The article deals with the artistic features of the urban landscape in the works of the Russian writer Vladislav Krapivin. The setting plays a crucial part in the plot outline, creating the big picture and affecting the characters’ actions, personalities, 78 dreams, and attitudes to the past and the present. The space inhabited by the characters exists according to its own laws which make it unique and self-sufficient. The aim of the research is to compare the artistic depiction of urban space to real cities and towns existing in Russia. The author of the article dwells on whether it is reasonable to state that the towns of Krapivin’s books are not entirely fictional, but are based on real prototypes reflecting a connection to the writer’s own life. The research materials comprise Krapivin’s works written over the years. The author compiled an index of towns, conveniently classified into three groups according to their specificities, atmosphere, and characteristic features. The most significant group is made up of maritime towns that bear a strong resemblance to Sevastopol, which played an important role in Krapivin’s own life. The author puts his personal perception of the city into the souls of his characters, who dream of far journeys and unknown seas. The readers’ impression about the group of maritime towns is created through vivid and colorful descriptions of surroundings, that in the course of analysis give the opportunity to draw a parallel between the towns and actual geographical objects. The final part of the article considers the similarities of Krapivin’s artistic space of maritime towns to the depiction of the fictional town of Zurbagan from the works of the Russian writer Alexander Grin. Indeed, Zurbagan, mentioned in a number of the author’s works, is also based partially on Sevastopol, which makes it possible to conduct a comparison of the towns and to find certain similarities between them
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