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Body of British tech billionaire Mike Lynch recovered off the coast of Sicily

Lynch’s superyacht, the bayesian, sank after being hit by a waterspout..

By Gaby Del Valle , a policy reporter. Her past work has focused on immigration politics, border surveillance technologies, and the rise of the New Right.

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Five Bodies Retrieved From Mike Lynch Yacht as Search Continues

The body of billionaire tech mogul Mike Lynch was recovered off the coast of Sicily, the Italian Coast Guard announced on Thursday. Lynch’s 184-foot superyacht, the Bayesian, sunk on August 19th, reportedly after being hit by a tornado over the water, called a waterspout. The yacht sank quickly, according to reports, even though its manufacturer claimed it was unsinkable.

Lynch was on the yacht with family and friends celebrating his acquittal on fraud charges in June. HP, which bought Lynch’s company, Autonomy, for $11 billion in 2011, had alleged “accounting improprieties” that misrepresented Autonomy’s value. In an interview with the BBC — the only broadcast interview before the yacht sank — Lynch said his wealth helped him deal with the decade-long legal battle.

The yacht was hit by a waterspout around 4AM local time, according to news reports . Fifteen people — including a baby — managed to escape on a life raft and were rescued by the crew of the Sir Robert Baden Powell, a Dutch ship that was anchored nearby. “They were all under shock,” Karsten Börner, the captain of the Sir Robert, told The New York Times .

Five other bodies were recovered, including that of Christopher Morvillo, one of the attorneys who defended Lynch in the HP trial. Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter, Hannah, is still unaccounted for.

Investigators are looking into why the Bayesian sank when other boats, including a nearby sailboat, were largely unaffected, The Associated Press reports. Börner, the Sir Robert’s captain, told AP that his ship also sustained minimal damage. 

Giovanni Costantino, the CEO of the Italian Sea Group — the company that owns the Bayesian’s manufacturer — described Lynch’s yacht as “one of the safest boats in the world” and said the accident likely occurred because the crew didn’t follow basic safety procedures. 

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Search Resumes for British Mogul and 5 Others After Yacht Sinks Off Sicily

The body of the vessel’s cook was recovered while divers searched the hull of the Bayesian for passengers, including the tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch.

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By Elisabetta Povoledo

Deep-sea divers with Italy’s firefighter corps resumed their search on Tuesday for six missing passengers — including a British software mogul and his daughter — of a yacht that sank off the coast of Sicily the previous day.

Twenty-two people were on board the 180-foot British-flagged sailing yacht, the Bayesian, which was anchored near the port of Porticello, when it was hit by what witnesses described as a waterspout, a small tornado on water, during a sudden and violent storm.

Fifteen people who managed to get to a raft were rescued by the captain of a nearby sailing cruise ship. The body of the yacht’s cook, identified by news outlets as Recaldo Thomas, a Canadian Antiguan, was recovered on Monday. But several people are still unaccounted for, according to Salvatore Cocina, an official with Sicily’s civil protection agency.

Those still missing are Mike Lynch, a British technology entrepreneur; his daughter Hannah; Jonathan Bloomer, chairman of Morgan Stanley International; his wife, Judy Bloomer; Christopher J. Morvillo, a lawyer at Clifford Chance; and his wife, Neda Morvillo.

Mr. Lynch was acquitted of fraud in a U.S. trial in June, ending a high-profile, decadelong legal battle against accusations that he had defrauded Hewlett-Packard when he sold his company, Autonomy, to Hewlett for $11 billion.

Mr. Lynch and the others went missing days after Mr. Lynch’s co-defendant at the fraud trial, Stephen Chamberlain, a former vice president of finance at Autonomy, was fatally struck by a car on Saturday while out for a run, his lawyer, Gary S. Lincenberg, said in a statement.

Prosecutors in the Italian city of Termini Imerese, east of where the yacht sank, are opening a formal investigation into the yacht’s sinking. Reached by telephone, the chief prosecutor declined to comment.

The search for the missing passengers began on Monday but was suspended late that night as crews found themselves limited to the bridge deck and items like furnishings “obstructing passage,” the firefighters’ corps wrote on social media .

When divers resumed the search on Tuesday, ships trawled the waters near the site, the corps said in a statement. The Italian Coast Guard also said in a statement that search operations were “continuing unabated,” with the deployment of helicopters. There was no evidence that gasoline was leaking from the yacht, the Coast Guard said.

The yacht was lying on its right side in about 165 feet of water, meaning that divers, working in pairs, could stay underwater for only about 12 minutes at a time, said Luca Cari, a spokesman for the firefighters’ corps.

Divers were seeking a safe point of access to the vessel’s cabins. “Obviously, everything fell and the space is very tight,” Mr. Cari said, adding that the divers were having to remove obstacles, like furnishings and electrical wiring, that were “completely blocking passages.”

The firefighters’ corps said in a statement that it was impossible to verify whether people were inside the hull.

Mr. Cari said that several divers had been part of the search-and-rescue operations when the Costa Concordia, a cruise liner, capsized off the Tuscan island of Giglio in 2012, killing 32 people. It is considered one of the worst maritime disasters in modern Italian history.

“It’s like the Costa Concordia, but much smaller,” Mr. Cari said in a telephone interview, comparing the search operations. “In the Costa Concordia, we came across many obstacles but we somehow were able to overcome them. Here, the obstacles block the passages and have to be removed.” He added, “This makes it more difficult.”

Crews were also trying to raise the yacht, which experts will examine to try to determine why it sank. Until then, experts can only hypothesize what happened.

Karsten Borner, the captain of a ship, the Sir Robert Baden Powell, which picked up the Bayesian’s 15 survivors, said in an interview that when the wind picked up around 4 a.m. Monday, the Bayesian was about 490 feet behind his vessel. Once the wind wound down, he said, he could not see the yacht anymore.

“My theory was that she was capsized first and then went down over the stern,” Mr. Borner said.

Dario Boote, a ship structures and naval architecture professor at the University of Genoa, said: “Now I imagine that a whole series of lawsuits will be triggered, obviously to ascertain whether there is any responsibility, as always happens very unpleasantly in these situations.” He said, however, that in this case, responsibility might be hard to determine. “Clearly, only once the wreck is raised will we know more,” he added.

Several fishermen told Italian news outlets that they had witnessed a waterspout. Peter Inness, a meteorologist at the University of Reading, said they were relatively common in the Mediterranean, though their occurrence and intensity are unpredictable.

“Until one actually forms, you can’t start telling people where it is,” Mr. Inness said, or “how to get out of the way.”

The inclement weather — with lightning intermittently streaking through the sky — made it hard to know exactly why the yacht sank. Col. Attilio Di Diodato, director of the Italian Air Force’s Center for Aerospace Meteorology and Climatology, said the agency had registered intense lightning activity and strong gusts of wind in the area at the time the boat sank.

The Bayesian had one of the tallest aluminum masts in the world, according to its builder, Perini Navi. “Having a tall aluminum mast would not make it the safest port to be in case of a storm,” said Andrea Ratti, associate professor of nautical design and architecture technology the Politecnico di Milano. The type of intensity unleashed by a violent lightning storm “could have created a significant shock wave,” he added.

