Nizhny Novgorod Fair
The exact date of the appearance of the Nizhny Novgorod Fair has not been established, since trade on the Volga has been conducted for a long time. It is known that the fair already existed in the first half of the XVII century. In 1666 merchants came to the fair not only from all over Russia, but from abroad. The fair lasted for two weeks. By the end of the XVII century, goods worth 30 million rubles were brought to the fair.
The fair was located on the opposite coast of the Volga and the village of Lyskovo. The structure of the fair was temporary – there were wooden booths, shops, inns. In the middle of the XVIII century it was decided to replace wooden buildings with stone ones. On August 16, 1816, there was a fire that destroyed the Gostiniy Dvor along with the booths. Money was allocated from the treasury for the repair and construction of new buildings. The trade was opened in the new stone Gostiniy Dvor on July 15, 1822. The fair lasted more than a month: from July 15 to August 25. But the most stormy trade began in August and lasted until the beginning of September.
The real flourishing of the fair occurred after the opening of the Mykolaiv railway. Thanks to the fair, shipping flourished, the Moscow Highway was laid.