The three-story military-governor's house began to be built in 1837 and finished in 1841. Its architects were P.D. Hoffmann and IE Efimov. Supervision of the work carried out AL. Leer until 1838. and after the work continued the architects AI. Scheffer and A.E. Tourmyshev. Its architecture is simple, the main facades of it are facing: the south - to the cathedral, and the north with a terrace - to the garden. The lower floor of this house was occupied by the governor; in the second there was an imperial apartment, a dining room, a living room, an office, bedrooms, a restroom, a bathroom, a buffet and several other rooms. All these rooms were decorated and furnished luxuriously and with great taste. The third floor was occupied by living rooms and the Church of the Holy Spirit, which was arranged in a hall facing the northeast corner of the house. It was consecrated on September 18, 1845; His Grace John, the Bishop of Nizhny Novgorod and Arzamas, performed the first Liturgy in her.In 1852, a winter garden was added to the western facade of the military-governor's house; in the middle of trees and plants from the southern countries were arranged a grotto and a fountain. On the eastern side of the house, at the very Kremlin wall, there is a stone two-story wing and the same services, and from the south - a building for the main guardhouse. From the house to the guardhouse and the wing there was a beautiful iron lattice, set on a stone basement. The garden, belonging to the military-governor's house, stretched over the mountain, descended from the very house to the north wall of the Kremlin. Even now it occupies the entire length of the space from the St. George's Tower to the Ivanovo Gates.
The history of the palace of the governor-general in the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin is associated with the names of famous historical figures. The plan of his location was hand-written by Emperor Nicholas I himself, and during his visit to Russia the palace was visited by the French writer Alexander Dumas-father.Now the building houses the Art Museum.