He, too, cautioned that “a lot of questions will remain until we have other elements at our disposal.”

Modern yachts are built to withstand meteorological events of reasonable intensity, and all international naval registers suggest that new ships be designed for higher waves and more frequent and extreme weather events.

But “this seems a case of an unreasonable extreme event,” said Emilio Fortunato Campana, an expert in Naval Hydrodynamics at Italy’s National Research Council. “In that case, no ship is 100 percent safe,” he added. “I think the Titanic showed that nothing is unsinkable.”

Elisabetta Povoledo is a reporter based in Rome, covering Italy, the Vatican and the culture of the region. She has been a journalist for 35 years. More about Elisabetta Povoledo

  • Travel Updates

Billionaire tech tycoon Mike Lynch among six missing as superyacht sinks

The captain of the Bayesian superyacht which sank off the coast of Sicily with billionaire owner Mike Lynch on board has broken his silence.

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The captain of the Bayesian superyacht has broken his silence after the vessel sank off the coast of Sicily.

The luxury yacht was hit by a tornado yesterday off the coast of Sicily at about 5am local time.

Six people are missing including the boat’s owner, billionaire tech tycoon Mike Lynch , 59, and his daughter, Hannah, 18.

It is feared some people became trapped in their cabins.

Restaurant battered by Sicily storm that sank luxury superyacht

Captain speaks out

The $27 million Bayesian sank when its vast mast collapsed and the vessel capsized.

The ship’s captain James Calfield, 51, spoke from hospital yesterday and said had no idea the tornado was coming towards the ship.

“We didn’t see it coming,” he told La Repubblica.

Some 22 horrified passengers, made up of passengers and staff, screamed in fear as the boat flipped over.

Fifteen people were rescued, six are missing and one has already been found dead – understood to be the yacht’s cook.

A source close to the recovery operation also told AFP divers who recovered the first body had seen one of the missing six trapped inside the sunken vessel.

Specialist cave divers and their equipment were flown to Sicily to access the confined spaces of the wreck.

Legal battle

The passengers on board were celebrating Mr Lynch’s recent acquittal in a fraud trial, according to British newspaper The Telegraph .

British billionaire Mike Lynch is among six missing. Picture: AFP

The billionaire entrepreneur sold his tech firm Autonomy to US computing giant Hewlett-Packard for $US11 billion ($16b) in 2011, but a lengthy legal battle followed as he was accused of inflating the value of the company.

A San Francisco jury acquitted Mr Lynch, who has been dubbed “Britain’s Bill Gates”, in June.

The guests on the doomed superyacht included staff from the legal firm Clifford Chance and Mr Lynch’s company Invoke Capital, the newspaper reported.

Morgan Stanley International chairman Jonathan Bloomer, 70, is also among the missing people, according to British newspaper The Times.

Double tragedy as co-defendant dies in England

Eerily, Mr Lynch’s co-defendant in the fraud trial, Stephen Chamberlain, died after being hit by a car over the weekend. He had also been acquitted of all charges in June.

Mr Chamberlain was hit by a car on Saturday, local time, in Cambridgeshire and taken to hospital where he later died.

He was Autonomy’s vice president of finance before he left the company in 2012.

A source told The Telegraph : “Our dear client and friend Steve Chamberlain was fatally struck by a car on Saturday while out running.

“He was a courageous man with unparalleled integrity, and we deeply miss him. He fought successfully to clear his good name, which lives on through his wonderful family.”

The Sun understands he was taken off life support on Sunday, just hours before the yacht sank.

Stephen Chamberlain was involved in a fraud case in the US which concluded this year.

Mr Lynch told British newspaper The Times in July that he himself had “various medical things that would have made it difficult to survive” in an American prison.

“It’s bizarre, but now you have a second life. The question is, what do you want to do with it?” he said, speaking about the verdict.

Despite the acquittal, the fraud case is not closed, international news agency AFP reports.

In 2022, London’s High Court ruled in a civil fraud case that HP had been duped and had overpaid for Autonomy.

The court has yet to rule on the billions of dollars in damages claimed by the American group.

Also sued by HP, Autonomy’s former chief financial officer Sushovan Hussain was found guilty of fraud in 2018 by a US jury, with Hussain jailed for five years.

Mike Lynch and wife Angela Bacares, who was rescued.

Luxury superyacht sinks

The 56-metre-long, $320,000-a-week vessel was struck by a sudden storm while moored off the coast of Porticello, east of Palermo.

Mr Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares, is among 15 people who have been rescued.

Three other Brits, two Americans, and one Canadian are among the remaining six missing.

An expert team of divers have already been able to locate the vessel 48 metres below the water on the seabed.

Almost all of the 22 passengers and crew on-board are said to have been inside their cabins and rooms when the weather took a turn.

A one-year-old British girl was rescued by her mum in the sea after the boat sank, before they were rushed to hospital.

Her mother Charlotte Golunski spoke about the frantic rescue, telling Giornale di Sicilia : “For two seconds I lost the baby in the sea, then I immediately hugged her again amid the fury of the waves.

“I held her tightly, close to me, while the sea was stormy. Many were screaming.

“Luckily the lifeboat inflated and 11 of us managed to get on board.”

The father was also on-board at the time of the horror ordeal.

Ms Golunski managed to swim over to one of the rafts where she and her daughter were taken to safety along with 11 others.

One person is dead after the superyacht with 22 people aboard sank during a sudden storm. Picture: Igor Petyx/ANSA/AFP

Camper & Nicholsons, the managers of the yacht, said in a statement that they were “assisting with the ongoing search” for the missing people.

“The boat was all lit up. Around 4:30am, it was no longer there,” said one witness cited by ANSA.

“A beautiful boat where there was a party. A normal joyous vacation day at sea turned into tragedy”.

Karsten Borner, the captain of another yacht anchored nearby at the time of the storm, said there was a “very strong hurricane gust” and he had to battle to keep his vessel steady.

All of a sudden “we noticed that the ship behind us was gone”, he told journalists in Porticello.

“We found this life raft … with a little baby, and the wife of the owner,” he said.

Fisherman Fabio Cefalu said he and other fishermen rushed to help after seeing a distress flare go up.

“But we didn’t find anyone in the sea, we only found cushions and the remains of the boat,” he told AFP.

A file photo of the 'Bayesian' sailing boat, in Palermo, Sicily, Italy. Picture: Perini Navi Press Office/EPA/AAP

Tech billionaire among those feared dead

Originally from Suffolk in east England, Mr Lynch was a former adviser to two British prime ministers and once a star entrepreneur who seemed to represent a rare tech British success story.

The businessman has a fortune of £500 million ($965 million) according to the latest Sunday Times “Rich List”, and owes his fame to his software firm Autonomy which he sold to Hewlett-Packard for $US11 billion ($16 billion) in 2011.

He founded the company in 1996 in Cambridge, where he earned his doctorate, and turned it into a leading British tech firm.

