Creation of a Myth: Rethinking the Cultural Heritage Sites of the Crimea in the Late 18th and 19th Centuries

Abstract

This paper analyses the myths which appeared around some local archaeological and architectonic sites after the Crimea’s incorporation into Russia in 1783. The author refers to legends of the flood developing around the mediaeval “cave towns”, the remnants of the temple of Tauric Diana, the imprints of St Andrew’s feet, the turbe at the mediaeval town of Chufut-Kale, and Maria Potocka as a captive of the Crimean khan’s harem. The author demonstrates the multidirectional intellectual interactions of various social groups such as local populations, migrants, and learned travellers representing different cultures and countries. It has been shown that the greatest role for the mythologisation of the sites was played by Russian and foreign travelogues which interpreted particular monuments as tourist attractions and drew their readers’ attention to them. By that moment, the real history of the sites had already been forgotten. Moreover, educated travellers knew some plots of classical history which allegedly happened in the peninsula, and therefore tried to “find” their traces amidst Crimean landscapes. The travellers also perceived Crimean Tatar legends and transformed them in a new manner. The locals, in their own turn, understood the tales produced by foreign intellectuals as parts of their own local history. A particular phenomenon comprises the attempts of the Christian migrants to the Crimea to find “support” among the monuments which they interpreted as very old Christian shrines related to the events known from the books. As a result, there appeared incorrect interpretations of the sites, which, because of their romantic and fascinating nature, became imprinted in public mind. This process contributed to the turning of some cultural heritage sites into tourist attractions and therefore made an impact on the establishment of the Crimea as a tourist centre.