'eagle'), also transliterated as Orel or Oriol,[9] is a city and the administrative center of Oryol Oblast, Russia, situated on the Oka River, approximately 368 kilometers (229 mi) south-southwest of Moscow.

Ivan IV Vasilyevich decreed that a new fortress be built on the spot in 1566 for the purpose of defending the southern borders of the country.

While the population fled after the second sacking and moved to Mtsensk, the Orlovsky Uyezd continued to exist administratively.

On March 11 (February 28 old style), 1778 Oryol Vice-Royalty was created from parts of Voronezh and Belgorod Governorates.

In 1779, the city was almost entirely rebuilt based on a new plan; and the Oryol River was renamed Orlik (lit: "little eagle").

Christian Rakovsky, Maria Spiridonova, Olga Kameneva and 160 other prominent political prisoners were shot on September 11, 1941 on Joseph Stalin's orders in the Medvedev Forest massacre outside Oryol.

By Order No .2 of I. V. Stalin of August 5, 1943, on this day in Moscow, an artillery salute was given to the troops that liberated Oryol.

On December 14, 2024 during the Russian invasion of Ukraine an oil depot in Oryol was attacked and set on fire by Ukrainian drones.

Russian social media reported explosions and the governor confirmed a fire had broken out at an "infrastructure facility".

Little information exists about its early history; the earliest data available refers to 1636, when the city was rebuilt after its destruction during the Time of Troubles.

According to historian T. G. Svistunova, the 16th-century Oryol fortress had three lines of fortifications and consisted of a city, an ostrog and a posad surrounded by gaps.

The city housed a cathedral, a voivode's (warlord or military leader's) house, government buildings and courts for the boyar children; the prison consisted of gunners' yards, a blacksmith, and two parish churches near the prison towers.

[citation needed] In central Oryol, streets fan out from the fortress; two main axes are the Upper and Lower Korchak Roads.

Opposite the fortress was probably a second marketplace in the Zaotsk section, where the dragoon settlements had a relatively-regular layout along the river.

Its structure was visible from the Oka: the central fortress, the fan-shaped center and the grid of the Zaotsk settlements.

Oryol's modern layout was developed in 1939 by Suborov, an architect at the leningrad-based Russian State Research and Design Institute of Urbanism.

In past years, in the summer on the Oka River waterbus operated as a form of transport excursion and walking orientation.

The draft was prepared by the Belgian entrepreneur FF Gilon and firm «Compagnie mutuelle de tramways», which won the right to build not only a tram, but also lighting in the city.