But just one year after the mega-deal, HP reported a writedown of $US8.8 billion ($13 billion) – including more than $US5 billion ($7.4 billion) it attributed to inflated data from Autonomy – plunging Mr Lynch into a decade-long fraud scandal.

Prosecutors accused him of taking part in a massive scheme as Autonomy’s chief executive to deceive HP by pumping up his company’s value before its sale.

Mr Lynch was extradited from Britain to the US in 2023 to stand trial, facing two decades in jail if convicted of the 17 charges and spending the year in house arrest.

But in June he was acquitted on all charges.

An ambulance near the harbour where a search for missing passengers continues. Picture: Vincenzo Pepe/Getty Images

“I am looking forward to returning to the UK and getting back to what I love most: my family and innovating in my field,” Mr Lynch said after the verdict was handed down in a San Francisco court.

Mr Lynch – who made around $US 815 million ($1.2 billion) from the Autonomy sale – always denied the fraud charges, accusing HP of making him a scapegoat for its own failings.

After returning to the UK, Lynch told The Times newspaper in July he had “various medical things that would have made it difficult to survive” in an American prison.

“It’s bizarre, but now you have a second life. The question is, what do you want to do with it?.” he told the publication after his acquittal.

More Coverage

billionaire bash yacht owner

Father of two daughters aged 18 and 21, and a dog lover – owning two dachshunds and four sheepdogs – Mr Lynch has a home in the affluent London district of Chelsea, according to the newspaper, as well as owning a farm in Suffolk.

A spokeswoman for Mr Lynch declined to comment when contacted by AFP.

— with AFP

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Mike Lynch: British entrepreneur missing after Bayesian yacht sinks off Sicilian coast

Sky News understands the yacht is owned by the family of Mr Lynch, a tycoon mathematician who has been called the UK's first tech billionaire and the British Bill Gates.

Tuesday 20 August 2024 01:04, UK

billionaire bash yacht owner

British tech billionaire Mike Lynch is missing off Sicily's coast after a yacht sank.

One person is dead and six others are missing after a UK-flagged superyacht named Bayesian sank off the coast of Sicily in a storm .

Follow live: Superyacht sinks latest

Local media reports that Mr Lynch's 18-year-old daughter is among those missing - while his wife Angela Bacares is confirmed to be among the 15 people who were rescued.

Sky News also understands the yacht - which is believed to have been named after a mathematical equation - is owned by the family of Mr Lynch.

A recently freed man

It comes just weeks after Mr Lynch, 59, was in June cleared of all charges by a US jury in the high-profile fraud case related to the sale of his software company Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard (HP) in 2011.

Read more: Lynch's co-defendant dies after being hit by car days before yacht sinking We can learn from Lynch's extradition and unsuccessful prosecution

He had been accused of conspiracy and attempted fraud over the £8.3bn sale to HP - a deal that had been subject to costly legal action since. For more than a year he remained under house arrest while awaiting trial and spent a night in custody.

Politicians and business leaders alike protested vehemently at his extradition to the US to face charges arguing that, if there was a case to be heard, it should be heard in the UK as Autonomy was a UK-listed, UK-regulated and UK-audited company.

billionaire bash yacht owner

It was the biggest tech takeover of a FTSE 100 firm at the time - but HP wrote down £5.5bn of Autonomy's value within a year, claiming revenue streams were inflated.

A mathematician who specialised in probability, he would have been aware of the odds being stacked against him in the US trial. The vast majority of defendants agree to plead guilty to a lesser sentence.

Analysis by the Pew Research Centre thinktank suggested that, in 2022, just 0.4% of defendants in US federal criminal cases went to trial and were acquitted. Had he been convicted, he could have faced 20 years in jail.

Danny Fortson, US West Coast correspondent for The Sunday Times, who interviewed Mr Lynch just over a month ago told Sky News that after being found not guilty, the tycoon said he had been given a "second life".

billionaire bash yacht owner

"When I met him... the thing that struck me was he was in a state of shock," Mr Fortson said. "He was fighting fraud charges that threatened to put him in jail for the rest of his life for more than a decade, and he won against all the odds.

"He kept saying: 'I have a second life, I have a new lease of life' and 'I have won my freedom, and now I have got to figure out what to do with the rest of my life'.

"He was in a state of shock and real gratitude that he had put this huge case that had hung over his head behind him."

billionaire bash yacht owner

During his house arrest, My Lynch only had the company of a sheepdog called Faucet, who, Mr Fortson said, was almost "surgically attached" to the mathematician as they spent 24 hours a day together for more than a year.

"The dog was very protective of him and he obviously loved the dog very much," Mr Fortson said.

While he won the US case Mr Lynch did lose a multi-billion pound fraud action brought to the High Court by HP.

It found that HP had "substantially" succeeded in its civil case but indicated that the firm would get considerably less than the $5bn (£3.7bn) it had sought in damages.

Who is Mike Lynch?

The Serious Fraud Office looked into the acquisition but in 2015 dropped its investigation .

As a serial entrepreneur, Ilford-born Mr Lynch has been described as the British Bill Gates and the UK's first tech billionaire.

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Mike Lynch became Britain's first tech billionaire when Autonomy, the software company he founded, floated on the stock market 16 years ago.

His firefighter father was from County Cork and his mother was a nurse from County Tipperary in Ireland.

In 2023, The Sunday Times rich list valued him and his wife at £852m.

Ms Bacares is confirmed as being among the rescued.

He co-founded cyber-security business Darktrace, another former FTSE 100 company. But his connections to the company, at a time when he was facing serious charges, depressed its share price and made it vulnerable to a US private equity company takeover, Mr Lynch said.

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billionaire bash yacht owner

This prediction was proved right in April when US private equity firm Thoma Bravo agreed to a £4.2bn takeover of Darktrace.

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Inside the luxury £30m yacht that sank in Italy with billionaire Mike Lynch on board

Inside the luxury £30m yacht that sank in Italy with billionaire Mike Lynch on board

The bayesian yacht that sank off the coast of sicily on monday was once one of the most luxurious vessels in the world.

Joshua Nair

Joshua Nair

The luxurious yacht that sank off the coast of Sicily on Monday was once a multi-award winner for its sharp interior design.

In the early hours of Monday (19 August) morning, the sailing ship known as the Bayesian capsized and sank when a storm hit the coast of Sicily.

At the time, it was carrying 12 passengers along with 10 crew members.

It has been confirmed this morning that five of the six missing bodies have been recovered, including that of British billionaire Mike Lynch, 69 .

The Bayesian (left), which capsized and sunk off the coast of Sicily in bad weather. (Fabio La Bianca/PA)

Chef Recaldo Thomas has also been confirmed dead, as only 15 of the 22 passengers made it onto a lifeboat before being discovered by a fellow ship.

The 184 feet (56 metre) superyacht was sold to Dutch real estate developer John Groenewoud for almost $40 million (£30.4 million), before being bought by Lynch's wife, Angela Bescares, who survived on Monday, for around £27 million in 2014.

