The feeling of old provincial Russia lingers in parts of Oryol thanks to its old buildings and parks. The town still preserves the memory of the famous Russian novelist Ivan Turgenev who was born her in 1818 and often returned to the city from his family estate at Spasskoe-Lutovinovo, 70km north. There’s a big statue of Turgenev overlooking the Turgenevsky spusk. There is also the landscape park named after Turgenev’s famous novel ‘Nest of the Gentry’. Turgenev’s estate at Spasskoe-Lutovonovo is the literary Mecca of Russia. Yet, Oryol has its own Turgenev Museum.