Pakgauzy are the skeleton metal freight sheds that were part of the exhibition pavilions of the famous 16th All-Russia Industrial and Art Exhibition in 1896. These open-work metal structures were used for a long time as the basis for warehouses and were partially dismantled in the 1960s. Discovered only in 2015, when the city was preparing to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup, these metal frames were then stripped of brick walls and slate roofs and are today as symbolic of Nizhny Novgorod as the Fair or the Kremlin.

The exhibition area has a gallery with various expositions being on all the time — a collection of Russian avant-garde from the Ural museums, a show on the 16th All-Russia Industrial and Art Exhibition of 1896, or an installation of the INTERVALS festival, to name but a few.