Previously called Salute, the vessel was British -flagged and boasted the tallest aluminium mast in the world when it was built in 2008, which stood at 72 metres, winning it the award of 'best exterior styling' at the 2009 World Superyacht Awards, according to The Telegraph.

The stunning interior included a number of sleek, luxurious furnishings created by Remi Tessier, a yacht design specialist.

This also earned the vessel a number of awards, having received acclaim through its masterfully designed master bedroom, three double and two twin bedrooms, which accommodated 12 guests.

The superyacht had dark wood furnishings that were complimented by beige sofas and a deck that featured a large canvas to keep guests cool while at sea in the summer.

There were more intricate details onboard too, with thin brown pillars and intricate terracotta sculptures adding some Japanese culture to the ship's styling.

The Bayesian went on to win best interior at the International Superyacht Society Awards in 2008, while also being voted as one of the best large sailing yachts at the 2009 World Superyacht Awards.

Currently owned by Revtom, a company that lists Bacares as its legal owner, the yacht's name comes from a statistical model called 'Bayesian', which helps financial investors calculate risk.

This was Lynch's Ph.D. subject, which would help him to build his multi-billion pound empire in the future.

Operated by Camper & Nicholsons, the superyacht had twin 965 break horsepower engines, which has a range of 3,600 nautical miles at around 14-17 mph.

Rescue ships operate off Porticello near Palermo after the British-flagged luxury yacht Bayesian sank. (ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP via Getty Images)

Following the tragic accident involving those onboard the Bayesian on Monday, a number of people linked to those who have gone missing have offered words of hope and support in the search for their bodies.

A friend of Lynch, Brent Hoberman, told Sky News they were 'all hoping for a miracle'.

"We knew it was unlikely but you still hold out hope," he said. "It's just so unbelievably tragic for him to go through what he went through over the last 12 years, defending his name and not really living a full life, to now for his death to be confirmed is obviously incredibly sad."

Topics:  World News , Travel , UK News

Joshua Nair is a journalist at LADbible. Born in Malaysia and raised in Dubai, he has always been interested in writing about a range of subjects, from sports to trending pop culture news. After graduating from Oxford Brookes University with a BA in Media, Journalism and Publishing, he got a job freelance writing for SPORTbible while working in marketing before landing a full-time role at LADbible. Unfortunately, he's unhealthily obsessed with Manchester United, which takes its toll on his mental and physical health. Daily.

@ joshnair10

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GONE IN A SNAP

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Breaking News Reporter

The Bayesian photographed from shore at night

Baia Santa Nicolicchia/Fabio La Bianca

Newly-released CCTV footage has shown the Bayesian’s final moments afloat before it sank in less than a minute, taking down its billionaire owner Mike Lynch and six others with it. The footage, published by The Sun , captures when the lights of the 184-foot sailing vessel went dark just off the Sicilian coast, reportedly after a water spout struck it. The tragedy occurred around 5 a.m. Monday as Lynch was on a celebratory trip with his legal team and loved ones after being acquitted in a U.S. fraud trial in June. The villa owner whose cameras captured the Bayesian’s sinking told the Italian newspaper Giornale Di Sicilia that the vessel was under water within 60 seconds of the first sign of trouble. “You can see the ship disappear,” the homeowner said. “There was nothing that could be done for the boat. It disappeared in a very short time.” Only the death of a Canadian chef has been confirmed since the tragedy. With 36 hours passing since the sinking, however, Lynch, his 18-year-old daughter, and four others are feared to also be among the dead.

Billionaires.Africa

Nigerian telecom tycoon Bassim Haidar puts yacht ‘Bash’ on sale for $10 million

Bassim Haidar

Nigerian-Lebanese telecom billionaire Bassim Haidar is listing his 208-foot yacht, “Bash,” for sale, according to a report by Architectural Digest.

The luxury vessel, which was originally named “Jonikal,” then “Sokar,” was first owned by Egyptian billionaire Mohamed Al-Fayed, the former owner of Harrods and the father of Princess Diana’s lover Dodi Al-Fayed. After the couple’s tragic death, Mohamed Al-Fayed tried to sell the yacht on several occasions before it was finally purchased in 2014. It was most recently bought by Haidar in June 2021. He is selling it just over a year later as he reportedly looks to purchase a larger vessel.

“Bash,” as the yacht is presently named, was designed by navel architect Vincenzo Ruggiero in the 1980s and constructed by Codecasa, a superyacht building firm, before it was officially launched in 1990. The luxury vessel can accomodate up to 18 people across nine staterooms and has rooms for 26 crew members. The yacht includes a swim platform, jacuzzi, sun deck, main saloon, a formal dining room, a bar, and office space. Full of dark wood paneling and coffered ceilings, the interiors are reminiscent of the Arts and Crafts style of the early 1900s. 

The yacht’s Wartsila engines give it a top speed of 20 knots and a cruising speed of 15 knots. Although a specific price has not yet been posted, its previous listing price was $10 million.

Haidar, 51, is the founder of Channel VAS Group, which is a fintech provider of mobile financial services, airtime credit and airtime advance services, handset loans, and big data analytics.

billionaire bash yacht owner

Yusuf Abdulfatai

Yusuf Abdulfatai Adekunle is a finance and economics reporter at Billioniares.Africa. He is also a lecturer at Kwara State Polytechnic University. Previously, he worked as an economic analyst for Bulwark Intelligence. Abdulfatai is a trained economist with an expert knowledge of business and economics. He has a master's degree in economics and holds a Chartered Management Accountant certification from the Institute of Chartered Management Accounting.

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billionaire bash yacht owner

Who is Mike Lynch, the billionaire tech entrepreneur missing after sailing yacht Bayesian sinks in Italy

B ritish tech tycoon Mike Lynch is among the six people missing after a superyacht sank off the coast of Sicily , The Independent understands.

The 59-year-old is known for founding Invoke Capital and Autonomy Corporation and has been in the headlines after he was cleared of charges in a high-profile fraud case.

Mr Lynch was on the boat, named Bayesian, which sank in bad weather in the early hours of Monday near the Sicilian capital Palermo .

There were 12 guests and 10 crew on board - of whom 15 have been rescued including Mr Lynch’s wife, The Independent understands.

Sources have also confirmed that Mr Lynch is the owner of the vessel.

A body, believed to be that of the superyacht’s chef, has been found, according to local media, with pictures showing a body bag being brought to shore where ambulances were stationed.

Once dubbed the “British Bill Gates”, Mr Lynch and his wife Angela Bacares were valued at £852m in 2023 by the Sunday Times Rich List.

His disappearance following the superyacht sinking comes just weeks after he was cleared of all charges by a US jury related to the sale of his software company Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard (HP) in 2011.

Mr Lynch founded Autonomy in 1996 using technology he developed as a Cambridge student. HP claimed, just a year after the sale, that Mr Lynch had used accounting tricks to artificially inflate its value before the sale

He was then extradited to the US last May for a trial that acquitted him on all 15 counts over the 11-billion dollar (£8.64 billion) purchase of his company.

Mr Lynch said on Radio 4 that being acquitted was “indescribable” and believed he could only clear his name because of his huge wealth.

