The brand crafts of Balakhna were burning bricks and coloring tiles. If you remember that Balakhna tiles adorn the St. Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow, then you will have a different view at a stove in the museum, and the decorations on the ancient Church of the Savior (XVI-XVII centuries.).

Once there were many churches in rich Balakhna, all of them extremely beautiful. Now some of them are destroyed, others disguise themselves as non-ceremonial buildings. The survived ones include the huge Church of the Nativity, the Holy Trinity Cemetery Church (XVIII century), the Church of the Resurrection (which is now the building of the printing house), former Pokrovsky Monastery (currently a museum), the Church of Boris and Gleb (nowadays “Vostok” cinema), the Church of Cosmas and Damian and the Sign (now the workshops of “Moloko” OJSC), the Cathedral of Elijah the Prophet (currently the District Culture Centre), the Church of Meeting of the Lord and the already mentioned Nikolskaya and Spasskaya churches.

In Balakhna you can walk from the Lace Museum to the Museum of Minin, then to the estate of the rich shipbuilder Khudyakov and so on. And you can just wander along the embankment of the Volga River – it is called Naberezhnaya (“Embankment”) Street - looking at the stone houses-palaces of the Balakhna merchants and churches that were built on their money.

Local Pcularities

The residents of Balakhna say that local lace are superior to the main European “competitor” - Belgian lace – in its quality and complexity of performance. The products of modern Balakhna masters can be purchased at the Museum of Lace (12 Sovetskaya Square).

The Day of the Town falls to the first weekend of September. It is celebrated extensively: they organize “The Street of Masters”, the fair of organic products called “Gifts of Nature”, children’s camps, concerts, amusement rides and fireworks.