The view of the Wtga Emb., Kotaya Novgorodskaya St and the raft bridge from over the Volga

Unknown photographer, Late XIX century. Published by V. V. Tver. Joint Venture Granberg. Stockholm, early 1900s. The Collection of TSUM.

On the banks of the Volga one can find a lot of good points for a full-scale viewing of the city. Before 1930s each of the chosen courses was enriched with a certain combination of churches, the plenty of which made a silhouette not to be monotonous and amorphous. We must pay tribute to the town-builders of XVIII century, who understood that wide panorama which united new and traditional features of Russian towns would be better seen from the left bank of the Volga, i. e. from the side of Petersburg entrance.
It looked as if Tver symbolized the connection of two origins which came from the image qualities and visual associations of two capitals - new and ancient. The regularity of planning of the New Time was stressed due to the straight streets and regularity oriented buildings. The numerous temples were not a dissonance at all but inalienable element of harmonious mutual connection. Some of them had another image - ancient Russian one. The said is confirmed by the photo of the central, «Municipal» part of Tver. We see Kosaya Novgorodskaya St. (Volnogo Novgoroda St. now), which has no curls and ups and downs, "a single facade" of embankment and sanctified with the Old Times the Temple of St. Ilya, which was put like a precious stone in architectural frame of the second half of XVIII century.