He said most people, even if they sold all their assets, would run out of funds in a matter of months, to cover the legal fees, a situation that he said “has to change.”

Have you been affected by this story? Email [email protected]

Born near Chelmsford, Essex, to a nurse mother and father fireman, Mr Lynch said his father regretted not having the chance to attend university. He told LeadersIn: "He realised the importance of education so that was something that was very much fostered in my home.”

When he was 11 years old, he won a scholarship to study at Bancroft's School in Woodford Green and then studied natural sciences at the University of Cambridge.

He set up his first company in the 1980s, with a £2,000 loan from the manager of a band, producing audio products for the recording industry, The Guardian reported.

Mr Lynch has a string of accolades including being awarded an OBE for services to enterprise in 2006. That same year, he was appointed to the BBC’s board. He was also elected to former prime minister David Cameron’s council for science and technology in 2011.

A representative for Dr Lynch declined to comment.

Since 1986, The Independent has campaigned for what we believe in, not what we are told to believe, with integrity, inclusion, innovation and independence as our guiding principles.

Mike Lynch court case

10 of the most impressive superyachts owned by billionaires

From a sailing yacht owned by a russian billionaire industrialist to the luxury launch of the patek philippe ceo, here are the best billionaire-owned boats on the water….

There’s something about billionaires and big boats . Whether they’re superyachts or megayachts, men with money love to splash out on these sizeable sea-going giants. And that all began in 1954 — with the big dreams of Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis.

Onassis, keen to keep his luxury lifestyle afloat when at sea, bought Canadian anti-submarine frigate HMCS Stormont after World War II. He spent millions turning it into an opulent super yacht, named it after his daughter — and the Christina O kicked off a trend among tycoons. To this day, the world’s richest men remain locked in an arms race to build the biggest, fastest, most impressive superyacht of all. Here are 10 of our favourites…

Eclipse, owned by Roman Abramovich

billionaire bash yacht owner

Built by: Blohm+Voss of Hamburg, with interiors and exteriors designed by Terence Disdale. Launched in 2009, it cost $500 million (the equivalent of £623 million today).

Owned by: Russian businessman Roman Abramovich, the owner of private investment company Millhouse LLC and owner of Chelsea Football Club. His current net worth is $17.4 billion.

Key features: 162.5 metres in length / 9 decks / Top speed of 22 knots / Two swimming pools / Disco hall / Mini submarine / 2 helicopter pads / 24 guest cabins

Sailing Yacht A, owned by Andrey Melnichenko

billionaire bash yacht owner

Built by: Nobiskrug, a shipyard on the Eider River in Germany. The original idea came from Jacques Garcia, with interiors designed by Philippe Starck and a reported price tag of over $400 million.

Owned by: Russian billionaire industrialist Andrey Melnichenko, the main beneficiary of both the fertiliser producing EuroChem Group and the coal energy company SUEK. Though his current net worth is $18.7 billion, Sailing Yacht A was seized in Trieste on 12 March 2022 due to the EU’s sanctions on Russian businessmen.

Key features: 119 metres in length / 8 decks / Top speed of 21 knots / Freestanding carbon-fibre rotating masts / Underwater observation pod / 14 guests

Symphony, owned by Bernard Arnault

billionaire bash yacht owner

Built by: Feadship, the fabled shipyard headquartered in Haarlem in The Netherlands. With an exterior designed by Tim Heywood, it reportedly cost around $150 million to construct.

Owned by: French billionaire businessman and art collector Bernard Arnault. Chairman and chief executive of LVMH, the world’s largest luxury goods company, his current net worth is $145.8 billion.

Key features: 101.5 metres in length / 6 decks / Top speed of 22 knots / 6-metre glass-bottom swimming pool / Outdoor cinema / Sundeck Jacuzzi / 8 guest cabins

Faith, owned by Michael Latifi

billionaire bash yacht owner

Built by: Similarly to Symphony above, also Feadship. With exteriors designed by Beaulieu-based RWD, and interiors by Chahan Design, it cost a reported $200 million to construct in 2017.

Owned by: Until recently, Canadian billionaire and part-owner of the Aston Martin Formula 1 Team , Lawrence Stroll. Recently sold to Michael Latifi, father of F1 star Nicholas , a fellow Canadian businessman with a net worth of just under $2 billion.

Key features: 97 metres in length / 9 guest cabins / Glass-bottom swimming pool — with bar / Bell 429 helicopter

Amevi, owned by Lakshmi Mittal

billionaire bash yacht owner

Built by: The Oceanco shipyard, also in The Netherlands. With exterior design by Nuvolari & Lenard and interior design by Alberto Pinto, it launched in 2007 (and cost around $125 million to construct).

Owned by: Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, chairman and CEO of Arcelor Mittal, the world’s largest steelmaking company. He owns 20% of Queen Park Rangers, and has a net worth of $18 billion.

Key features: 80 metres in length / 6 decks / Top speed of 18.5 knots / On-deck Jacuzzi / Helipad / Swimming Pool / Tender Garage / 8 guest cabins

Odessa II, owned by Len Blavatnik

billionaire bash yacht owner

Built by: Nobiskrug, the same German shipyard that built Sailing Yacht A . Both interior and exterior were created by Focus Yacht Design, and the yacht was launched in 2013 with a cost of $80 million.

Owned by: British businessman Sir Leonard Blavatnik. Founder of Access Industries — a multinational industrial group with current holdings in Warner Music Group, Spotify and the Grand-Hôtel du Cap-Ferrat — he is worth $39.9 billion.

Key features: 74 metres in length / 6 guest cabins / Top speed of 18 knots / Intimate beach club / Baby grand piano / Private master cabhin terrace / Outdoor cinema

Nautilus, owned by Thierry Stern

billionaire bash yacht owner

Built by: Italian shipyard Perini Navi in 2014. With interiors by Rémi Tessier and exterior design by Philippe Briand, Nautilus was estimated to cost around $90 million to construct.

Owned by: Patek Philippe CEO Thierry Stern. Alongside his Gulstream G650 private jet, Nautilus — named for the famous sports watch — is his most costly mode of transport. His current net worth is $3 billion.

Key features: 73 metres in length / 7 guest cabins / Top speed of 16.5 knots / Dedicated wellness deck / 3.5 metre resistance pool / Underfloor heating / Jet Skis

Silver Angel, owned by Richard Caring

billionaire bash yacht owner

Built by: Luxury Italian boatbuilder Benetti. Launched in 2009, the yacht’s interior has been designed by Argent Design and her exterior styling is by Stefano Natucci.

Owned by: Richard Caring, British businessman and multi-millionaire (his wealth peaked at £1.05 billion, so he still makes the cut). Chairman of Caprice Holdings, he owns The Ivy restaurants.

Key features: 64.5 metres in length / Cruising speed of 15 knots / 7 guest cabins / Lalique decor / 5 decks / Oval Jacuzzi pool / Sun deck bar / Aft deck dining table

Lady Beatrice, owned by Frederick Barclay

billionaire bash yacht owner

Built by: Feadship and Royal Van Lent in 1993. Exteriors were created by De Voogt Naval Architects, with interiors by Bannenberg Designs. She cost the equivalent of £63 million to build.

