the only Old Believer cemetery in the city.[1] The theatrical staircase leading up to the Drama Theatre was built in 1945–1946; contrary to a widespread urban legend, it could not have been constructed for a visit by Emperor Nicholas II.[1] The House of Actor (Nizhny Novgorod) (the theatre of the Theatrical Society) has a legend about a ghostly cat that periodically appears on the Small Stage during performances; the story was first published in one of the theatre's internal-use newspapers.[1] The Taynitskaya (Secret) Tower of the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin is linked to a legend of a hidden cache beneath it: according to popular tradition, it conceals the library of Ivan the Terrible, supposedly left there during his campaign against Kazan; the official version explains the tower's name by a secret underground passage toward the Lykova Dam, the last remains of which were discovered in the late 1880s.[1][2] According to the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin Museum, the underground passage led from the tower to the Pochayna River: during sieges it was used to fetch water and to make sorties into the enemy camp; by the 19th century the passage had been largely destroyed and filled in to prevent landslides.[2] One of the best-known Nizhny Novgorod urban legends is linked to the Koromyslova (Yoke) Tower of the Kremlin: according to tradition, a townswoman named Alyona, who died during the siege of the city, was buried beneath it; in one version of the legend she was the victim of a ritual burial made when the tower's foundation was laid, while in another she fought the enemy heroically with a yoke and gave the tower its name.[1] The urban legends of Nizhny Novgorod were collected and systematized by ethnographer Lidiya Senyutkina in the book "Urban Legends of Nizhny Novgorod".[1]
Sources
- GiperNN — Urban Legends of Nizhny Novgorod (archive)
- KP — Nizhny Novgorod — The Taynitskaya Tower will reveal its secrets to Nizhny Novgorod residents (archive)