The west side of the square is taken up by the long building of the Gostiny Dvor containing arcades of small shops erected between 1806 and 1811 and de­signed by A. Vershinsky, the head architect of the Vla­dimir gubernia. As in the case of the Vladimir civic buildings erected during this period the authorities showed little concern for preserving the picturesque pa­norama of this section of the town which stood on the high left bank of the Kamenka and was visible from the kremlin and the low-lying meadows across the river. The dirty storage yard of the building faced in this direc­tion. This is how I. M. Dolgoruky described the new ad­dition to the town. "The Gostiny Dvor with its collonade is now completed. For every five empty stalls inside it there is a sixth one selling rubbish. Ostentation is a general human weakness. The citizens of Suzdal decided that they wanted a long, large Gostiny Dvor taking up a whole block and now they parade up and down admir­ing it." The building conjures up the spirit of nineteenth-century provincial life frequently described in Russian literature of the period. It was the centre of the town and people came here not so much to shop as to stroll along the arcades, gossiping, surveying the passers-by and showing off their elegant clothes. Rich citizens pa­raded their sons and daughters and looked over possible matches for them, then set off home to brood over and weigh up everything they had seen, with the bell of the cathedral clock tolling away each minute of their empty, monotonous lives.