Owned by: Sir David Barclay and his late brother Sir Frederick. The ‘Barclay Brothers’ had joint business pursuits including The Spectator , The Telegraph and delivery company Yodel. Current net worth: £7 billion.

Key features: 60 metres in length / 18 knots maximum speed / Monaco home port / Named for the brothers’ mother, Beatrice Cecelia Taylor / 8 guest cabins

Space, owned by Laurence Graff

billionaire bash yacht owner

Built by: Space was the first in Feadship’s F45 Vantage series , styled by Sinot Exclusive Yacht Design and launched in 2007. She cost a reported $25 million to construct.

Owned by: Laurence Graff, English jeweller and billionaire businessman. As the founder of Graff Diamonds, he has a global business presence and a current net worth of $6.26 billion.

Key features: 45 metres in length / Top speed of 16 knots / Al fresco dining area / Sun deck Jacuzzi / Breakfast bar / Swimming platform / Steam room

Want more yachts? Here’s the handcradfted, homegrown history of Princess…

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Nizhny Novgorod city, Russia

The capital city of Nizhegorodskaya oblast .

Nizhny Novgorod - Overview

Nizhny Novgorod (colloquially often just “Nizhny”; from 1932 to 1990 - Gorky) is a large city located in the center of European Russia, the administrative center of the Volga Federal District and Nizhny Novgorod Oblast.

It is an important economic, industrial, scientific, educational, and cultural center of Russia, the largest transport hub of the Volga Federal District. Nizhny Novgorod is one of the main centers of river tourism in Russia. The historic part of the city is rich in sights and is a popular tourist destination.

The population of Nizhny Novgorod is about 1,234,000 (2022), the area - 411 sq. km.

The phone code - +7 831, the postal codes - 603000-603257.

Nizhny Novgorod city flag

Nizhny novgorod city coat of arms.

Nizhny Novgorod city coat of arms

Nizhny Novgorod city map, Russia

Nizhny novgorod city latest news and posts from our blog:.

7 January, 2022 / Nikolai Bugrov's Summer Dacha in Volodarsk .

4 December, 2017 / Stadiums and Matches of the World Cup 2018 in Russia .

2 June, 2017 / The Most Beautiful House in Nizhny Novgorod .

13 March, 2016 / Official Look of Host Cities of World Cup 2018 in Russia .

29 September, 2015 / Nizhny Novgorod - the view from above .

More posts..

History of Nizhny Novgorod

Foundation of nizhny novgorod.

During the military campaigns of the Russian princes against the Volga Bulgaria, the place where the Oka River flows into the Volga was used as a gathering point for the Murom and Suzdal troops. In 1220, Grand Duke Yuri Vsevolodovich (the grandson of Prince Yuri Dolgoruky, the founder of Moscow) conducted a successful campaign against the Bulgars. After it, he “decided to strengthen this important place for Rus” and founded a town at the mouth of the Oka.

It was named Novgorod, which literally means “new town”. Later, the adjective “nizhny” (“lower”) was added to the name of the town in the Russian annals. This was probably done in order to distinguish it from the town of Novgorod (present Veliky Novgorod) and other Novgorods that existed at that time.

The founding of Nizhny Novgorod was the beginning of an active expansion of Russian influence in the Mordovian lands. Two white-stone churches were built in the fortress, including the Cathedral of the Archangel (1227) - evidence of the special role that the town had in the system of lands of Vladimir-Suzdal Rus. However, the Mongol invasion stopped further development.

Information about Nizhny Novgorod of the 13th century is extremely scarce. But it is known that after the invasion it revived relatively quickly. Nizhny Novgorod is constantly mentioned in Russian chronicles as a major political and economic center of North-Eastern Rus and a spiritual center of Orthodoxy in the Volga region. The town was often the object of conflicts between Moscow and Tver.

In 1392, the Moscow prince Vasily I received a jarlig for the Nizhny Novgorod Principality and captured Nizhny Novgorod. The final annexation of Nizhny Novgorod to the possessions of Moscow took place in the late 1440s.

More Historical Facts…

Nizhny Novgorod in the 16th-18th centuries

Under Ivan III and Vasily III, the town played the role of a border post and was a gathering place for military campaigns against the Kazan Khanate. In 1508-1515, the stone kremlin was built. After the capture of Kazan by Ivan the Terrible, the border role of Nizhny Novgorod became insignificant. At the same time, Nizhny Novgorod became the center of trade between Russia and the East and a large shipbuilding center.

In September 1611, during the Time of Troubles, the Second People’s Militia was organized in Nizhny Novgorod to fight the Poles who were able to establish control over Moscow. The militia consisted of detachments of townspeople, peasants of the central and northern regions of the Tsardom of Russia. The leaders were the Nizhny Novgorod merchant Kuzma Minin and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky (the monument to them is installed on Red Square in Moscow). In October 1612, the militia was able to completely liberate Moscow.

In the 17th century, a schism occurred in the Orthodox Church under Patriarch Nikon. It led to the formation of numerous settlements of Old Believers in the vicinity of Nizhny Novgorod. In 1695, during his Azov campaign, Peter I arrived in Nizhny Novgorod. In 1719, as a result of his administrative-territorial reforms, the town became the center of a separate Nizhny Novgorod Governorate. In 1722, setting off on the Persian campaign, Nizhny Novgorod was again visited by Peter I. Here he celebrated his 50th birthday.

In 1767, Nizhny Novgorod was visited by Empress Catherine II. During her stay in the town, she met the famous local mechanic and inventor Ivan Kulibin. After her visit, a new regular town plan was approved. The first town theater was built in 1798. Later, it became known as Nikolaevsky, in honor of Emperor Nicholas I.

Nizhny Novgorod in the 19th century

At the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, Nizhny Novgorod became a major scientific and cultural center of the Russian Empire. In 1811, the population of Nizhny Novgorod was about 14,400 people. In 1817, the Makaryev Fair, the largest fair of the Russian Empire, was moved to the village of Kunavino (one of the districts of today’s Nizhny Novgorod). Before that, it was organized every year near the Makaryevsky Monastery, which burned down a year earlier. From that time on, it began to be called the Nizhny Novgorod Fair. Thanks to it, the rapid economic development of the town and adjacent villages began.

After Emperor Nicholas I visited the town in 1834, the large-scale reconstruction of Nizhny Novgorod began. In 1847, a water supply system appeared in the town and the first fountain was built. Private buildings in the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin were demolished and new administrative buildings appeared in their place. A lot of new buildings, streets, boulevards, and gardens were built.

In 1849, a large industrial enterprise was founded in the village of Sormovo (another district of today’s Nizhny Novgorod). Later, it became known as the Sormovo plant. It was producing river steamers, various railway cars, steam locomotives, and trams. Thanks to the plant, Sormovo soon turned into a large village of workers. In 1862, the construction of the Moscow-Nizhny Novgorod railway was completed. In 1863, the population of the city was 41,500 people.

