Silver Lake (Serbia)

Silver Lake

Satellite photo of Silver Lake
Coordinates 44°46′N 21°27′E / 44.76°N 21.45°E / 44.76; 21.45Coordinates: 44°46′N 21°27′E / 44.76°N 21.45°E / 44.76; 21.45
Type oxbow lake
Primary inflows Danube
Primary outflows Danube
Basin countries Serbia
Max. length 14 km (8.7 mi)
Max. width 300 m (980 ft)
Surface area 4 km2 (1.5 sq mi)
Max. depth 8 m (26 ft)
Surface elevation 70 m (230 ft)
Settlements Veliko Gradište, Biskuplje, Kisiljevo

Silver Lake or Srebrno jezero (Serbian: Сребрно језеро) is an oxbow lake along the right Danube bank in the Braničevo region in eastern Serbia, near the town of Veliko Gradište. It is a popular tourist resort.

Geography

Silver Lake is popular tourist resort

The lake itself is in the broad, low valley of the Danube, but the neighboring hills rise up from 282 m (925 ft) on the north (Gorica hill) to 362 m (1,188 ft) on the south (Lipovača hill), while the entire western part of the valley is enclosed by the elongated hill of Veliko brdo and its highest peak of Anatema (324 m (1,063 ft)). The mouth of the river Pek into the Danube, known by its inverse flow during the high water levels, is just south of the lake. Historical sites of the medieval city-fortresses of Ram and Golubac also in the vicinity of the lake, so as the springs of "Hajdučka voda" (Hajduk's water).

Silver Lake is an arm of the Danube on its right bank. With the main river bed of the Danube it engulfes the marshy ada (river island) of Ostrovo. On both points which connect the lake to the Danube it was dammed and bridged in 1971 by the Veliko Gradište-Zatonje road which also crosses the island. Other settlements on the lake are Biskuplje and Kisiljevo.

Silver Lake has an irregular arch shape, it is 14 km (8.7 mi) long,[1] up to 300 m (980 ft) wide and covers an area of 4 km2 (1.5 sq mi). It is situated at the altitude of 70 m (230 ft) and deep as much as 8 m (26 ft). The water is clear due to the lack of pollution and the natural filtration of the water through many sand dunes. The lake is abundant in fish, including white amur, carp, catfish, northern pike, perch and other freshwater whitefish.

Economy

The lake has been a popular holiday and fishing destination for decades, but recently experienced visitor's boom, attracting tourists from all over Central Serbia, despite lack of major accommodations. The lake has one hotel (Srebrno jezero), several restaurant-boardinghouses, a weekend-settlement and the largest car camping park in Serbia.

As a result of the lake's growing popularity, it has been since recently advertised as "Serbian sea",[1] since Serbia is landlocked. A major plans for turning Silver Lake from the resort of the middle class into a more elite place were announced in July 2007.[2] In the next seven years it is planned to build three hotels, congressional halls, pools (both opened and covered), golf courses, cycling paths, shopping malls and marina. The tennis courts have been constructed earlier this year.

In 2017, the Silver Lake had the tourist capacity of 2,000 beds with 500 being in construction with the deadline in 2018. There are over 50 objects as part of the village tourism, seven villas, but still only one hotel. Basketball player Miloš Teodosić opened his TEO4 Basketball Camp on the lake. Vicinity of the lake is the location of many festivities: international chess tournaments, Serbian beach volley championships, "The Days of Carevac" (dedicated to Vlastimir Pavlović Carevac), "Bean Festival", "Fishermen Evenings" (fish soup cooking competition, dating from the 1960s), Silafest (international festival of tourism and environmental film), "The Dusks of Ram" (poetry festival), etc. There were over 50,000 visitors in 2016, including many from the neighboring Romania, who mostly visit by weekends.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Olivera Milošević (23 July 2017), "Kuponi prepunili Srebrno jezero", Politika (in Serbian), p. 13
  2. ↑ Politika daily, 28 July 2007, p. 18

Sources

See also

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