While today foreigners come to Staraya Russa because of Dostoevsky, and Dostoevsky alone, the town was for hundreds of years known for its balneologic resort, where ailing Russians would come and avail themselves of the mineral water and mud treatments. The buildings and sculptures throughout the park are for the most part pretty unremarkable, whereas the so-called Muravyovsky Fountain merits a visit. This big fountain at the centre of the complex is built atop a natural mineral water spring, and for most of its history was covered by a rather marvellous metal pavilion, with covered galleries, adorned with wooden carvings, running from the fountain to the hotel and to the wooden theatre. Sadly, the complex was almost completely destroyed in WWII. In the early 1980s, the government made a half-hearted attempt to erect a new metal dome over the fountain, but the salt in the air corroded the metal and quickly brought it down. Today, the fountain is a shell of its once majestic stature—even the flow has been reduced to reduce salt water damage to nearby trees. But you can still sample its waters from the Drinking Pavilion behind it—chilled or hot like it came out of the ground.