In 1896, the city hosted the All-Russian Trade and Industrial Exhibition. The radio receiver of the engineer A.S. Popov, the hyperboloid tower of the engineer V.G. Shukhov were demonstrated at the exhibition, as well as the first Russian car of the Frese and Yakovlev factories.

Nizhny Novgorod in the first half of the 20th century

In 1914, about 111,000 people lived in Nizhny Novgorod. In 1917, during the First World War, the Warsaw Polytechnic Institute was evacuated to this city, on the basis of which the Nizhny Novgorod Polytechnic Institute was created.

On October 7, 1932, Nizhny Novgorod was renamed Gorky due to the 40th anniversary of the literary and social activities of the writer Maxim Gorky. In 1933, the first permanent bridge across the Oka River was built. The railway bridge across the Volga was constructed too. Thanks to this, it became possible to go by rail through Gorky to the Urals and Siberia.

The 1930s were a period of rapid industrialization. In 1932, the largest industrial enterprise in the city was opened - the Gorky Automobile Plant (GAZ), an important object of the Soviet defense industry. In the 1930s-1940s, the city was even referred to as “Russian Detroit”. By 1939, the population of Nizhny Novgorod increased to about 644,000 people.

Every fourth resident of the Gorky region (about 822 thousand people) fought on the fronts of the Second World War. Of these, more than 350 thousand people did not return from the battlefields - they were killed, went missing or died from wounds in hospitals.

In June 1943, three large raids of German bombers were carried out on Gorky. The main target of air strikes was the Gorky Automobile Plant, which as a result was almost completely destroyed. It was rebuilt only in the middle of 1944. Over 500,000 wounded were treated in dozens of hospitals during the war years.

The city was an important center for the production of weapons. During the Second World War, every second Soviet car, every third tank and every fourth artillery piece were produced at Gorky’s plants. In total, about 38 thousand tanks, self-propelled guns, armored vehicles, 43 thousand mortars, 16 thousand aircraft, 22 submarines, 109 thousand cars, more than 85 thousand radio stations, as well as 101 thousand artillery pieces and 1,165 Katyusha multiple rocket launchers were produced in Gorky.

Nizhny Novgorod after the Second World War

In 1946, the first GAZ-M-20 “Pobeda” passenger car and the GAZ-51 truck left the assembly line of the Gorky Automobile Plant. In 1949, the construction of the monumental Chkalov Stairs connecting the Upper Volga and Lower Volga embankments was completed in the historic center of Nizhny Novgorod. On August 4, 1959, the resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR “On the closure of the city of Gorky for visiting by foreigners” was issued. In 1962, the population of Gorky exceeded 1 million people.

On January 18, 1970, a radiation accident occurred at the Krasnoe Sormovo plant. During the construction of a nuclear submarine, an unauthorized launch of the reactor took place. After working at prohibitive power for about 10-15 seconds, it partially collapsed. Hundreds of workers were exposed to the radioactive release. In total, over one thousand people took part in the liquidation of the consequences of the accident and were exposed to radiation.

In 1985, a subway was opened in Gorky. In 1980-1986, Andrei Sakharov, a world famous nuclear physicist, Nobel laureate, and activist, was in exile in Gorky to prevent his contacts with foreigners. In the early 1990s, the “closed city” status was lifted and the city became accessible to foreigners. On October 22, 1990, Gorky was renamed back to Nizhny Novgorod. In 1991, the population of the city reached its maximum - 1,445,000 people.

At the end of the 20th century, the information technology sphere began to actively develop in the city. In the 2000s, a transport problem arose because of the insufficient carrying capacity of the Nizhny Novgorod bridges connecting the lower part of the city and the upper one.

In February 2012, the Nizhny Novgorod Volga Aerial Tramway was opened. This 3661-meter-long gondola lift cable car connected Nizhny Novgorod with the town of Bor. Its daily passenger traffic is about 5,000 people. In 2013, the city electric train was launched - an alternative to the subway line from Sormovo to Moskovsky railway station.

Nizhny Novgorod hosted 6 matches of the FIFA World Cup 2018 . A new stadium was built, the old river port was demolished, a new park and embankments were created. Large-scale restoration of old streets and buildings took place, new museums were opened, hotels were built, and parks were reconstructed.

Streets of Nizhny Novgorod

One sunny summer day in Nizhniy Novgorod

One sunny summer day in Nizhniy Novgorod

Author: Denis Plekhanov

Apartment buildings in Nizhny Novgorod

Apartment buildings in Nizhny Novgorod

Author: Eugene Ivanov

On the street in Nizhny Novgorod

On the street in Nizhny Novgorod

Author: Sergey S. Kazenyuk

Nizhny Novgorod - Features

Nizhny Novgorod is located about 425 km east of Moscow, at the confluence of the two largest waterways of the European part of Russia - the Volga and Oka rivers. The city is divided by the Oka into two parts. The length of Nizhny Novgorod along the Oka is 20 km, along the Volga - about 30 km.

The climate in Nizhny Novgorod is moderately continental, with cold, long winters and warm, relatively short summers. The average temperature in January is minus 8.9 degrees Celsius, in July - plus 19.4 degrees Celsius.

A red deer is depicted on the coat of arms and flag of Nizhny Novgorod, which is a symbol of nobility, purity, life, wisdom, and justice. The City Day is celebrated on the 3rd Saturday in August.

In January 2019, Nizhny Novgorod was recognized as the best city in Russia in terms of quality of life. It took first place among Russian cities and 109th in the world in terms of quality of life. The rating was compiled by the site numbeo.com, which specializes in statistics on the cost of living and consumer prices in different countries of the world.

When compiling the rating, the purchasing power of the population, safety, health care, the cost of living, the ratio of real estate prices to the population’s income, traffic congestion, the level of environmental pollution, and climate were taken into account.

The main branches of the local industry are the production of cars and weapons, shipbuilding. Nizhny Novgorod is also one of the IT centers of Russia.

Nizhny Novgorod is a major transport hub. The city has a railway station, a river station, a cargo port, several berths for transshipment of goods. Strigino International Airport named after V.P. Chkalov offers regular flights to such cities as Yekaterinburg, Kazan, Kaliningrad, Moscow, Novosibirsk, Samara, St. Petersburg, Sochi, and a number of others.

Public transport in Nizhny Novgorod plays a very important role in ensuring the life of the city. At the same time, its work is hampered by the distribution of its population on the city’s territory, large daily migrations, a very high concentration of passenger traffic on the bridges across the Oka River, and the lack of an all-encompassing system of high-speed transport. There are municipal buses, fixed-route minibuses, trams, trolleybuses, the city train, and subway.

The tourist potential of Nizhny Novgorod is quite high. According to UNESCO, it is one of the most valuable historical cities in the world. In total, there are more than 600 unique historical, architectural and cultural monuments in Nizhny Novgorod, a variety of museums. The best time to visit Nizhny Novgorod is summer.

One of the alternative ways to visit Nizhny Novgorod is to take a river cruise along the Volga River. Travelers will find exciting excursions and meals in traditional Russian taverns. It will also be interesting to come during one of the many fairs or ethnographic festivals that are held in the city.

