This is the city's central square, and most of the city festivals, Victory Day, Day of the City, and folklore festivals, are held here. Several busy streets cross the square, so it is crowded during the day. Nevertheless, the square is quite picturesque, and many people enjoy sitting on benches in the parks surrounding it. The monument to Kuzma Minin adorns the park on the left of the Dmitrovskaia Tower.
The Nizhni Novgorod Teacher's Training Institute is situated in the former Seminary building where Nikolai Dobroliubov, a famous Russian literary critic, studied. The institute's main building was part of the former gymnasium (architect A. Leer built in the 1830s), when Lenin's father, I.N. Ulianov, worked and lived with his family from 1863 to 1869 (Ulianov Street, l).
The history and philology departments of the Nizhni Novgorod State University and the Boys' Choral School are in a building which previously served as a hotel where Aleksander Pushkin, Russia's greatest poet, stayed in 1833. Many kiosks selling various goods operate on the square. Opposite the Dmitrovskaia Tower you may buy flowers during the day and in the early evening.