Old territory
The inhabitants of nearby houses are very popular with the mystical story of a woman who was asked to leave her job to visit the grave of a close relative at the Novodevichy Cemetery.
While she was buying flowers and traveling through all of Moscow in the street it became dark.
She showed the document, went to the grave ... and got lost. A citizen came to meet her. She asked him for directions.
He explained, but confused. She asked him to lead her to the grave: "It's already dark, but I'm afraid of the dead."
He kindly led her along the paths and suddenly, over his shoulder, asked: "And could you explain to me why people are afraid of us?"
Chekhov's mark
The body of Anton Chekhov, who died in Germany from tuberculosis, was transported to Moscow in a car intended for transportation of oysters.
The writer is buried next to the grave of his father. At the foot of the monument, the Scandinavian mark was preserved - an ancient graphic depiction of the Christian cross.
Four notes
On the gravestone of the composer Dmitri Shostakovich there are four notes: re, mi bemol, do and si. If you write them in Latin notation, you get DSCH - the initials of the composer. The theme of these four notes is considered his business card.
History
Initially, burials arose in the 16th century on the territory of the nearby Novodevichy Convent.
The latter was the burial place of the inhabitants, the nobility, and later - also of other estates.
By the beginning of the 20th century, there was practically no free space on the territory of the monastery necropolis.
In 1898, to expand the cemetery was allocated two hectares of new land beyond the southern wall of the monastery, previously occupied by monastery gardens.
According to the project of architect SK Rodionov, the steep slope behind the southern wall was leveled with bulk soil, a drainage system was arranged, areas were planned.
The territory of the new cemetery was surrounded by brick walls and towers that joined the walls of the monastery.
The active participation in the design of the territory of the new cemetery was also accepted by the architect I. Mashkov, who at that time was engaged in the restoration of the Smolensk cathedral of the monastery.
By 1904, young trees were planted on the territory, which denoted the system of longitudinal and transverse alleys of the cemetery.
Officially, this part of the cemetery was opened in 1904, but burials began to be produced even earlier. Currently, the fenced territory behind the southern wall of the Monastery is called "the old Novodevichye cemetery."
In 1949, the territory of the cemetery was expanded to the south (the so-called "new Novodevichye cemetery"), in 1950-1956, around the new territory, walls, gates and office premises were built.
In the late 1970s, the territory of the cemetery was again expanded - the territory of the "newest Novodevichy Cemetery" was formed.
Thus, at present the Novodevichy cemetery area includes the territory of eleven sites, the total area of which is 5,94 hectares according to the data of the public map of Rosreestra. About 26,000 people were buried in the cemetery.
A 19th-century necropolis within the walls of the Novodevichy convent, which contained the graves of about 2000 Russian noblemen and university professors, also underwent reconstruction.
The vast majority of graves were destroyed. It was at that time that the remains of Anton Chekhov were moved outside the monastery walls.
His grave served as the kernel of the so-called "cherry orchard" - a section of the cemetery which contains the graves of Constantin Stanislavski and the leading actors of his company.