Main Attractions of Nizhny Novgorod

Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin (1508-1515) - a fortress in the historic center of Nizhny Novgorod and its oldest part, the main architectural complex of the city located on the right high bank, at the confluence of the Volga and Oka rivers. To date, all 13 towers of the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin have been preserved or have been restored. The thickness of the wall at the base reaches 5 meters. There are exhibitions in the towers of the fortress; a section of the wall is open for tourists to visit.

In the past, there were several churches on the territory of the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin. Today, only the Archangel Michael Cathedral has survived, built no later than the middle of the 16th century and rebuilt in 1628-1631 - the oldest surviving building in the kremlin. There is the grave of Kuzma Minin inside it.

An excellent view of the Volga River and Strelka (the confluence of the Oka and Volga) opens from the walls of the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin. Here you can also see a collection of military equipment from the Second World War.

Nizhny Novgorod State Art Museum - one of the oldest museums in Russia, the largest museum of fine arts in the Nizhny Novgorod region. The Governor’s Palace on the territory of the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin houses a permanent exhibition of Russian art and a collection of artistic silver.

In the House of the Merchant and Benefactor D.V. Sirotkin (Verkhnevolzhskaya Embankment, 3), an exposition of Western European art is presented and, separately, the painting by K.E. Makovsky “The appeal of Kuzma Minin to the citizens of Nizhny Novgorod” - one of the largest paintings on a historical theme in Russia (698x594 cm).

Chkalov Stairs (1943-1949) - a monumental staircase in the form of a figure eight in the historic center of Nizhny Novgorod. Connecting the Upper Volga (Verkhnevolzhskaya) and Lower Volga (Nizhnevolzhskaya) embankments, it is one of the longest stairs in Russia. It starts from the observation deck at the monument to Valery Chkalov (the famous Soviet pilot who made the first non-stop flight from the USSR to the USA via the North Pole), next to the St. George Tower of the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin.

Bolshaya Pokrovskaya Street - the main street of Nizhny Novgorod built up with noble mansions of the past centuries. A large part of Bolshaya Pokrovskaya is reserved for the pedestrian zone and is analogous to the pedestrian Arbat Street in Moscow. There are a lot of historic houses, cafes, souvenir shops, boutiques, monuments, and sculptures here. The length of the street is over 2 km.

The building of the State Bank (Bolshaya Pokrovskaya Street, 26), resembling a medieval palace, is an outstanding architectural monument built in the Russian Revival style in 1911-1913. In the Museum of Old Equipment and Tools (Bolshaya Pokrovskaya Street, 43), you can see unique exhibits, hear their history, and even touch them.

Fedorovsky Embankment - one of the most beautiful embankments in Nizhny Novgorod and the best observation deck in the city. Everything is perfectly visible from this embankment: the old part of the city, the river station with a park, the Kanavinsky bridge - one of the oldest in the city, and, of course, the opposite bank of the Oka River with the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, the confluence of the Oka and Volga. People also come here to watch the sunset.

Nizhny Novgorod Volga Aerial Tramway . This cable car, 3661 meters long, connects the high right bank of the Volga River, where the historic part of Nizhny Novgorod is located, with the town of Bor. It has the largest unsupported span over the water surface in Europe - 861 meters.

A one way trip during which you can admire the picturesque views of Nizhny Novgorod and the Volga River takes 15 minutes. It is better to use it in good sunny weather, because in windy weather, the movement of the cabins can be stopped. Sennaya Square on Kazanskaya Embankment.

Nizhny Novgorod State Museum of History and Architecture (1875-1877). Also known as the Mansion of S.M. Rukavishnikov, it is an architectural ensemble built in the eclectic style in the historic center of Nizhny Novgorod, one of the most important and famous architectural monuments of this city. Guided tours are held in the premises, allowing you to learn about the life of the former owners of the mansion, as well as look at the historical expositions of different years. Verkhnevolzhskaya Embankment, 7.

Main Palace of Nizhny Novgorod Fair - a luxurious building constructed in the forms of Old Russian architecture of the 17th century. Today, exhibitions of various formats are held here, as well as the multimedia exposition “Russia - my history” dedicated mainly to the history of Nizhny Novgorod starting from the Finno-Ugric peoples. Sovnarkomovskaya Street, 13.

Museum of the History of the Gorky Automobile Plant . The museum houses expositions telling about the history and development of the Gorky Automobile Plant. In total, there are over 40,000 exhibits. Here you can see a collection of Soviet vintage cars, which includes “Chaika”, “Volga”, the truck “GAZ-51”, and a lot of others. Lenina Avenue, 95.

Alexander Nevsky Cathedral (1868-1881) - the most noticeable sight of the lower part of Nizhny Novgorod, which can be seen from all observation decks of the upper city. The church, 87 meters high, was built on the site of the Nizhny Novgorod Fair at the expense of merchants, who wanted to perpetuate the visit of Emperor Alexander II. Strelka Street, 3a.

Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (1696-1719) - one of the best examples of the Stroganov Baroque, an architectural monument of federal significance. From a distance, this colorful building looks like a sugar gingerbread with “candy” domes and decorated with stone flowers, pears and apples. Rozhdestvenskaya Street, 34.

Pechersky Ascension Monastery - one of the most interesting places in Nizhny Novgorod, where you can feel the spirit of the city. Most of the monastery buildings date back to the first half of the 17th century. A lot of beautiful photographs can be taken here. Privolzhskaya Sloboda Street, 108.

Limpopo Zoo - the first private zoo in Russia. More than 270 species of animals live here, 25 of which are listed in the Red Book of the Russian Federation. It is located on the territory of the Sormovsky Park on an area of 7.1 hectares. Yaroshenko Street, 7b.

Architectural and Ethnographic Museum-Reserve “Shcholokovskiy Khutor” . The exposition of this museum is represented by 16 objects of rural architecture: residential houses, barns, mills and churches of the 17th-19th centuries brought from the northern districts of the Nizhny Novgorod region. The facades of the houses are decorated with traditional relief carvings. In the premises of the houses, interiors with authentic items of peasant life have been restored. Gorbatovskaya Street, 41.

Nizhny Novgorod city of Russia photos

Pictures of nizhny novgorod.

Chkalov Stairs and the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin

Chkalov Stairs and the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin

Author: Sergey Bulanov

Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Nizhny Novgorod

Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Nizhny Novgorod

Author: Evgeniy Balashov

Shopping and office center Smart in Nizhny Novgorod

Shopping and office center Smart in Nizhny Novgorod

Author: Diman Lazarev

Sights of Nizhny Novgorod

Annunciation Monastery - the oldest monastery in Nizhny Novgorod

Annunciation Monastery - the oldest monastery in Nizhny Novgorod

Nizhny Novgorod Cathedral Mosque

Nizhny Novgorod Cathedral Mosque

Church in honor of the icon of the Mother of God Joy of All Who Sorrow in Nizhny Novgorod

Church in honor of the icon of the Mother of God Joy of All Who Sorrow in Nizhny Novgorod

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