Vlasina lake

Vlasina lake is artificial lake in Southeast Serbia with an area of 15 square kilometers and a depth of 35m. The lake is located in municipality of Surdulica. The lake is located at 1204m above sea level. On the shores of lake are located three villages: Vlasina Okruglica, Vlasina Rid and Vlasina Stojkovićeva. It was created in 1947 - 1951 when the pit bog Vlasinsko blato was closed off by a dam and submerged by the waters of incoming rivers, chiefly the Vlasina.

The plateau is surrounded by mountains of Čemernik, Vardenik and Gramada. The dam is located in the northwestern part of the lake. It is an embankment dam, built of a concrete core with an earth-filled cover. The lake is most easily accessible from the southwestern side, by a 19 kilometers long section of M1.13 road from Surdulica, which itself lies 10 kilometers east of the Niš-Skopje highway on the E75 European route.

There are two pernament islands on the lake, along it's eastern coast : Dugi del and Stratorija. Along with those islands, one of the lakes most famous features are the floating islands, occurring when at high water level loose chunks of peat 0.5 to 2 meters thick break of the shore. Driven by the wind, they float from one shore of the lake to another, carrying the flora and fauna, and serving as shelter and a food source for fish. For that reason. they are an attractive target for fishermen. The largest such island has an area of 8 hectares, and is known as "Moby-Dick" by the local population. It is overgrown with dense vegetation, including birch trees. However, most of the time it is anchored along the shore.

The lake's flora and fauna are rich, and include several endemic species. It features over 850 species of flora and over 180 species of vertebrates, including rare species of mammals, reptiles and amphibians. The lake's surroundings are a mixture of meadows and high-altitude forests, especially birch, beech, pane and juniper. The lake is home to numerious species of fish. These include brown and Ohrid trout, perch, minnow, barbel, grass carp, common carp, crucian carp, tench, roach and others. 

By decision of government of Serbia in 2006, the Vlasina region is protected as a nature preserve of special interest as category I.

Current tourist capacity includes around 300 beds in hotels "Vlasina" and "Narcis", offering a modest range of services. Along with regular tourists, the often host sporting teams from Serbia and abroad, as the lake is popular destination for summer training. 

An ambitious project for development of tourism is planned for the Vlasina area by country's development plan and the ministry of tourism, and it's included in the " 21 projects for the 21st century" plan. The planned facilities include a new tourist center Novi Rid, with 1000 beds and shopping center, tourist center Krstinci with 350 beds, center "Džukelice" for summer sports, a marina for sailboats, a number of ski lifts and facilities for Nordic skiing.