Bolshaya Sovetskaya street crosses the historical center of Smolensk from the north to the south. It goes up from the embankment of the Dnieper to the Victory Square. It is on that street that one can see the most beautiful buildings in the city, as well as some tourist attractions: the embankment of the Dnieper, the Cathedral Hill, the Assumption Cathedral and the Heroes Memory Public Garden.
This was the main street of the city for several centuries. It ran through the entire city from the Dneprovskiye gate to the Molokhovskiye gate so the street itself was called Molokhovskaya. In the Soviet period it was renamed Bolshaya Sovetskaya.
One can start a walk along the street from the embankment of the Dnieper. It is there that one can see a small remaining stretch of the strongest walls, which protected the city on the side of the river, as well as the Dneprovskiye gate. There is a monument to Kutuzov in a small public garden near the Dneprovskiye gate. If one goes up the street, one can see the complex of the buildings of the Bishop’s Court on the Cathedral Hill, as well as the Assumption Cathedral on the top of the hill.
Further up the street one can see the buildings of 19 century and the beginning of 20 century, the complex of the Trinity monastery. Almost all buildings of the street were built in Empire style. Among them one can single out the Book Center, the House with the Clock, the State Bank, and the hotel «Smolensk». It was on this hotel that the red banner was hoisted after the liberation of the city from the German troops in 1943.
