The purpose of the article is to identify permanent characteristics of «Nizhny Novgorod fair» as the chronotope of Nizhny Novgorod text of the Russian literature. It is done within the framework of a comparative analysis of temporal-spatial, narrative and figurative elements of representative texts by P. I. Melnikov-Pechersky, M. Gorky, V. S. Pikul. In the meaning making process some temporal-spatial characteristics become mythologized, as a result producing the most general meanings of Nizhny Novgorod text as a meta-text. In the novels by N. Svechin, the founder of modern Nizhny Novgorod detective story, fixed elements of the chronotope are used symbolically, which lends his texts depth and uniqueness.