Orlovskoye Polesye National Park
Orlovskoye Polesie is a national park of Russia, founded in 1994. The park's territory covers 777 km2. The attractiveness and uniqueness of the territory of the national park is given by the beauty of the natural landscape and the presence of unique objects, as well as its connection with the culture and history of Russia. On the territory of this park there is a village that dates back to the end of the 1st millennium BC. Among the cultural monuments there are churches in villages called Khotiml-Kuzmenkovo and Lgov, a chapel in a settlement called Nine Oaks.
This park was founded to preserve and restore the unique natural complexes of Central Russia, as well as to promote the revival and preservation of cultural heritage, to give the inhabitants of the country ecological education, to form tourism in natural conditions. In the Oryol polesie, work is underway to increase the population of bison living in their natural environment.
The land here is hilly with elevation differences from 200 to 260 meters. Of the rivers, it is worth noting the Vytebet, which is part of the Oka River basin. There are small riverbeds near the tributaries of the Vytebeti River, in which you can find the rarest plants for this region: aloevidny thelorez, marsh turch and pure white water lily. There are very few natural lakes in the park, but there are many man-made lakes. The largest of the ponds appeared in the Zhuderskoye field. The park's territory is located in an area of temperate continental climate characterized by warm summers and cool winters.
The Oryol Polesie Park is home to the largest forests in the Oryol region, which consist mainly of mixed forest. From the trees you can meet pines, firs, oaks, linden trees, aspens, maples. In the vegetation of the park there are representatives of the forest-steppe zone: slender-legged glaucous, fragrant spikelet, thin vole, sleep grass, purple goat and Russian broom, characteristic types of northern forests can be found - common juniper, umbellate wintergreen, double-leaf mayberry, blueberry, club-shaped plaunus, European weekberry and common sourdough.
The fauna of the Orlovskoye Polesie Park is quite unique in its representatives. There are 174 species of birds, 49 representatives of mammals, and 26 species of fish swimming in rivers and lakes. Capercaillies, grouse, lynxes, roe deer, wild boars, deer, and beavers can easily be found in the park. Currently, over two hundred bison live in the park, and the number of Russian muskrats, which is found only in Russia, is also recovering.
Oryol Polesie is famous for its epics. One of them claims that the hero Ilya Muromets fought here with a Robber Nightingale in the village of Nine Oaks, located on the lands of the park. According to legend, there used to be a dense grove on the site of the village, in the depths of which 9 oaks grew, growing from a single stump and closely intertwined. A robber Nightingale and his gang are also in the branches of the oaks, plundering the Odrinsky monastery, as well as robbing and killing travelers in the area.
The writer Turgenev I.S. described these regions in the cycle of short stories "Notes of a Hunter". The park has a small zoo, which is home to 40 species of animals and birds. The park is also interesting for its archaeological monuments.: Radovishchi hillfort, one of the oldest in the territory of the Orel region, which was founded by the Balts in the 5th century BC; Radovishchi burial ground, built in the 11th-13th centuries.
